Trip.com Operator Guide: Is It Worth It for European Attractions?

This Trip.com operator guide answers the question most European operators skip: who will actually book you there?

Trip.com is the international brand of Trip.com Group, which also owns Ctrip, the group’s flagship app in mainland China. Listing reaches travellers in South Korea, South-East Asia and Hong Kong, and outbound Chinese travellers too if your products appear on Ctrip. For an attraction that already sees those visitors, it’s worth a serious look. For one that doesn’t, it’s a low priority.

The pitch operators usually hear is simpler: “Chinese visitors are back, get on Trip.com.” Part of that is true. Chinese visitors spend more per trip than most markets, and they travel well beyond the capital cities. But the volumes for most UK and Irish attractions are still small, and the platform works differently from Viator or GetYourGuide in ways that catch people out.

This guide covers what Trip.com is, how it differs from Ctrip and who you actually reach. It then walks through becoming a supplier on vBooking, what commission to expect and how to set up a listing for Chinese and Asian travellers. It ends with an honest test of whether it’s worth your time.

Key Takeaways

• Trip.com is the international front end of Trip.com Group; Ctrip is its flagship app in mainland China. Ask at contract stage which apps your listing will appear on.
• Suppliers apply through vBooking. You need a registered business, at least 180 days of trading and one account per company. Review takes around two to three working days.
• There’s no listing fee. Commission is commonly reported at 15 to 25%, isn’t published, and appears at the contract step (as of October 2026).
• China sent 463,000 visits to the UK in 2024 at £1,563 per visit, and 64% of their nights were outside London. Real value, small volume.
• The listing work that matters is language and logistics: proper Simplified Chinese copy, mobile tickets and directions written for a first-time visitor.

What Trip.com Is, and How It Differs from Ctrip

Trip.com Group is one company with several front ends. It owns Ctrip (the flagship app in mainland China), Trip.com (its international brand), Qunar (another Chinese travel platform) and Skyscanner. When operators say “Trip.com”, they often mean the whole group. When they list, they’re dealing with one supplier platform that feeds more than one app.

Who books on Trip.com vs Ctrip?

Trip.com is the group’s international platform, built for travellers outside mainland China, with multiple languages and international payment options. Ctrip is the group’s main app for mainland Chinese travellers. Both sell attractions and tours, so a European operator reaches the rest of Asia mainly through Trip.com, and mainland China mainly through Ctrip, if the listing appears there.

Bókun, one of the booking systems that connects to the platform, says supplier products are promoted on both the Trip.com and Ctrip apps. Trip.com doesn’t publish exactly which front ends a given listing appears on, so ask your contact during contract signing. It’s the most useful question you can put to them, because it decides who sees you.

Where it sits next to Klook, Viator and GetYourGuide

Trip.com isn’t a replacement for Viator or GetYourGuide. Those two reach English-speaking and European travellers, which is most of the market for a UK or Irish attraction. Trip.com sits alongside Klook as an Asia-focused channel, and our OTA distribution strategy guide treats them that way: choose platforms by where your visitors come from.

The two Asia platforms overlap but aren’t the same. Around 80% of Klook’s customers are in Asia-Pacific, and it’s strongest in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan and South-East Asia. Mainland Chinese outbound demand sits mostly with Trip.com Group. Our Klook operator guide covers Klook in detail.

	Trip.com	Klook
Core audience	Mainland China (via Ctrip), plus South Korea, South-East Asia, Hong Kong	Asia-Pacific (around 80% of customers), especially Hong Kong, Taiwan, South-East Asia
Mainland China reach	Strong, through Ctrip (confirm your listing appears there)	Limited
Commission	15 to 25% commonly reported, not published	15 to 25% commonly reported, not published
Onboarding (application to approval)	Around 2 to 3 working days for review, plus a day for the contract	Around 2 to 4 weeks to go live
Listing fee	None	None

Figures as of October 2026. Check with each platform for current terms.

Who You Actually Reach on Trip.com

Trip.com Group’s international business is growing much faster than the group as a whole. In the first quarter of 2026, gross bookings on its international platform rose by about 65% year on year, according to the group’s Q1 results. In the second quarter, international revenue grew by more than 50%, against 6% for the whole group (Q2 results). That’s the business you’re plugging into.

Mainland Chinese travellers

Chinese outbound travel has more than recovered for Trip.com. In the third quarter of 2025, its outbound hotel and flight bookings were at about 140% of 2019 levels, and Europe saw the sharpest growth. Year on year, bookings to Iceland and Norway more than doubled, and Spain, Italy and Germany each grew by around 70% (Skift).

