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Trip.com's 5th anniversary EVP - Celebrate the Traveller in You
As travel is the bases of all careers here at Trip.com, one thing is for sure: our employees love to travel as much as they can. Passionate about delivering exceptional memories for our customers at all times, they can also use their own learnings e travelling towards even better customer experiences. That's why our employees are always encouraged to travel and to become their very own trusted trip companion for travellers worldwide.
With travelling on the sharp increase as global restrictions continue to be lifted worldwide, Trip.com customers are booking 151% more hotel room nights than Q2 2019, and with flight bookings up 680% year-on-year. This is significant growth as we emerge from the pandemic, and our teams are here to ensure your trips are the best they can be.
Looking back on the past five years, Trip.com has set itself apart by delivering an all-in-one suite of high-quality travel products through its mobile-first channels to global users, along with industry-leading customer service - notable throughout a significant shift in travel desires since 2020.
As part of our fifth anniversary, we spoke to five Trip.com global employees, from 5 different markets, to understand more about what travel means to them, and how their own experiences help shape and develop their skills.
Based in London , Jeremy Guo is a Market Manager in our France team. Travelling between France and London to see friends and family in between work, luckily the majority of his trips have not been highly affected in recent times, with Jeremy noting that 'it is almost the same - the only difference is that I have to double-check the destination's restriction updates before my trip.
When asked about his future travel plans, Jeremy is looking forward to a 'revenge travel' trip, one that is further afield and possibly more luxurious than usual, in a bid to enjoy an incredible travel experience post-restrictions.
With revenge travel firmly on the radar, Amsterdam -based Marketing Campaign Specialist Cezara Butnaru embarked on a longer trip to explore the world earlier this year, travelling to long-haul destinations such as Singapore , Thailand , Indonesia and Dubai , while also visiting Italy , Slovenia and Switzerland .
"A trip of a lifetime and even better being able to travel for such a long period of time" Cezara notes "Staying mostly in hotels, Asia was a new destination for me, however, most countries were not yet fully open, so we had to quarantine"
"Most beaches in Thailand were quiet and it was just me and my husband - we were incredibly lucky!"
Also in Asia , Pratyush Pandab is a Senior UX Designer currently based in Shanghai , who was able to meet his wife in Bangkok after 3 years of disrupted travel. He notes that 'the ecstatic experience of meeting my wife at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok , after such a long interval is etched in my mind as a "memory of a lifetime''.'
'The best part is that Trip.com helped arrange the entire travel and relocation to the Bangkok office'. Opting to now travel closer to Bangkok rather than on long haul trips, Pratyush said he enjoyed a variety of city breaks from the Thai capital 'just to feel the thrill of travel again!'
With Bangkok being a key location for both business and leisure purposes, and a key location for the growing 'bleisure' trend, Elisa Agosta is a Country Manager from our London office who has travelled multiple times in recent years. Travelling between London and her home country of Italy , Elisa was able to stretch her legs by travelling to the Trip.com Conference in Bangkok .
Elisa notes that she now prefers driving to flying when it comes to travelling further afield, with her appreciation for more local adventures growing - as she discusses, whether that's exploring unknown areas of London to driving across the incredible Aeolian islands close to her home in Italy .
With the growth in business trips happening post-2020, PR Manager Kyoungah Lee is based in Korea and chose her first overseas trip in 3 years to be a business trip to Singapore . Staying in a central hotel for one week in order to see as much as possible, Kyoungah Lee notes that 'time passed too quickly', also adding to the growing trend of long-haul 'bleisure travel' where business trips can become the basis for a larger leisure experience.
Having seen exceptional growth in recent months, the bleisure travel trend is largely thought to be driven by the expansion of remote and flexible working options. Having implemented a new function in response to this trend, Trip.biz now provides a 'personal trips' option for corporate travel users with promotions for non-business add-ons.
Here at Trip.com, we find that many of our team members use their own travel experiences to craft great experiences for our customers. Whether they have learned tips and tricks from their own travels, or can understand what customers are looking for, having a variety of travel experiences will always be beneficial in order to assist them in their job functions.
While Elisa was travelling post-restrictions, she found that her requirements had changed and she now had a focus on choosing the most flexible and refundable package at all times, ensuring that any unforeseen changes could be easily managed as part of her travel itinerary. She also finds that she chooses the most simple travel solution where possible to minimise disruption, and these shifts in needs enable her to quickly identify her customers' needs before they embark on their travels. She says 'I believe it becomes crucial to 'identify tourists' expectations before travelling, identify their preferences, and definitely determine the expectations of tourists for post-COVID-19 destination selection.'
