Online travel companies to launch visa services free

NEW YORK (Reporter Zhao Jiani) Yesterday, the online travel (OTA) industry set off a visa price war, OTA big brother Ctrip and visas as the core business Bai Cheng, the same day announced the launch of visa services free of charge.

At present, the fees for visa processing services often consist of two parts, one is the "consular fee" to be paid by the Consular Section, and the other is the "service fee" charged by the agency. Previously, the visa market, agents generally "a price" in the form of fees, different agents in the same country prices vary widely.

Yesterday, Ctrip announced that it will waive service fees for all guests who book their visa products on the mobile (APP or mobile phone Ctrip). Baidu Travel Network started with the visa service the same day announced that through the company's official website and mobile terminal for outbound travel visas are only required to be paid to the Consulate cost, no additional service fees.

Earlier, Bai Cheng Travel Network CEO Zeng Song interview was stressed: "Making money through the visa business has never been our goal." It is understood that in March this year, Bai Cheng Li and broadband capital led the tens of millions of dollars B round of investment.

According to media reports, during the May Day holiday, short-term outbound travel accounted for more than 50%. To win the visa market, means to be able to get more outbound travel free source.

Previously, visas for tourists for a long time the existence of the market opaque, the phenomenon of hypothesized high agent prices, but at this stage the destination countries in the world visa to Chinese tourists more and more relaxed, visa-free increase, simplification of procedures, the adoption rate is extremely high, visa processing The less likely to be the threshold

IResearch analyst Wang Tingting Beijing News on the Beijing Morning Post said that with the beginning of this year's scenic ticket price war, the visa belongs to the elements of outbound tourism. Not only for effective data mining and analysis, but also to pull the flow of visas to sell more outbound travel products.