Pandemic or not, Trip.com Group has consistently been very vocal about how heavily it invests in technology as a priority.
Bun Siang Chai, the group’s head of international business, said this is because the company, despite being listed on the Nasdaq in 1999, is still operating and thinking like a start-up. It is said that
Despite China being one of the worst-affected countries and Trip.com being a Chinese-owned company, the pandemic hasn’t slowed down business.
“We will continue to explore, innovate and invest in products and technologies to provide the best products to our customers,” Chai said.
“If you look at the pandemic, there are restrictions, so we were looking at new products and new technologies to allow people to travel within mainland China as much as possible.”
The innovative creation of live streaming, which has kept the company thriving throughout this period, was actually born out of the idea of helping the industry recover.
James Liang, founder and chairman of Trip.com Group, was conducting an hour-long live stream every Wednesday from 8pm to help attract people to domestic destinations.
Liang and his team worked with tourism boards, destinations, airlines and hotel partners to increase traveler interest.
It did so well that the channel has garnered over 1 billion views since its launch, with streams continuing weekly even after the pandemic.
It may seem difficult to innovate through a pandemic when the industry is at a standstill, but another opportunity was meant to present itself.
Trip.com has worked with hotels in Hong Kong during the mandatory travel quarantine period to develop a platform for booking quarantine hotels to facilitate the experience of travelers who require quarantine accommodation.
This innovation helped the brand increase its customer base and market visibility.
Working with hotels to provide a platform means that hoteliers are finally determined to sell their products to customers.
Sustainability is a trend the company is seeing gaining momentum, and its team is developing new products to address.
Trip.com’s Hot Choice program allows travelers to pay for products with no carbon footprint.
“We are very happy to share that more than 50% of Europeans are actually paying for products with no carbon emissions.
“This is the highest in the world. Europeans are higher than Asians and other people.
“Typically, people pay around 4% more for carbon-emitting products when they book a flight.
“We’re really happy about this because people are really thinking about the environment and sustainability right now.”
But that’s not the end. The company acquired Skyscanner in 2016 and moved away from figurative books when it came to inspiration and content.
“We learned a lot from Skyscanner’s approach, which is why we bundled flights and hotels,” Chai says.
This technology is designed to help people make travel decisions, showing them the best deals on a budget and where they can go with the money they have.
“This helps with the booking pathway and the inspiration pathway. If you look at other platforms, they are very focused on the transactional part, the part where people decide to come to this destination.
“But what we want to do is actually do the technology part before the actual transaction so that people can think, be inspired, and decide where they want to buy and what products they want to use. to provide inspiration and other content that will help.”
“A trend we have seen over the past few years is the advancement and adoption of user-generated content.
“What we’re doing at Trip.com Group is really moving from what we would call a transactional platform to a transactional and content generation platform.”
The app allows users to share their photos, recommendations, and itineraries and earn Trip Coins, the equivalent of cash, on purchases.
Other services developed to give users what they want include Trip.Best and TripGenie.
Trip.Best is a curated list of recommendations for the best hotel products, restaurants, and activities.
We use AI to find the top-rated products, but all products are available to market managers and account managers if they know the market best, not just because they have local tips. It runs through the manager.
Meanwhile, TripGenie is Trip.com’s popular AI assistant that helps you plan your trips.
The company says that as it looks to 2024, it will continue to invest not only in technology but also in customer service, always putting the customer first.
This is what excites Chai the most. he said: “This may be boring to you, but I’m most excited about customer-centricity. If you don’t put the customer first, you can sell whatever you have, but you won’t be able to You might not provide a good experience or your customers might not come back.”
Again, technology is at the heart of what we do. 75% of customer requests are addressed using APIs and 97% are answered using automated customer service responses.
Add a customer-centric approach to your global expansion, and the next market is easily within your reach.
The company is currently investing in Europe, but plans to take the next step to the Middle East.
The company’s next technology rollout will be an Arabic app, targeted at GCC countries, which it hopes to roll out early this year.