March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ctrip.com International Ltd., China's biggest online ticketing agent, expects its sales contribution from package tours to almost triple by 2012, spurred by travel to countries led by Thailand.

Package-tour sales may rise to as much as 15 percent of revenue in five years from about 5.6 percent in 2007, Ctrip Chief Financial Officer Jane Sun said in an interview March 6 in Shanghai, where the company is based.

More Chinese are vacationing overseas as wages rise in the world's fastest-growing major economy and cross-border travel restrictions ease. China, home to 1.3 billion people, may become the world's biggest source of outbound tourists by 2020, surpassing current leader Germany, according to CLSA Ltd.

``The number of Chinese traveling abroad is going to increase, especially as more destination countries ease visa requirements,'' said Catherine Leung, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Citigroup Inc., who rates Ctrip's stock ``buy.'' ``Package tours are a new market that Ctrip would naturally try and take advantage of.''

Ctrip currently gets about 90 percent of sales from travel within China. Hotel and air ticket bookings accounted for 92 percent of sales in 2007, a level that may decline to 70 percent within five years as the portion from package tours increases, Sun said.

Chinese citizens took about 41 million trips outside the mainland last year, rising 19 percent from a year earlier, according to the China National Tourism Administration. More than 88 percent were to locations in Asia, the government agency said.

Elephants, Temples

Tours to Thailand, combining elephant rides and temple visits with air tickets and accommodation, are among the most common offered by Ctrip, according to its Web site.

Ctrip, which targets consumers earning at least 60,000 yuan ($8,443) annually, charges as little as $550 for a six-day trip to a resort on Thailand's Phuket island.

The company also has packages to cities including Paris, Rome and Sydney.

Ctrip plans to offer trips for Chinese tourists to the U.S. after the two nations sign an agreement allowing companies in China to market and sell packaged tours to American destinations, Sun said.

The Approved Destination Status agreement is expected to be implemented in ``spring'' this year, according to the U.S. government. Chinese citizens can already apply for a tourism visa to visit the U.S., said Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

The U.S. will probably earn more than $150.8 billion from foreign visitors this year, the most among any nation, World Travel & Tourism Council data show.

More Cash

Disposable incomes in China's urban areas in December rose 12.2 percent from a year earlier, based on government statistics.

Ctrip on Feb. 28 posted fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as Chinese customers increased spending, spurring the biggest one-day gain in its American depositary receipts in more than three years.

The ADRs, which rose 8.4 percent to $54.13 yesterday, have climbed 26 percent in the past six months, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite Index, which lost 13 percent.

Fourth-quarter sales of tours doubled from a year earlier, surpassing the 59 percent gain for overall revenue, Ctrip said.

Ctrip's package-tour sales may jump 72 percent to 122 million yuan this year, and then double to 255 million yuan in 2010, according to a Feb. 28 report by Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd.

The company is working with Taiwan's ezTravel Company Ltd., in which it bought a stake in 2006, to plan for possible direct travel by mainland Chinese tourists to the island, Sun said. Travelers and cargo between the two must currently transit at a third territory, usually Hong Kong or Macau.

Tourists from the mainland have been banned from Taiwan since the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war. China considers Taiwan a renegade province.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 11, 2008 22:47 EDT