May. 2, 2012 (China Knowledge) - China saw its market value of online tourism industry total RMB 44 billion in the first quarter of this year, reflecting a sequential decline of 2.1% but a year-on-year increase of 16.9%, according to statistics from a Chinese research company.

In the first quarter of 2011, the country's online tourism market size surged 27.4% to RMB 37.62 billion on a year-on-year basis, increased 9.2% to RMB 41.1 billion in the second quarter, up 20% to RMB 49.32 billion in the third quarter but declined 8.9% to RMB 44.95 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

On a sequential basis, China saw continuous declines of market growth in online tourism market in the above four quarters, with growth of 80% in the first quarter, 73.4% in the second quarter, 66.6% in the third quarter and 52.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011.

During the period from January to March 2012, RMB 31.5 billion or 71.6% of the nation's online tourism market value derived from air-ticket booking service, RMB 8.89 billion or 20.2% from hotel booking and RMB 3.61 billion or 8.2% from travel business.