China’s Online Travel Sales to Hit $48 Billion by 2016, But India Will Show Most Growth

A new report from eMarketer reckons that China’s well-established online travel sector will hit $32.51 billion in sales for the year 2012 – but by 2016 it’s projected to grow to $48 billion. While China currently accounts for more than half of travel e-commerce revenue among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations, as shown in the graph below, that proportion will slip slightly in the near future as India emerges with stronger growth.

India’s somewhat delayed e-commerce emergence will see its online travel market grow in sales from $11.5 billion this year to an estimated $30.61 billion in 2016. That means the sector in India will nearly triple in size in the coming years, which represents the highest CAGR (compound average growth rate) among the BRIC countries. South Korea is the only interloper in the group with its stellar growth in the market:

eMarketer points out a great deal of differences among the BRIC nations in how they’ve taken to travel e-commerce: Brazil’s market is limited in social usage and dominated by domestic travel; Russia’s lack of enthusiasm for this sector is in contrast to its high GDP; India sees three-quarters of e-commerce taken up by travel bookings; and China is, well, massive.

India’s biggest online travel service is Makemytrip (NASDAQ:MMYT), while China’s Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP) and eLong (NASDAQ:LONG) carve up a large swathe of that market.

[Source: eMarketer; via ChinaInternetWatch]