Ctrip announced yesterday that he contracted with Royal Caribbean cruise to buy exquisite century cruise.

Absrtact: Rumor has become a reality, Ctrip announced yesterday and the Royal Caribbean Cruise company signed the purchase of exquisite century (celebrity Century) cruise, officially into the cruise industry. According to the introduction, exquisite century is a Royal Caribbean under the 70,000 tons of high-end cruise ship, can

Rumor has become a reality, Ctrip announced yesterday and the Royal Caribbean Cruise company signed the purchase of exquisite century (celebrity Century) cruise, officially enter the cruise industry.

According to the introduction, exquisite century is a Royal Caribbean under the 70,000-ton high-end cruise, can carry 1814 guests and more than 860 crew. The ship was built in 1995 by the German Meyer Werft Company and refurbished in 2006. According to the 2013 Blitz Global cruise rankings, the exquisite century score is higher than all the current cruise ships operating in China.

It is reported that the cruise business has been the focus of the development of Ctrip in recent years one of the emerging business units. 2013, Ctrip received the number of guests estimated to account for nearly 10% of the domestic market, is the country's largest cruise online booking platform one.

China's cruise market in the ascendant, but also for the rapid development of the market provides a foundation. 2013 Domestic cruise tourism ushered in a big outbreak, the market scale growth of 103%, the 2020 cruise market is expected to contribute to China's economy will reach 51 billion yuan.

"We are delighted to be able to buy the exquisite century cruise." Century is a unique large-scale luxury cruise, we will upgrade it, we believe that this new business will bring great value to our customers and shareholders. "Ctrip Board vice chairman and president Fan said.

Although Ctrip has not announced the purchase price, but the industry estimates that a 100,000-ton class of new ships, value of 1 billion U.S. dollars, Ctrip acquisition of the cruise at 70,000 tons of the new ship value of 700 million U.S. dollars, but because the old ship, calculate a rough estimate of more than 300 million dollars per ship, the old ship to decorate, decoration fees to see the degree of luxury, the difference is great.

"Ctrip move with the previous series of acquisitions, are in order to better grasp the upstream and downstream resources, increase their control rights, and now Ctrip is not short of money, it tends to ' hit the money ' resources." "Wei Changren, chief analyst at the powerhouse Consulting, said.

However, it is noteworthy that the industry has questioned, Ctrip from the group's cruise business, and its deputy Royal Caribbean, song Tatsu and other cruise company sales business, is not the competition?

In this respect, Ctrip said that it is China's largest cruise agent service provider. More than 120,000 of the guests have been transported to the cruise service today, with a share of more than 10% in China's cruise market. Ctrip as a one-stop platform, with all cruise companies are close partners, Ctrip investment in the cruise company is also a platform for one of the resource providers.