BEIJING, Aug. 13, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China's online travel brokerage market size in terms of commission revenue grew 6.1 percent quarter on quarter and 10.1 percent year on year to 848 million yuan in the second quarter of this year, according to iResearch, a market researcher.

The market is believed to have been boosted by the recovering national economy. Also, people were encouraged to organize trips, especially excursions, during the three three-day holidays in the second quarter. Moreover, the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) held in April has fuelled the business trip market.

iResearch uncovered a few negative influences on the market's growth, such as the break out of A/H1N1 and fierce market competition which dragged down product and service prices. However, it believes that the positive factors outweighed the negative ones.

Meanwhile, online travel brokers provided a low-cost channel for the distribution of travel consumption vouchers, which are aimed at supporting China's tourism market.

The following Chart One shows China's online travel brokerage market size from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009.

Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP.NASDAQ), a Chinese online travel agency, has taken the lion's share in China's online travel brokerage market in the second quarter of this year with a share of 53.7 percent, estimates iResearch.

Second to Ctrip comes eLong Inc. (NASDAQ:LONG) (LONG.NASDAQ), with a market share of 10.1 percent.

Best Tone under China Telecom (0728.HK; CHA.NYSE) and 12580 under China Mobile (0941.HK; CHL.NYSE) take 6.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. However, nearly 99 percent of their reservations were received via call services rather than online booking platforms, probably because telecom carriers operate them.

The following Chart Two shows the online travel agencies' estimated market share in terms of revenues in China in the second quarter of 2009.