Nov. 29 (NBD) -- Overseas road trips are turning hot as outbound travel has been gaining stronger traction among Chinese tourists in recent years. 

The overseas car rental market not only drew the attention of vertical car rental platforms like Zuzuche and Huizuche, but also attracted a number of other companies including online travel platforms. 

Zuzuche, together with China's top third-party payment platform Alipay and independent third-party credit institution Zhima Credit, announced on Monday that Zuzuche users with a credit score over 700 at Zhima Credit can rent cars from the company at abroad without paying deposit. 

This lowers the threshold of overseas car rental as users don't have to pay deposit or swipe credit cards for pre-authorization to rent a car. 

Previously, leading ride-hailing platform Didi and professional car rental service provider Shouqi Car Rental have launched car rental services overseas. Online tourism platforms like Fliggy, Tuniu, and Ctrip are also gearing up for big push into this sector. 

Chen Canhui, co-founder of Zuzuche, believes that the overseas car rental market has a bright prospect. 

According to him, only 0.5 percent of Chinese tourists abroad chose road trips in 2011, but the proportion rose to 3.34 percent in 2016. In sharp contrast, up to 46 percent of American people opted for road trips when traveling abroad. This indicates that the overseas road trips targeting Chinese tourists has a lot of room to grow. 

The niche sector is developing at a fast pace, especially in tourist destinations in Europe and the U.S., as taking road trips is a great way of gaining deeper insight into the local culture and sightseeing resources, said Yang Yanfeng, contract researcher with the Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

Despite the promising future, the market still faces tough challenges. Wei Changren, founder of Chinese tourism finance media ctcnn.com, said to NBD that there exist some obstacles due to the differences between China and foreign countries in terms of traffic conditions, language, and driving licenses. 

For example, tourists from mainland China can't apply for international driving licenses because mainland China is not a signatory to the Convention on Road Traffic. They can't use their own driving licenses unless they present a notarized translation version, which significantly hinders the growth of the overseas road trip market, Yang said. 

However, it should be noted that the profit mode of the market is much more stable than other emerging industries, and the competition there is less intense, according to industry insiders.

At present, overseas car rental platforms earn money by means of either commission model or value-added services. The market is not highly competitive as no platform has gained absolute differentiation or competitive edge, Wei told NBD. 

With regard to the further development of overseas car rental platforms, Yang suggested that they conduct in-depth cooperation with mainstream counterparts in local regions to offer diversified services and options to consumers, so as to achieve sustainable growth.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn