Ctrip CEO on the move

China's top online travel service is making the trip to mobile, with lots of stops along the way.

Liang Jianzhang, founder and CEO of Ctrip, gave a little something back on Nov 6 by holding a seminar at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he got his PhD in economics in 2012.

Ctrip is China's largest online travel service provider, with a 54 percent share of the market in China.

Liang shared his entrepreneurial stories and some of Ctrip's future plans with more than 200 attendees, many of whom were business school students.

Over his 20-day trip to the US, Liang will also hold seminars at the University of Chicago; University of California, Berkeley; and University of California, Los Angeles, according to Ctrip spokeswoman Selina Cheng.

Liang said he was not here just to share his stories and plans but he was also on the lookout for talent from the top US universities. "Cultivating a younger generation of leaders is one of the pillars supporting Ctrip's innovative capability," Liang said.

According to Liang, Ctrip has undergone a pioneering stage, an expansion stage, difficult times and a second pioneering effort, which came from his personal decision to go back to Ctrip.

Liang set up Ctrip with his partners in 1999. After Ctrip experienced substantial growth and became one of the best-known travel brands in China, Liang one day decided to go to Stanford for a PhD in economics.

Meanwhile, as more and more competitors got involved in the travel market in China, Ctrip's market earnings growth experienced troughs and recessions, said Liang.

"After receiving my PhD and finishing one-year work experience at Peking University, I realized that a second stage was necessary for Ctrip to get bigger and stronger, so I once again took the CEO's office," said Liang.

"Continuous innovation is key to a company's growth, especially for large companies such as Ctrip," said Liang.

He started incentive program to encourage innovation among employees and adopted innovative management methods.

Liang led Ctrip to develop new updated products that closely followed international tourism currents. "Sharing and group-buying are new concepts offered by Airbnb and other Western tourism platforms," said Liang.

Liang believes that mobile strategic marketing is the key strategy for Ctrip's development and the company is undergoing a transformation from an OTA (online travel agency) to an MTA (mobile travel agency).

He said, there are a growing number of tourism apps on smart phones that have become a popular way to book and plan tours. Ctrip launched an English-language app this year. Liang also expressed Ctrip's interest in the recent surge in cruise ship tourism. Through its affiliate Exquisite Marine, Ctrip has agreed to acquire the Celebrity Century, a 1,814-passenger cruise ship, from Royal Caribbean Cruises, said Liang.

As the number of outbound Chinese tourists reached 97.3 million person-times in 2013, Ctrip looks forward to expanding its global footprint by collaborating with and investing in more US tourism agencies and platforms, he said.

In August, Priceline, the world's largest online tourism service provider, invested $500 million in Ctrip. On Nov 7, Priceline raised its stake to a total of about $1.016 billion in Ctrip, upping its share to 8.97 percent.

The global partnership between the world's largest online travel group and China's largest online travel company will significantly promote tourism to and from China by allowing Ctrip's customers to reach Priceline's global portfolio of more than 500,000 accommodations outside of the Greater China Region, according to Ctrip.