Tujia Convenes Hainan Tushang Conference, Continues to Strengthen Merchant Support

    On November 6, Tujia.com held the Tushang Conference in Sanya, Hainan, introducing additional support measures for local third-party cooperative merchants in Hainan. These include industry trend analysis, the “Pathway” app—which is better suited for merchants to manage room availability while on the move—and incentives for high-performing merchants. Lujun, co-founder and CEO of Tujia.com, was present at the event. He stated that Hainan is currently the most mature regional market for vacation rentals in China and also the first stop for Tujia.com when it started its business three years ago. Tujia will work together with numerous high-quality merchants to grow the market and attract more tourists to choose this trendy accommodation option.

 

(Ms. Chen Yuying, General Manager of Platform Operations at Tujia.com)

　　For platform merchants, the primary concern is business—how to attract more tourists. Looking at the current online travel market in China, tourist sources mainly come from OTA platforms and vertical platforms like Tujia.com. However, through comparison, reporters found that vacation apartments, service apartments, and similar accommodation products on OTAs are all listed under the same category as traditional hotels, usually rated according to traditional hotel star ratings. Merchant apartments are generally rated as two-star, making it difficult to showcase their unique characteristics. As a result, compared to traditional hotels on OTAs, the chances of these merchant properties appealing to potential guests are significantly reduced.

　　To highlight the unique advantages of merchants, Tujia.com’s approach is to do everything possible to showcase the “uniqueness” of each property. Therefore, whether on its PC website or mobile app, Tujia.com has optimized search functions and personalized tags, such as “foodie-friendly,” “great for girls’ trips,” or “free Wi-Fi.” It also continuously improves the booking and payment process, allowing guests to easily select and quickly book properties through these user-friendly settings after logging in. Taking Sanya merchants as an example, besides the most common vacation-related tags, there are also popular labels such as “ocean view,” “beach,” “diving,” “honeymoon,” “seafood,” “romantic,” “cozy,” and “warm winter escape.” This reflects, to some extent, the diversity of new types of accommodations in Sanya such as vacation apartments, service apartments, and specialty guesthouses. However, these differentiated products require professional operation to help tourists make better choices and be booked and sold more efficiently.

　　It is worth mentioning that this year Tujia.com also launched a winter getaway project targeting users in northern regions such as Northeast and North China, aiming to promote industry standards for vacation rentals in Hainan. This enables more northern tourists to enjoy check-in-ready, managed, and cost-effective winter vacation apartment services.

　　At the conference, Tujia also presented awards to the invited high-quality merchants, recognizing their outstanding performance in service and operations. These star merchants also shared their business insights on-site. Meanwhile, participating merchants expressed great anticipation for deeper future collaboration with Tujia.

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