For Kyoungah Lee in the PR Team, his travels made her realise how the demand for travel is on a sharp increase, and that 'I will consider and recommend travel destinations that meet the new needs of users' in order to create the perfect trip for all customers. Cezara also backs this up with the insight that 'people will travel no matter what, because this is their way of discovering themselves and disconnecting from work and life'.
Jeremy notes, when he first 'saw the airport was so packed, I knew that the tourism industry is coming back' and we certainly agree - Trip.com's app-first strategy saw app downloads grow to a total of 6.2 million and named the 10th most downloaded travel agent app for Q1 2022.
As all of our employees here note, the Trip.com app gives customers 24/7 customer support but most importantly free and flexible cancellations due to any unforeseen circumstances.
Noting how the Trip.com app allows a seamless solution should there be any delays or cancellations, Pratyush discusses the Trip.com app similar to 'having a smart travel solution in your palm on the go'. Continuing to explain that 'one instance is if you book a flight on trip.com and then choose to book a hotel in the same destination, Trip.com ensures that if the flight is delayed or cancelled, then the hotel booking is cancelled and/or moved to match your schedule.'
Providing fast solutions and refunds was certainly a priority during the pandemic, where a significant percentage of customer service enquiries were relating to cancelled bookings and refunds. As Elisa discusses, during the Covid-19 outbreak, 'Trip.com announced a Safeguard Cancellation Guarantee initiative for individuals directly affected by the outbreak, providing full refund for all products. Trip.com offered us a lesson in optimism and new growth, even after the industry's worst ever crisis, by supporting customers and employees throughout the storm.'
Additionally, the Trip.com app offers more than just an extension of our teams. Providing competitive prices on over 1.2 million hotels in 200 countries and regions, as well as 5,000 connections to cities worldwide via 2 million individual routes, the Trip.com app also helps you to find a selection of activities in the local area that suit your interests.
As Cezara notes, one clear advantage of the Trip.com app is that 'mobiles are part of who we are now and it could be said to be our most important belonging. Offering all you need just a click away, accessibility is a clear benefit.'
With the innovative app and a mobile-first approach being a large part of Trip.com's operations now and in the future, we asked COO Schubert Lou to tell us more about the company's mobile-first strategy.
'It all starts with a simple assumption: travel is a continuum of tasks and activity. A lot of people think it's just about bookings – booking your room, booking your flight, and then you're done. It's not. Travel is something that you continue to do until the end of your trip, and in that process you will have questions like, "What's my booking number again?" or, "Can I call customer support and change my booking?" or, "What do I do when I land in that city?" All of these are realistic needs from our customers. And what is a better platform than mobile to fulfil all those needs in a few clicks?'
'Some say mobile is the future. I would actually say mobile is the present, it's no longer the future. Before Covid, a lot of people would say, "I'm not going to use my phone." But with Covid training everybody to adapt to different things, it's now well adopted. It's the platform to be in and there's a lot of integration that can be done at app level, where it's no longer being supported by PC or other platforms, meaning that a lot of companies outside of travel are also very much invested in the mobile experience.'
'There's a lot to do,' Lou says. 'People say, "Just transfer that feature onto the platform." Oh no. It's about timing, it's about aiming to give [users] the right information at the right time and making it very seamless.'
While our teams always work to provide the highest levels of service on a daily basis and across global teams, we always encourage all individuals to add their own travel experiences into their day-to -day working life, as well as using any particular insights to help shape new advancements and experiences for our customers.
We're certainly looking towards the next five years of Trip.com and as we expand globally, we are looking for those who have a strong passion for travel as much as we do to join our teams around our worldwide offices.
As the travel industry rebounds, we're also seeing different travel trends, including bleisure travel, sustainable options and more. As we work towards further positive and innovative technological improvements to ensure customers can have full access and flexibility on their travel plans post-restrictions, Trip.com also leads the way in pioneering new services across the board.
Trip.com have recently announced our long-term goal of developing green tourism which covers three key areas including: working with partners to launch over 10,000 low-carbon travel products; promoting sustainable travel concepts and engaging 100 million travellers in low-carbon practices, and aiming to further reduce carbon emissions across its own operations. The Company has also been working with suppliers to offer a wide variety of eco-friendly travel products, such as zero waste camping and eco hiking, in order to create a sustainable world of travel.
If you'd like to help shape the future of travel using your own travel passions and experiences, discover our global opportunities here: https://bit.ly/3n2noPo
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Trip.com is an international one-stop travel service provider, available in 24 languages across 39 countries and regions in 31 local currencies and sites. Trip.com has an extensive hotel and flight network consisting of more than 1.2 million hotels and flights from over 480 airlines covering 2,600 airports in 200 countries and regions around the globe. Trip.com's world-class 24/7 multilingual customer service as well as additional centres in Edinburgh , Tokyo and Seoul , help to 'create the best travel experience' for its millions of customers worldwide. To book your next trip, visit trip.com
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