Articles tagged “ctrip”

China had a head start on both the pandemic and the travel recovery. Trip.com Group's international business is languishing because of factors beyond its control, and it is hoping to convert usually outbound international travelers into high-end domestic customers. It's all going to be a very long and twisty road.

Smaller online travel agencies try to make money by grabbing nickels and eurocent coins ahead of the steamrollers of global advertising behemoths. The underreported story of why China's largest travel company acquired a tiny Dutch travel group highlights the phenomenon.

The online travel industry is marginally better positioned to deal with this current outbreak than many of their suppliers in the hotel and airline industry. Still, the damage will get worse — and be severe and long-lasting.

For Trip.com Group’s top leader, the message is clear. Countries around the world should not squander any chances to control the virus, and neither should the travel industry let a serious crisis go to waste by not seeking out new opportunities.

To hear that signs of recovery are in sight from China’s biggest travel firm is offering the battered tourism industry a glimmer of hope.

Both partners seek growth when the home markets aren’t expanding as much as before. Intrepid needs Ctrip’s user base of 300 million while Ctrip needs Intrepid’s kind of journeys. But doubtful if sustainable travel will instantly be the norm in China. It's a start.

Airbnb overtook Expedia in room nights booked in the first quarter of 2019, but questions loom for 2020. Will Airbnb lose its focus as it vows to go public and become a broader online travel agency? Will Expedia, which seems lost in terms of creating a revised strategy, find its way? So many headlines to come.

The road back to a flywheel of growth would be a lengthy one for Booking Holdings. Google has a ton of data, too, as do other competitors. Can Booking Holdings create a product that is really deeper and differentiated from its rivals? That's CEO Glenn Fogel's bet.

The TripAdvisor-Trip.com Group deal is both a shocker and a non-shocker. When Ctrip decided to change the parent company name to Trip.com Group, you could see a certain affinity with the TripAdvisor brand. On the other hand, Booking Holdings has been Ctrip's longtime best friend in China.

The name change to Trip.com Group is not a bad idea for Ctrip as it increasingly comes out of its shell and becomes a global force in online travel. A catchy domain name, though, doesn't guarantee anything.