China Eastern to divest tourism assets for integration

A tourism investment company under China Eastern Airlines Group is selling stakes in several travel agency ompanies as part of the group's efforts to restructure its tourism business and avoid internal competition, a source said.

China Eastern Airlines Tourist Investment (Group) Co has put up for sale all the stakes in several travel agencies via the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, the Shanghai-based China Business News reported.

The tourism sector of China Eastern Airlines Group began a restructuring programme in October, a source with knowledge of the matter was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

"But some problems exist, and the restructuring may take a long time," the source said.

The source said the group plans to merge its tourism assets with another subsidiary, Shanghai Airlines, because the latter has been far more successful in operating a tourism division.

Since the merger of same-city carriers China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, much of their businesses have been integrated, and now it is the turn of the tourism sector, the source said.

"There are many overlaps between the tourism divisions, and integrating the one under China Eastern's tourism business into Shanghai Airlines' will not only avoid the two tourism sectors competing with each other, but will also enhance efficiency," the source added.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn