A deal opening the door to the massive Chinese business travel market has lit a fire under online travel agent Webjet.
The listed booker has announced a partnership between its recently launched Asian buinsess-to-business booking venture FIT Ruums and Dida Travel Technology, China's largest travel aggregator.
![Webjet chief executive John Guscic revealed 40 per cent growth in B2B bookings on last year.](/web/20161123101621im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/v/p/u/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsvjda.png/1479872994115.jpg)
Dida supplies major Chinese online travel agents and more than 8000 retail agents, giving FIT Ruums immediate access to the world's largest outbound travel market, increasing its global inventory by at least 10 per cent to 143,000 properties, Webjet said.
"FIT Ruums has an ambitious regional expansion strategy that will see us move into multiple Asian markets," said Daryl Lee, director of Webjet's hotel booking off-shoot WebBeds.
![Dida supplies major Chinese online travel agents and more than 8000 retail agents.](/web/20161123101621im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/1/2/h/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsvjda.png/1479872994115.jpg)
"To achieve this, it's vital for us to have a strong partner in mainland China and we are delighted to be working with Dida."
The market responded positively to the news on Tuesday, jumping almost 7 per cent to $10.19 in morning trade.
Webjet shares have been on a tear in 2016, jumping 141 per cent from $4.51 in February to its current price. They hit an all-time of $12.01 in mid-October.
At Webjet's annual general meeting on Tuesday, the company revealed 40 per cent growth in B2B bookings on last year, and forecast the division's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation to grow 200 per cent from $3.4 million in 2016 to more than $11 million in the 2017 financial year.
The company told shareholders it expected EBITDA for the first half of 2017 to be up more than 60 per cent on the same period in 2016, and for net profit after tax to be up 75 per cent.
Webjet forecast $60 million EBITDA from its continuing businesses in 2017, and has banked $26 million from the sale of online booking website Zuji.
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