Guangzhou Luckyway Tour Co Ltd, one of the tour service wholesalers in South China's Guangdong Province, launched a tour brand yesterday, in an attempt to tap the huge potential of the wholesale tour market on the mainland.

Under the "Long Tour" brand, the company will develop domestic tour routes covering major sites such as Sanya in Hainan Province and Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"We'll distribute these tour services to up to 300 travel agencies in South China, aiming to take up half the wholesale tour market share in the region within the next two years," the company's general manager, Li Yongsheng, said.

The company, affiliated with Hainan Air Group, one of the leading air service providers based in South China's Hainan Province, will make full use of the advantages in terms of transportation and hotel services of the air company, to offer "relatively lower tour price", according to Li.

"The competitive price will enable more travel agencies to share our air and hotel services, and improve travel services for domestic tourists," Li told China Daily yesterday.

"Besides support from Hainan Air Group, we also have our own air service provider, Deer Air, which has opened up routes to almost all major tour cities from Guangzhou. The advantages in terms of transportation will help us take the lion's share in the domestic market."

Li said Long Tour won't be directly offered to domestic tourists, but distributed to retail travel agencies.

"Travel retailers can buy services from us and then sell them to tourists," said Li.

Several Guangdong-based travel agencies signed up with Li's company yesterday.

"The wholesale tour market is very promising on the mainland. This service will help us get more tourists," said Lu Jianxu, deputy general manager of GZL International Travel Service Ltd.