In the third quarter, Ctrip sold 1.82 million hotel rooms and 1.72 million air tickets, but eLong sold just 893,000 and 273,000 respectively. Bigger scale is key to more profitability, the firm said.

Marketing officer Xu said eLong planned to boost its presence in the country with an aggressive marketing campaign. In the past quarter, sales and marketing accounted for almost half of eLong's operating expenses at 25.33 million yuan (US$3.17 million).

Xu expects the growth of marketing expenses will be faster than the company's annual growth, which is about 40 per cent. In the past quarter, its sales and marketing expenses grew by less than 10 per cent year-on-year.

ELong has marketing people at some 50 airports, but that number will grow by 20 per cent next year to promote its services among frequent business travellers, Xu said.

(China Daily 12/12/2006 page10)

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