Trip.com Bolsters Flight Search Engine to Boost European Bookings
Photo Caption: Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, delivering her keynote presentation to partners at the Global Partner Summit. Source: Trip.com Group.
Skift Take
Western companies such as Hopper and Amadeus are lining up to sell enterprise tech solutions to Trip.com Group. That's because the Chinese travel powerhouse is in a shopping mood. It sees back-end technology as critical for making further market share gains in Europe.
When Trip.com Group released its financial numbers on Thursday, analysts understandably focused on details about consumer buying patterns and forecasts about border restrictions lifting, the company's partnerships with destination marketing organizations, and management forecasts for revenue and profit.
But for European airline executives, an equally interesting story has been how the online travel conglomerate has been using its technology stack, particularly its flight search engine, to become a worthwhile channel for distributing tickets and ancillary products, such as extra legroom.
"Our flight search engine is completely designed and implemented in-house," said Yudong Tan, CEO of the Flight Business Group, Trip.com Group, in an interview. "It has been at the core of our competitiveness in our flight business at Ctrip and Trip.com."
Trip.com's market share in the European market has increased by nearly five times since the start of the year, Tan told attendees at a company event in Macau earlier this month.
In the second quarter, Trip.com registered double-digit growth in overseas new registered users in Europe compared with the first quarter, Tan said. These European performance figures were for Trip.com, the group's international online agency brand, and
