Skyscanner offers free travel to China

Skyscanner - the global travel website with Scottish roots and a Chinese owner - has revealed a new focus on trips to China.

The firm, which is owned by Ctrip, has revealed plans to offer free travel to China for staff.

View of the headquarters building of Chinese online travel agency Ctrip in Shanghai, China, 15 May 2017. [Photo: IC]

The aim is to offer them the chance to experience the country, and therefore offer better and more personal travel advice to the growing numbers of Americans and Europeans who wish to visit China.

Skyscanner, on the world's leading flight comparison websites, was sold to the Chinese travel company Ctrip in late 2016.

The price tag for the company was £1.4 billion, an investment that has allowed Ctrip to expand its presence in overseas markets.

Skyscanner was set up by three entrepreneurs in Scotland in 2001. It employs around 800 people, 500 of them in the UK, and it has 60 million monthly users with revenues of over £120 million per year.

At the time of the Ctrip purchase, one of the co-founders, Gareth Williams said “This news with Ctrip propels us forward and allows us to take the business to the next level. They’ll allow us to extend our already substantial reach globally, as well as augment our understanding of the Chinese market.”