Ctrip held an announcement event of Ctrip Gourmet in Tokyo on September 5, following Bangkok in June this year. Ctrip Gourmet is a restaurant rating guide listing 18,000 or more restaurants in 150 cities in the world, which are rated by specialists and gastronomists, and own of the business focuses for Ctrip to strengthen in-destination services. Ctrip has started its original booking services in China and tie-up with Open Table, an online restaurant booking platform, in North America. 

Ctrip revealed that 83% of Chinese travelers to Japan check restaurants before their departing, and 35% go to a restaurant directly. The ratio of those who succeed in booking is less than 15% of the total. Ctrip is expected to be a online solution for Chinese travelers to book a restaurant more easily than before. 

Ctrip Gourmet combines ratings by 20,000 ore more celebrities, Chinese and local gastronomists with tourism big data Ctrip has acquired. Based on word of mouth, three different categories of ‘Star’ for high-end restaurants, ‘Selected’ for high quality restaurants, and ‘Local favorite’ for local popular restaurants. In Tokyo, 405 restaurants have already been registered, including five ‘Three Stars,’ 15 ‘Two Stars’ and 28 ‘One Star.’