The Jumeirah luxury hotels group has entered into a partnership with China’s online travel website, Ctrip, reported Travel Daily Media news website Sunday.

The Global Direct Connectivity Partnership deal will soon allow Ctrip customers to make reservations more quickly for hotels under the Jumeirah umbrella.

Ctrip is a leading one-stop China-based travel website that allows travelers to make reservations for hotels, air tickets and package tours.

Special hotel offers, as well as a consumer contest, will be launched once work on the direct connectivity platform is completed. This deal makes the Jumeirah chain the first Middle Eastern hotel group to get a direct online connection with Ctrip.

“It indeed strengthens our China development and enables us to engage more closely with our Chinese high-end customers,” Nicholas Clayton, chief operating officer of the Jumeirah Group, told the travel news website.

Currently, the Jumeirah chain has one hotel in Shanghai: the Jumeirah Himalayas. The group is expected to open more hotels in China, including Jumeirah Guangzhou which is slated for an opening in late 2014, as well as other properties in the cities of Macau, Sanya and Hangzhou.

The luxury hotel group revealed that the Chinese represent the group’s sixth largest market, and the most popular destinations in the Jumeirah portfolio for Chinese travelers are Dubai and the Maldives. The chain added that it is expecting a growth of 14 percent from the Chinese market to its worldwide portfolio in 2013.