Alibaba Group announced today it has launched its travelwebsite as an independent brand and business unit to tap China’s booming online tourism services market.

The website, Taobao Travel, is an online travel platform similar to Expedia, where Chinese users can search over 10,000 merchants selling airplane tickets, vacation packages, hotel rooms and tours. Formerly part Alibaba Group’s Taobao Marketplace, China’s top C2C shopping website, Taobao Travel from today will be known as Alitrip and have its own website address separate from Taobao.

The move to rebrand Alitrip, announced at a press conference in Beijing, comes as Alibaba Group is trying to increase its presence in China’s RMB 220.5 billion ($36 billion) online tourism market. Last month, Alibaba Group invested RMB 2.8 billion ($458 million) in Beijing Shiji Information Technology, a hotel software services and I.T. management consulting firm. By carving out Alitrip as a separate business unit, Alibaba Group is able to consolidate its marketing efforts and launch a cohesive strategy around the travel platform.