Different from mainstream tourism services of hotel reservation and ticket booking, Mafengwo.com, a travel guide service provider, aims to offer one-stop and customized products that better satisfy the needs of individual travelers, said the company’s CEO Cheng Gang at an interview held at 2013 China Internet Conference (source in Chinese).
Chen predicted that tourism industry will undergo fundamental transformation with the arrival of customized travelling service. Post-80s and post-90s who esteem individuality and familiar with Internet now constitute the major body of customers. Flight tickets and hotel reservation only will not satisfy their demands. According to data from Mafengwo, tourists who visit the Three George scenic sport in central China in groups slumped 10 percent year-on-year, signaling the customer’s demand for customized service.
More than 6 million tourism fans share their photos and experiences to the website, giving Mafengwo the privilege to upgrade their tourism guides accordingly by screening and digging out the valuable information. Chen added that the company has provided service to more than 25 million Chinese travelers and their travel guide app has been downloaded for more than 100 million times.
Mafengwo invested heavily in building tourist community and tourist guidelines, aiming to add hotel and restaurant reservation as well as ticket booking services to their products. The company selected the hottest service providers in a certain tourism destinations according to statistics collected on the website, and then, inked cooperation agreements with them to offer more cost-effective experience.
Online tourism industry is experiencing booming development, with internet giants like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent stepped up their layouts in the sector.