In an unprecedented time for travel, Trip.com Group implemented its “Local Focus, Global Vision” strategy, driving the global travel industry forward.
In December, Trip.com Group, a leading global travel service provider comprising of Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner and Qunar, held its Global Partner Summit in Macau, convening over 1,600 industry professionals. At the summit, Group Chairman James Liang emphasized that whilst COVID-19 variants emerge and travel restrictions remain in place, for Trip.com Group, innovations and new partnerships continue to build growth and shine a light on a path towards comprehensive travel recovery.
“This year, we have continued to work with destinations and partners around the world, adapting and innovating in the face of challenges,” said Liang at the summit. “The industry as a whole is ready to welcome and facilitate global travel.”
Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, has been at the helm of the Group’s “Local Focus, Global Vision” strategy, honing in to meet local market demand whilst developing global supply chains and partnerships to drive travel recovery and growth.
Globally, the direction of recovery is clear and demand for travel strong. At the summit, Trip.com Group CEO Jane Sun shared that the Group’s global air-ticket bookings have made some major strides toward pre-pandemic levels in the past few months. While the 2021 Q3 global flight volume remained below the 2019 level, Trip.com’s overall international air-ticket bookings increased by around 40% quarter-over-quarter, with air-ticket bookings in Europe growing by 170%. Skyscanner also saw air-ticket bookings increase by approximately 100% year-over-year and around 35% quarter-over-quarter. Even with cross-border travel largely impossible, domestic hotel and air ticket bookings in mainland China saw double-digit growth in Q2 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
Trip.com Group is committed to supporting customers throughout their trips and is always there with its 24/7 multilingual global customer service centres. During the pandemic, Trip.com Group’s customer service team revisited its approach to meet the changing needs and increase in customer calls.
Central to this growth has been the Group’s content pivot that saw the company grow out the volume and types of content supported and hosted on its platforms, from community spaces for user-generated content and influencer traveller blogs and vlogs to livestream shows, partner product content and enhanced product listings. Trip.com Group now has 200 million users who engage with travel content on its Ctrip sub-brand platform. Up to 30% of users make a booking within a month after accessing the content.
For partners, the Group’s content pivot is exemplified in Star Hub — dedicated partner channels that allow suppliers to expand their marketing activities on Trip.com Group platforms. Over 260 leading travel businesses, including destinations, hotels and attractions are using this empowering tool to create and share content with users, introduce products and interact with followers directly.
Trip.com Group and the World Travel & Tourism Council’s ‘Trending in Travel Report’ delved into the data to reveal the rise of secondary destinations and the pent-up demand for international travel.
Meanwhile, the travel Group has penned agreements with partners around the world to build efforts toward travel recovery. From a high-level agreement with the Macao Government Tourism Office, MOUs with the Austrian National Tourist Office, Tourism Fiji and the Argentinian Ministry for Tourism to promote their destinations worldwide, to entering into partnerships with Hopper, a leading travel fintech provider, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Rosewood Hotel Group and many more, connecting users with top quality products.
Trip.com Group and the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Trending in Travel Report shares positive predictions for travel spending in 2022 with international spending expected to see huge growth as more countries open their borders to travel
To further inform the industry recovery, in November 2021, Trip.com Group released the Trending in Travel report in partnership with the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) looking at travel trends, consumer considerations and consumer profiles. The report highlighted the growth of domestic tourism, with a surge in domestic hotel bookings by more than 200% on Trip.com this year compared to 2019. And while the Omicron variant is making countries reinstate travel restrictions and rules, WTTC and Trip.com Group predicted an increase of 93.8% in global international spending in 2022.
Over the past two years, Trip.com Group’s contributions driving recovery have seen it bring benefits to partners and travellers globally. As we enter a new year, the Group is geared up to continue to move forward together to facilitate global travel.
22 December 2021
