Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #39

ASIA / PACIFIC OUTBOUND
SERVICE AS A PILLAR
OF THE VALUE PROPOSITION
Exclusive Interview – James Jianzhang Liang, Co-founder,
Executive Chairman of the Board, Ctrip
WE CONTINUE
TO SEEK NEW
PARTNERSHIPS FOR
OUR 300 MILLION
PLUS REGISTERED
MEMBERS
James
Jianzhang
Liang
Co-founder & Executive
Chairman of the Board, Ctrip
As the travel industry comprises nearly 10% of global GDP, huge
opportunities still lie ahead, with online penetration remaining
relatively low in many pockets of the world. Ctrip is positioned
for not only travel opportunities in China, but also global opportunities,
particularly in the Asia Pacific region. By the same token, Ctrip’s CEO
Jane Sun recently spoke about the fact that travel is a “gateway to
global peace and prosperity”. We asked James Jianzhang Liang, Cofounder,
Executive Chairman of the Board what his thoughts are on this.
Travelling is a natural bridge to different
cultures and races. Day in and day out
our teams work tirelessly to ensure
travel becomes easier and safer through
technologies and services. This is a
passion of ours. Travel is the key to better
understanding, respect and happiness,
which we feel is the foundation to
promoting global peace and bringing
prosperity to all stakeholders.
Over the past months, you have
announced a number of joint ventures
and partnerships. Which of these do
you feel are the most important in
helping Chinese travellers have a
better experience?
We continue to seek new partnerships in
order to ensure and address the needs of
our 300 million plus registered members.
Along with all travel partners, we are
constantly finding ways to boost the
diversity of our travel products and assure
better service, particularly for the growing
Chinese outbound customer-base.
I think there are a lot of areas we can
improve upon to enable better experiences
and services in the indestination category.
We’ve been working with more and more
local partners to enable local services like
attractions, restaurants, trains and car
services, just to name a few. These are all
important links of the travel ecosystem
which would greatly enhance the
customer experience.
The 2017 China Outbound Tourism
Travel Report came up with some very
interesting findings, for example with
regard to Chinese travellers’ concern
for safety. How has Ctrip been able to
leverage this report and consequently
better meet the demands of its
customers?
Service has always been a pillar of our
value proposition to users. Chinese people
travelling overseas require more service
capabilities given language barriers and
cultural differences. This is why over 50%
of our employee-base are in the customer
service unit, providing 24/7 support for
our customers. Calls are answered within
20 seconds to ensure prompt reply and
efficiency. We’ve innovated to make
service even lower friction with our Virtual
Tour Managers (VTM) function. Travellers
visiting certain destinations can join
messenger chat groups that are managed
by group managers who have in-depth
destination knowledge, to provide
instant replies about almost anything our
travellers need. We also have the Global
SOS system which can provide timely
information and travel arrangement
options in emergency situations