Trip.com scales up outside China to capture post-pandemic travel rebound

TRAVEL portal Trip.com continues to expand beyond its roots in China, seeking customers and increasing headcount in other markets, including its international headquarters in Singapore.

The post-pandemic rebound in travel was the catalyst for its current expansion, with an increase in travel offerings too, said Edmund Ong, general manager of Trip.com Singapore, in an interview with The Business Times.

“When global travel began to recover in 2022 and 2023, we started to rapidly expand our teams to meet these business needs,” he said.

Trip.com is one of four online travel and hotel booking services under China’s Trip.com Group. The others are Ctrip and Qunar, which serve the Chinese domestic market, as well as flight aggregator Skyscanner.

Trip.com Singapore’s headcount now stands at 66 and is set to reach 80 by year-end, up from 40 in early 2023. Hiring has mainly taken place across three of its business units – flights, hotels and corporate travel management platform Trip.Biz.

The company has also increased headcount across Asia-Pacific offices in South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia, as well as in Europe.

This expansion is part of Trip.com’s efforts to establish itself as a “truly global” online travel agency, said Ong.

The group’s origins lie in one-stop travel service provider Ctrip, founded in Shanghai in 1999. The first Ctrip office outside mainland China was established in Hong Kong in 2003, followed by another in Singapore in 2014.

But Ctrip only began an active push towards globalisation in 2017, when it acquired US travel booking platform Trip.com. The parent company was then rebranded to Trip.com Group, for the international market. (*see amendment note)

Riding the recovery

More recently, the post-pandemic recovery of global travel has spurred Trip.com to increase its headcount across Asia.

For the first quarter of 2024, Trip.com Group posted net revenue of 11.9 billion yuan (S$2.3 billion) across all its companies, up 29 per cent from the same period the year before. 

Revenue from the Trip.com platform alone grew by over 80 per cent, though its share to total group revenue was not disclosed.

For Q1 2024, Trip.com Singapore saw a 120 per cent growth in gross merchandise value for outbound flight bookings, compared to Q1 2023.

Here, the company aims to capitalise on its roots, as Singapore residents have shown strong interest in visiting China post-pandemic, said Ong.

After being largely closed to foreign tourists since March 2020, China resumed group tours in February 2023, then restored its 15-day visa-free travel policy for visitors from Singapore that July.

In 2023, bookings by Singapore users on Trip.com for all mainland China-related products – such as hotels, flights and attractions – were nearly 30 times that of 2022 levels, and up 49 per cent compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

As Ong sees it, Trip.com has a clear advantage over other competitors when it comes to China-related travel offerings, due to its origins.

The Trip.com Singapore website recently launched a campaign to promote China as a tourist destination, offering discounts on flights, hotels, tours and homestay experiences for more “unexplored” cities such as Xiamen and Quanzhou.

“Capital cities like Beijing and Shanghai are still popular, but more people are branching out to other places within China,” said Ong, citing Qingdao, Harbin and Inner Mongolia as up-and-coming destinations.

Playing catch-up

Even as it maintains an edge in China-related offerings, Trip.com seeks to reach more international users. But it is up against established global competitors such as Agoda, Expedia and Booking.com.

The company lags behind its competitors in getting international users, said Ong.

This is because it took time to reconfigure Trip.com’s software for international users, he said. This includes developing versions of its app – originally available in Mandarin only – in multiple languages including English, as well as localising it for different markets.

A key channel for gaining users in the region, especially Singapore, will be corporate travel management platform Trip.Biz, said Ong.

He expects corporate travel demand to grow in the Republic, as it continues to attract multinational companies to set up their regional headquarters.

Trip.Biz was launched in 2006 for corporates in China, and only became available to international users in 2017. This year, a new and improved app was launched to enable corporate travellers to make travel arrangements more seamlessly.

*Amendment note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the parent company was rebranded to the Trip.com platform, when it should be Trip.com Group.