The group’s CEO, Jane Sun, describes the shift as the “three Ls”: longer stays, longer distances and long-tail destinations, meaning places beyond the obvious names. That last one matters if you run an attraction outside London, Edinburgh or Dublin.

For the UK specifically, VisitBritain’s China data shows 463,000 visits from China in 2024, worth £723.8 million, or £1,563 per visit. Almost two thirds (64%) of the nights Chinese visitors spend in Britain are outside London. VisitBritain expects roughly 650,000 visits in 2026, worth £1.2 to £1.3 billion. In 2019, China was the UK’s second most valuable inbound market, at £1.7 billion.

There’s friction too. Since early 2026, UK citizens can visit China visa-free for 30 days, but the arrangement only runs one way. Chinese visitors still need a UK visa, which keeps volumes down.

South Korea, South-East Asia and Hong Kong

Trip.com is among the most downloaded travel booking apps in South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. In my experience, these travellers book much like Klook’s audience: on mobile, often close to the date, expecting instant confirmation. Don’t be surprised if, in your first year, they make up a bigger share of your Trip.com bookings than mainland Chinese visitors do.

What this means for a UK, Irish or European attraction

An operator I met at a trade event ran a mid-sized castle attraction in Scotland. They listed on Trip.com expecting Chinese tour groups. Groups were the one thing they didn’t get, because those still came through the travel trade partners who’d always booked them.

What they did get, slowly, was a steady trickle of Korean and Singaporean couples and families who booked a day or two ahead, arrived by hire car and spent well in the café. Small numbers, but better visitors than they’d planned for. Their main lesson was to look at who books, not who they’d assumed would.

For most attractions, Trip.com adds a modest, high-value stream of Asian visitors. From what I’ve seen, it rarely becomes a top-three channel. Plan the effort accordingly.

How to Become a Trip.com Supplier

Becoming a Trip.com supplier takes five steps through vBooking, Trip.com Group’s platform for attractions, tours and other activity suppliers. Trip.com’s own estimates put the process at around one hour to apply, two to three working days for review and one working day for contract signing.

1. Check you’re eligible. You need to be a registered business (individuals aren’t accepted) with a business licence, any activity or transport licences your experience needs, insurance documents, and company and bank details. You must have been trading for at least 180 days.
2. Apply on vBooking. Go to the Trip.com vBooking supplier page and pick your business line. Most attractions and day tours belong under Attractions & Tours. Multi-day guided trips go under Group & Private Tours.
3. Wait for review. Trip.com says this takes around two to three working days.
4. Sign the contract. Read two lines carefully: the commission rate and how your price is set (more on both below). Ask which apps your products will appear on.
5. Set up your account and connect your booking system. Load your products, then map them to your booking system before you take live bookings.

Hotels use a separate system called eBooking. If you search for Trip.com supplier help and find eBooking pages, they’re for accommodation, not attractions.

Rules that catch operators out

A few vBooking rules are easy to miss:

• One account per company. Duplicate or linked registrations are prohibited. If a colleague has already started an application, find it before you start another.
• Group tours need a guide for the whole tour. Airport transfers on the first or last day are exempt, and guides aren’t needed on flights or trains between cities.
• Custom trips aren’t standard listings. Tailor-made products go through Trip.com’s Trip Planner tool, which builds an itinerary around each traveller’s request.
• The 180-day rule is strict. A new attraction can’t shortcut it, so plan Trip.com for your second season, not your opening.

Trip.com Commission and Payouts

Trip.com charges no sign-up or listing fee. It earns commission on each booking.

Trip.com commission for attractions and tours is commonly reported at 15 to 25% (Bókun’s supplier guide gives the same range), depending on the product, the destination and your volume (as of October 2026). Trip.com doesn’t publish its rates. You’ll see yours at the contract step.

Net or gross: check which one you’ve signed

This is where operators get confused, and public sources don’t help. Bókun describes Trip.com’s model as the operator setting a rate and Trip.com adding its commission on top. That’s a net rate model. Trip.com’s hotel-side partner documentation talks about partners paying commission on each booking, which is closer to a gross model.

The difference matters. A simple hypothetical: a Belfast walking tour priced at £25 at a 20% commission.

• Net model: you give Trip.com a £25 rate. Trip.com adds its 20% on top, sells it for £30 and keeps the difference. You receive £25.
• Gross model: Trip.com sells it for £25 and deducts 20%. You receive £20.

Same “20%”, a £5 difference on every ticket. Read your contract for which one applies, and check the price travellers will actually see. On a net model it may sit above your own website’s price, which can cost you bookings on the platform. Our guides to the merchant vs agency model and net rate vs gross rate explain both in more detail.

