Chinese online travel service provider Ctrip.com has published a professional index on China's business travel market.

Titled "Ctrip 2008 China Business Travel Index" the Index covers the monthly price index of both hotels and air tickets.

Besides prices, it also provides information on the pricing trend of hotels in major Chinese cities as well as flights on major domestic and international routes to help companies make evaluations and draft policies to control their expenditure on business travel. Ctrip.com says it will publish an updated Ctrip China Business Travel Index every six months.

Zhuang Yuxiang, vice president of Ctrip.com's business travel management service, said that the index not only reflects the trends for the China business travel market, but also the activity of the country's national economy. Zhuang stated that Ctrip China Business Travel Index referred to data of about hotels in the 20 most important Chinese cities and the 30 hottest business routes, so it was authoritative and reliable.

(China Hospitality News February 23, 2009)