Skift Take
The pandemic rapidly sped up a trend in livestreams. But the early success of Trip.com Group's and Alibaba Group's Fliggy webcasts marketing travel suggests that the phenomenon is here to stay.
Livestreaming has been around for years, but only a few travel companies and organizations have embraced it with vigor and generated significant bookings.
A rare travel success story is Trip.com Group, China's largest travel company. Its co-founder and chairman of the board, James Jianzhang Liang, has done more than 25 weekly live streams since March. Liang's webcasts have sold $294 million of travel packages and hotel room reservations.
Many travel companies worldwide have done live streams this year, especially experiences operators and museums. But some have done a better job of building awareness or making money than others, as we heard from several speakers during Skift Forum Asia earlier this month.
Livestreaming may not be the fad that some people assume it is. Consider that China has seen a notable rebound, though not complete recovery, in its domestic tourism. Yet the relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions didn't stop the popularity of livestreams. Trip.com Group reports that viewership and bookings have continued to grow over time rather than the opposite. That fact suggests that the livestreaming trend m