When you get paid

Bókun reports monthly payouts to suppliers, but Trip.com doesn’t publish its settlement terms for attractions, so confirm the cycle, currency and any minimum payout before you sign. If you’re used to weekly payments from other channels, a monthly cycle changes your cash flow. Our article on OTA payment terms and cash flow covers how to plan for it.

Setting Up a Trip.com Listing for Chinese and Asian Travellers

General listing basics (strong photos, clear titles, honest inclusions) apply here as they do everywhere, and our guide on how to optimise your OTA listing covers them. What’s different on Trip.com is that your reader may never have visited your country before, and may not read English comfortably.

Language: do it properly or not at all

Trip.com supports travellers in 19 languages, and its customer service will help a confused visitor. It can’t fix a product that only works in English.

Get your key listing copy professionally translated into Simplified Chinese, and Korean if your data shows Korean visitors. Machine translation of a description is obvious to a native reader, and it makes a listing look careless. Keep the English version short and plain too: short sentences, no idioms, no local slang.

If you offer guided tours, be precise about the language of the guiding. “English-speaking guide” is fine if it’s true. Don’t imply Chinese-language guiding you can’t deliver.

Mobile tickets and the gate

Most Trip.com travellers will arrive with a phone, not a printout. Check that your gate team can scan or accept the voucher format your booking system produces. Brief them on what a Trip.com booking looks like on screen.

Directions written for a first-time visitor

Write the meeting point or entrance as if the reader has never been to your town. Give the nearest station or bus stop, how far to walk, what the entrance looks like and how to spot your guide. A photo of the entrance helps more than a paragraph.

Ticket types for families and small groups

Chinese and wider Asian visitors often travel as families or small groups of friends. Family tickets and clear child and senior pricing make the booking easier. If you offer a group rate, show it plainly.

The on-site experience

What happens after the booking affects your reviews. Many Chinese visitors value being able to pay with Alipay or WeChat Pay, so if your café or shop accepts them, say so. A Chinese-language audio guide, leaflet or a few translated signs go a long way.

Another story, this time from a former colleague who managed visitor services at a garden attraction in the south of England. They added a short Chinese-language map and a single translated welcome sign before their first Trip.com season, at a cost of a few hundred pounds. The reviews from Chinese visitors that year mentioned the map more than anything else. For a few hundred pounds, it kept paying back in reviews for years.

Connecting Your Booking System to Trip.com

Don’t run Trip.com from a spreadsheet. Connect it to your booking system so availability updates automatically and you can’t sell the same slot twice.

Bókun has a documented Trip.com integration: products and prices push from Bókun, availability syncs in real time, and Trip.com bookings appear in your main Bókun calendar. Bókun’s own advice is not to change ticket types, departure options or availability settings once the products are mapped, because that can break the connection.

If you use a different system, check whether it connects to Trip.com before you apply. Our comparison of Bókun vs FareHarbor vs Rezdy covers which systems connect to which channels.

Is Trip.com Worth It for Your Attraction?

Trip.com is worth it if you already see Chinese or wider Asian visitors, or your destination clearly draws them, and you can serve them properly in their language. If your visitors are mostly British, Irish, American or European, your time is better spent on Viator and GetYourGuide first.

Three questions to answer before you apply:

1. Do Asian visitors already turn up? Pull last year’s visitor data by nationality from your booking system, ticket scans or OTA reports. If mainland China, South Korea or South-East Asia barely appear, Trip.com is unlikely to change that quickly.
2. Can you serve them? Translated listing copy, mobile tickets, clear directions and at least some Chinese-language material on site. If you can’t do these, the listing will underperform and the reviews will show it.
3. Can you live with 15 to 25% on low volume? The first season is often small. If the margin only works at high volume, check the numbers with our guide to calculating your true OTA margin.

If you can answer yes to all three, list on Trip.com. If you answer yes to the first and no to the second, fix the language and logistics before you apply. If the answer to the first is no, put it on the list for next year and check the data again.

Trip.com and Klook can work together. They overlap, but Trip.com is the stronger route to mainland China and Klook is strong across the rest of Asia-Pacific. If your Asian visitors come mostly from one market, start with the platform that serves it and add the other later.

Trip.com Operator Guide: Where to Start

Trip.com is a narrow channel with a valuable audience. It won’t replace your main OTAs, but for an attraction that already sees Chinese, Korean or South-East Asian visitors, it reaches people that Viator and GetYourGuide mostly don’t.

The work is front-loaded. Check eligibility, read your contract for the commission rate and the pricing model, connect your booking system, and invest in proper translation and clear directions. After that, it largely runs itself.

One thing to do today: pull last year’s visitor data by nationality and look at the Asian share. That single number tells you whether Trip.com belongs in this year’s plan or next year’s. Then use our OTA distribution strategy guide to see where it fits alongside your other channels.