New | China’s travel site Tuniu on the road to expansion after major funding deal

China’s leading travel website Tuniu Corp plans to use its latest US$800 million in funding to expand service centres, pursue a partnership with e-commerce firm JD.com and expand into new businesses such as travel finance, its top executives said.

Yu Dunde, Tuniu's CEO and Yan Haifeng, COO and newly promoted president, told reporters late in Beijing on Monday that the money, from investors including JD.com and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, would help boost the company’s appeal to customers.

“Customers’ experience is core to us. We haven’t invested heavily in the human capital of customer service, but we aim expand our 75 offline service centres to 1,000 in the next three years in China,” said Yu.

Founded in 2006 in the eastern city of Nanjing, Tuniu has focused on online vacation travel services.

Unlike other Chinese travel sites Ctrip and Qunar, which mainly sell flight tickets and hotels to business travellers, Tuniu sells group and individual package tours. It runs the most Chinese tours to the Maldives. One in four Chinese visitors to the Indian Ocean country went through Tuniu.