Price war among mainland online travel agencies to leave few survivors

The mainland's biggest online travel agent, Ctrip, says the fierce price war being waged by online agencies will leave only a few survivors in the industry.

"This is the first time we have encountered such a cut-throat price war since we set up business 13 years ago," said Fan Min, the chief executive of Ctrip.com International, the biggest online ticketing portal on the mainland.

"The profitability of all the players is under great pressure, and the longer the price war persists, the deeper the consolidation will go.

"At the end of the day, only a few players will remain."

Ctrip took up the challenge from its main rival in July when it began offering cash rebates on bookings made through its portal for more than 10,000 mainland hotels. The discounts were a response to a collective buying promotion launched two years ago by eLong, of which technology giant Tencent Holdings is a major shareholder.

"There will be some consolidation, but not with the big players," Alicia Yap, an analyst at Barclays Capital Asia, said.