By collaborating with some of the most innovative brands in the travel tech space, Trip.com Group continues to future-proof our offering for our customers, and deliver what’s next, now.
As a tech-forward company, we look to innovative digital solutions to benefit customers through better pricing, an enhanced user journey and wider product selection. To do this, we believe in utilising positive partnerships with innovative tech brands to drive our mutual success. We help partners tap into our successful marketing channels and vast diverse customer base, while they elevate and enhance our exceptional product offering. Trip.com Group’s engaged international brands and teams are pioneers in the market, staying ahead of the curve to identify potential businesses that will complement our tech-centric, app-first approach. The tech-based solutions that have been created through these vital partnerships provide clear benefits to our customers in a rapidly changing world.
With a commitment to collaboration at our heart, we recognise how such partnerships help us flourish and remain front of mind in an increasingly complex and highly competitive market. Below, we celebrate our recent tech-focused alliances and explain how they have driven Trip.com Group into the 21st century.
Creating tailored insured products with AXA to satisfy customer needs
Trip.com Group’s strategic partnership with AXA started seven years ago in China, with the goal of using the latest technology to create insurance products adapted to suit specific market conditions that appeal to the international customer. With launches in South Korea in 2018, Singapore in 2020 and the UK in 2021, the partnership launched innovative new travel insurance products, tailored to the French and German markets, in May 2022.
The two new insurance solutions provide a range of benefits including medical, cancellation and baggage cover, and can be selected when booking a flight on Trip.com. With many travellers seeking added reassurance before booking their next trip, the cancellation-only Basic insurance solution has proven especially popular in mainland Europe, as it includes coverage if trips are cancelled due to COVID-19. Alternatively, the Travel Plus medical insurance policy, made available to UK customers in September 2021, crucially protects customers against cancellation and medical costs if they contract COVID-19.
Andy Washington, Trip.com Group’s General Manager for Europe, said, “Working with AXA was the perfect partnership, thanks to the highly collaborative way in which we worked, designing solutions that respond to usersʼ needs and presenting them in a user-friendly, easy-to-book way on the Trip.com platform.”
To further enrich this winning partnership, AXA Partners and Trip.com Group are designing protection solutions beyond air transport, and expanding their partnership to new markets, including Italy and Spain, later this year.
Partnering with Hopper to Launch Price Freeze on Trip.com’s US and European sites
With so much change occurring in the travel market over the past year, price volatility has been a huge concern for consumers, especially when it comes to booking their next getaway. To provide customers with renewed confidence they seek, Trip.com Group began partnering with Hopper Cloud, a unique travel fintech platform, on the Price Freeze initiative in December 2021.
As demand for travel increases and jet fuel prices continue to rise, Hopper expects a surge in domestic and international airfares in line with these economically tighter market conditions. Price Freeze protects customers from price volatility by allowing them to freeze a price for 14 days by paying a small upfront fee. This gives customers the ability to lock in a price, while also offering time to check and finalise plans with their travel companions before making their booking.
If a Trip.com user freezes a flight and prices go up, Trip.com Group covers the difference, up to a set amount. If the price goes down after the user freezes, they pay that new lower price. Powered by Hopper’s B2B initiative, Hopper Cloud, Price Freeze ensures that Trip.com customers always get the best deal and don’t get stung by rising prices.
“Travel is rebounding and as international borders continue to open, we’ll inevitably see prices increase to match demand," said Yudong Tan, CEO of Trip.com Group’s Flight Business Group. “At Trip.com Group, we are constantly seeking out ways to bring benefits to travellers. With this new Price Freeze feature, powered by Hopper, we are giving our customers more ways to save money when they book flights.”
“Travel fintech has the potential to generate $200 billion in customer spend annually,” said Fred Lalonde, CEO and co-founder of Hopper. “These products have the ability to generate incremental revenue for brands, while offering customers the flexibility and transparency they want from the travel industry. ”
A customer-focused update that’s the product of a fruitful collaboration, Price Freeze is available on Trip.com’s European and North American sites, and is accessible via our app, on mobile browser and desktop.
Redeam and Tiqets Collaboration to Provide Trip.com and Ctrip Users with Enhanced Tours and Activities offering
Though holidays are frequently about rest and relaxation, these days many travellers also want to maximise their time in a destination and experience the best of what it has to offer. As a result, Trip.com Group partnered with Redeam, a leading Channel Manager and Things To Do connectivity tech platform, and Tiqets, a leading online booking platform for cultural and leisure experiences.
Tour, attraction and activity operators rely on Redeam to easily automate their businesses so they can sell more tickets around the world. By partnering harmoniously with Trip.com Group, Redeam’s supplier partners’ products have been made available to Trip.com’s users, allowing them to create their perfect trip.
By partnering with top experiences platform Tiqets, Trip.com and Ctrip users will get access to the best experiences at over 4,000 museums and attractions around the world, expanding the product coverage in key growth markets for the Group.
Chang Liu, General Manager of Attractions International Business, Trip.com Group commented, “We are excited to be working with new partners to expand our global network of attraction suppliers and enhance our booking efficiency. Through our tech-first approach, these partnerships enable Trip.com and Ctrip to better connect partners and travellers around the world, providing more diverse products to our audience and opening new channels for providers.”
Trip.com Group and Iberia join forces with a new solution to optimize NDC sales
A new shopping engine solution devised by Trip.com Group in partnership with Spanish carrier, Iberia, has turbo-charged the airline’s ticket sales through New Distribution Capability (NDC). The new and innovative approach to enhancing its NDC sales channels has seen sales with Iberia soar by an incredible 4,000% compared to the same period last year, generating more than 31,000 flight segments and more than €2.4 million.
The new partnership showcases the Trip.com Group's commitment to working collaboratively with airlines to ensure a mutually beneficial partnership in the NDC space. The new shopping engine solution, launched by Trip.com Group, allows “look to book ratios” to be reduced from 10,000:1 to 30:1, thereby drastically reducing search costs for Iberia, as well as dramatically improving the display of all the branded fares, and their terms and conditions, offered by Iberia.
Customers also benefit from much shorter search response times, which have gone from five seconds to mere milliseconds when looking for Iberia flight content.
Henk Van der Velde, Regional Director Southern Europe of Flight Business Unit at Trip.com, said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with Iberia on the NDC program, implementing new solutions like the shopping engine which is bringing excellent results. I am looking forward to working with them going into 2022 as our roadmap brings new features and improvements within the NDC channel. Iberia and IAG are investing into NDC solutions and we are excited to be partners on this journey.”
With so many effective tech partnerships spearheaded over the last six months, and many more in the pipeline, Trip.com Group continues to cooperate with inventive brands to pioneer in the travel space and deliver the best possible experience for its customers.