Dave Montali

China outbound travel is booming and has a long way to go before maturity. Individual destinations should pursue the market, but be cognizant of the risks. South Korea serves as an example of what can happen when the Chinese government changes course.

A data dive into the habits of U.S. high-income travelers. What do they value and what expectations do they have from their travels?

Ctrip’s purchase of Skyscanner continued the trend of metasearch consolidation and should provide Ctrip with support for its outbound and inbound businesses.

This report represents the launch of our coverage of Asia, offering insights into both Ctrip and the online travel market more broadly.

Identifying payment trends among consumers not only improves the customer experience but also allows businesses to create new operating models built around the improved speed and ease of transacting.

Blockchain is essentially a large immutable database which, due to its security features and decentralized nature, can pose a threat to traditional intermediaries. Companies are looking to expand blockchain to tackle the current travel distribution landscape.

The Chinese outbound market is booming yet travelers still find low acceptance of their typical payment methods. As travel becomes more accessible to the Chinese lower and middle class offering payment methods such as AliPay and WeChat Pay will be a definitive competitive advantage.

Consumer adoption of new payment methods and devices for settling purchases is the main driver of adoption by companies. Yet travel companies can gain a valuable competitive advantage by predicting trends in payments and making payments as easy as possible for everyone.

With OTAs offering their own loyalty programs consumers are faced with endless programs in the hotel space. Everyone is a loyalty program member everywhere, that's loyalty in 2017.

Deeming online travel agency fees too high, hotels turn to loyalty programs to push direct bookings.