First Travel Website Launched

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

 ◆ First Travel Website Launched

The first online travel portal in the Asia-Pacific region owned by Asian and US airlines was launched yesterday to ride on a rebound in the industry after last year's global terrorism scare. ZUJI, Mandarin for "footprint," offers an array of services including travel planning, airfare price-tracking, airline and hotel bookings, stopovers and car rentals through its website www.zuji.com. The company is owned by 14 regional airlines as well as two US carriers in partnership with global online travel service Travelocity.com. Wong Kok Kit, ZUJI's chief financial officer, said no shareholder owns more than 15 per cent in equity and that the company will operate as an independent entity. The founding shareholders are Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines. Seven new owners joined the group: Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, Philippine Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Japan Air System, Japan Airlines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines. ZUJI commercial director Martin Symes said it is the first online travel portal in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan to be owned by airlines. Tim Fitzsimmons, ZUJI's executive chairman and general manager for e-business and regions at Cathay Pacific, said airlines have realized "there is growing consumer interest for an online channel." Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific decided to invest in the venture because "it looked to us to be a particularly good investment," he said, adding there was great potential between the "marriage of travel and the Internet." "The decision of seven more airlines to invest in ZUJI clearly demonstrates their confidence in the venture," Fitzsimmons said. Officials said the portal was supposed to have been launched in the second half of last year but was deferred due to weak market conditions following the terrorist attacks in the United States using hijacked aircraft as weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday's launch covered only the Singapore and Australian markets, but it will soon be expanded to cover other key markets in the region such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand. Wong cited data showing that the online travel market in the Asia-Pacific region, currently put at US$2.7 billion, would grow to US$4.7 billion next year and US$8.0 billion in 2004. He said ZUJI expects to attract 500,000 customers in the region by the end of the year, including 80,000 in Singapore, after which it will proceed with a "hard launch" in the first quarter of next year, including a "major brand-building campaign."