Good staff and better service

China’s travel suppliers face similar issues as their counterparts in the rest of Asia – the lack of quality talent and the need to improve service quality across the entire value chain. When Fan Min, CEO of Ctrip (below), was asked by WIT what was the one thing that concerned him the most, he cited staff and service quality. 

All down to great teams

Great teams are the reason why the local OTAs in Asia are such a success, said Brett Henry, vice president marketing of Abacus International, citing MakeMyTrip, Ctrip and Rakuten Travel as examples. “There’s no real secret, they are all run by great teams, that’s why they win market share.”

Call centres work in Japan

In Japan, 24% of Expedia’s business comes through the call centres and that has a 60% conversion rate. It makes sense to invest in call centres in Japan, said Peter Lee, director of market management for North Asia, Expedia Asia Pacific.

Rakuten Travel wants to grow offshore revenues 

Up to 99% of bookings for Rakuten Travel still come from Japan and the company is determined to increase its offshore business to 50% in 10-15 years, said Hideaki Yokomizo of the International Business Division of Rakuten Travel. “We definitely want to expand to Asia, it’s an area we can leverage our hotel inventory in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.”

Parental ties help Rakuten

Rakuten Travel hopes to ride on the coat-tails of its parent as it expands. Rakuten has signed a joint venture with Baidu, China’s largest search company, to set up an online shopping mall. “This is a huge thing for us, we can leverage their presence,” said Hideaki Yokomizo.

It’s not all about price

Only 30% of the clicks generated through Qunar are about the lowest price. China is the second largest market in the world for luxury products, said Fritz Demopoulous, CEO of the largest Chinese meta search travel site. “The key challenge is how do you segment the market? The reason for the proliferation of travel brands is different customer interests are emerging.”

Content beyond price

About 80% of Qunar’s users are leisure travellers. And leisure travellers want content – content that’s not just about price but hotel reviews, location, map features, videos, said Fritz Demopoulous, CEO of Qunar.

 Featured image credit (3D forbidden symbol with dollar sign): Ockra/iStock