Tujia Gains Ground in Japan and Climbs New Heights in Overseas Markets

BEIJING, Aug. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 22, the conference on Tujia's Overseas Development Review & Outlook cum the Signing Ceremony for the Cooperation between Tujia and Rakuten Lifull Stay, an electronic commerce company in Japan, is held in China World Summit Wing in Beijing, while their collaboration was already announced on a previous news conference held in Tokyo by Tujia and Rakuten Lifull Stay. At the conference, Tujia revealed its strategic layout and operation support of overseas development, as well as its increased cooperation with Rakuten Lifull Stay; and the two companies jointly release more details on their cooperation background and progress. LUO Jun, a co-founder and the CEO of Tujia, and Munekatsu Ota, the President of Rakuten Lifull Stay attended the signing ceremony.

The Outbound Tourism is Booming and Further Spurred by Japan's Law on Vacation Rental

According to the Data Center of the China National Tourism Administration ("National Tourism Data Center"), there were 122 million Chinese tourists travelling overseas in 2016, with their consumption reaching 109.8 billion dollars, making China a country with the largest international tourism source market in terms of trips and spending for 4 consecutive years. The first half of 2017 saw a further rapid growth of China's outbound tourism market and the latest statistics show that the number of Chinese outbound tourists reached 62.03 million, up by 5.1% from 59.03 million, the number in the same period of the previous year.

Japan has been a hot destination for Chinese outbound tourists in recent years. And Japan's homestay market is expected to expand further following the implementation of the Homestay Business Act (Japan's law on vacation rental) passed in Japan in June of this year, according to which the restrictions on homestay business will be removed and tourists can rent private homes. Some third-party consulting firms forecasts that, Japan's homestay market will grow to 200 billion yen by 2020, which is 2.4 times of the expected value of 2017. Under this background, Tujia and Rakuten Lifull Stay will cooperate to attract Chinese tourists, which account for 1/4 of the inbound tourists of Japan, so that Chinese tourists will have more options for better private homes and reserve them through Tujia.

The Partners Capitalize on Each Other's Great Strength

Rakuten Lifull Stay, invested by Rakuten, the largest electronic commerce enterprise in Japan, and Lifull Stay, is an Internet real estate company and a joint venture, which is expanding its listings of rental properties by virtue of various real estate & Internet resources, and rendering homestay services to individuals and companies. Boasting a vast number of listings of privately owned units in Japan, it offers services for everything from preparation of properties to day-to-day operation. Tujia, as the largest private accommodations reservation platform in China, boasts a huge number of Chinese members and provides comprehensive homestay services to Chinese tourists to other countries in Asia, especially those bound for Japan. Tujia's overseas business has grown by 5 times on average every year, with its business in Japan growing by over 8 times in this year. Based on the strategic partnership between the parties, it is expected that Tujia's housing resources in Japan will increase to 100,000 units by 2020 and increase to 200,000 units by 2025. This cooperation, no doubt, will bring about a win-win situation for the parties' strategic distribution in Japan's homestay market.

LUO Jun, a co-founder and the CEO of Tujia, reviews and predicts the strategic layout and implementation of Tujia's overseas business, and remarks that Tujia has established itself as a leading brand in the field of homestay in China, boasts unrivaled traffic resources and grows steadily in targeted traffics after forming direct association with 8 major channels including Ctrip, Qunar and eLong. Tujia also gives priority to the popular destinations in Asia for Chinese outbound tourists, and has presence in such countries or regions as Hong Kong & Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. At present, Tujia will focus on meeting Chinese outbound tourists' demand for vacation rentals and will introduce more comprehensive services and site service management to overseas market.

Japan, where Tujia has established branches, has been a focus of Tujia's overseas development of the new stage. And Tujia Japan is mainly responsible for expansion of housing resources, assistance in the operation by house owners, market analysis, boosting of worldwide popularity, and sharing of the wonderful vacation rental experience in Japan to Chinese tourists.

Four Business Initiatives Supports Overseas Development, Especially That in Japan

Now Tujia strengthens its presence in overseas markets by four key strategies: 1) increasing inventory by directly signing and suppliers' APIs; 2) acquiring resources of potential customers by forming direct association with 8 channels including Ctrip, Qunar, eLong and WeChat Hotel; 3)establishing local presence: In the core regions where Tujia has presence, locals are employed, local market customs and relevant regulations are followed, and local partners are sought; 4)providing bidirectional customer services: There are special overseas customer service teams and overseas shop service teams in the headquarters, and full-time customer service personnel in Japan, who provide services to local customers and local shops, and special customer service teams will be gradually organized for Southeast Asia.

Tujia always commits to seek overseas partners with enormous potentials to jointly expand their market. With respect to the cooperation between Tujia and Rakuten Lifull Stay, Tujia will be a source of steadily growing number of potential Chinese outbound tourists, and Rakuten Lifull Stay will be a provider of legal and excellent private housing sources in Japan. They share the market to reach a win-win situation. While for other overseas market, Tujia will keep open-minded to seek local partners and jointly promote the homestay business across the world.

SOURCE Tujia