SHANGHAI, China, Oct. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the largest online travel agent in Asia and the second largest in the world, Ctrip along with Trip.com, an independent OTA brand offering comprehensive travel services to millions of members worldwide, attended the Illegal Wildlife Trade London Conference 2018 at the UK government’s invitation and spoke in panel discussions on the relationship between tourism and the illegal wildlife trade. At the Conference, Ctrip and Trip.com pledged that it would use its mobile applications, websites, offline stores and other resources to increase public awareness of issues relating to the illegal wildlife trade.
On the afternoon of October 11, a representative from Ctrip Group spoke at the panel “Tourism’s role in dealing the Issue of Illegal Wildlife Trade” alongside Gloria Guevara, CEO of World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC); Jim Sano, Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF); and a representative of the Nepal government. Addressing the major role that tourism, both the demand and supply sides, is playing in fighting illegal wildlife trade, Ctrip and Trip.com made four commitments:
1. Ctrip and Trip.com will use their mobile applications, websites and offline stores to increase public awareness of the illegal wildlife trade issue among its more than 300 million users around the world;
2. Ctrip and Trip.com will fully support the work of the WTTC and the WWF, as agreed at the London conference, and distribute the WTTC Declaration of Illegal Wildlife Trade in China;
3. Ctrip and Trip.com will develop new ecotourism tours and encourage Chinese tourists to engage in ecotourism;
4. In cooperation with environmental organizations, Ctrip and Trip.com will launch a campaign to discourage and dissuade its vendors and clients from products related to the illegal wildlife trade.
“Fighting Illegal Wildlife Trade” is a key project of the UK Government to protect wildlife in 2018, and the Chinese government is also working to raise awareness of the significance of wildlife protection. Ctrip and Trip.com are committed to promoting ecological protection via tourism.
Jane Sun, the CEO of the Ctrip Group, signed the WWTC Buenos Aires Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade in April 2018, and assumed her post in the advisory committee alongside WWF, Hyatt and Emirates, among others. The declaration is aimed at encouraging tourism-related organizations to play a key role in combatting the illegal wildlife trade.
The 2018 Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London is hosted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, together with royal support. The conference brings together stakeholders from business, environment NGO’s and academia to discuss solutions to the illegal wildlife trade issue.
Since the London Declaration on the Illegal Wildlife Trade was announced in 2014, tremendous progress has been made. However, with a recent resurgence in the illegal wildlife trade, the 2018 Conference aims to restate how determined and confident the national governments are to fight the illegal wildlife trade around the world.
About Ctrip.com International, Ltd.
Ctrip.com International, Ltd. is a leading travel service provider of accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and corporate travel management in China. It is the largest online consolidator of accommodations and transportation tickets in China in terms of transaction volume. Ctrip enables business and leisure travellers to make informed and cost-effective bookings by aggregating comprehensive travel related information and offering its services through an advanced transaction and service platform consisting of its mobile apps, Internet websites and centralized, toll-free, 24-hour customer service center. Ctrip also helps customers book vacation packages and guided tours. In addition, through its corporate travel management services, Ctrip helps corporate clients effectively manage their travel requirements. Since its inception in 1999, Ctrip has experienced substantial growth and become one of the best-known travel brands in China.
About Trip.com
Trip.com provides one-stop travel booking services in 14 languages through our website and mobile app. We are a part of the Ctrip Group, a NASDAQ listed company since 2003 with over 30,000 employees and over 300 million members, making it one of the leading online travel agencies in the world. With more than 1.2 million hotels in 200 countries and regions, we've built an extensive hotel network to give our customers a fantastic choice of accommodation. Our far-reaching flight network has over 2 million individual flight routes connecting more than 5,000 cities around the globe. When you combine this with our 24/7 English customer service and various other travel products, you can trust us to take care of your next trip.
Visit Us: https://www.trip.com
For further information, please contact:
International PR
Ctrip.com International, ltd.
Tel: (+86) 21 3406 4880 ext 196455
Email: Pr@ctrip.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a6f0a6ca-064d-4289-8741-79692422284c