Trip.com Says Platforms Like TikTok Will Have Difficulty Challenging OTAs – PhocusWire

Trip.com Group believes content providers such as Douyin, the TikTok for China, will find it difficult to replicate the online travel agency experience.

The company’s chief executive Jan Sun, who was asked about the competitive landscape in the country and different booking formats from content providers, said they have a “different core competence compared to the OTAs in general.”

She was speaking during the China-based OTA’s second quarter earnings call and added: “And they primarily focusing on providing inspirations whereas OTAs will prioritize transactions and service fulfilment. Through the robust supplier chain management and high-quality customer service, we are able to offer the competitive products, smooth booking experience, personalized and reliable travel services, which all these factors is critical success factors to provide travel-related services. And I think for the content platform, they will find it’s very difficult to replicate. And at the same time, we will continue to invest in our own content strategy, helping users to find inspirations and make well-informed decisions.”

Douyin began testing calendar-based hotel search earlier this year bridging the gap between content and transactions.

Reporting on the second quarter of 2023, the company said domestic and international demand held up.

Despite the air capacity constraints the China-based online travel agency reported net revenue of $1.6 billion, up 180% year-over-year and up 22% on Q1 of 2023.

During the analysts call Sun said average international flight capacity had returned to about 38% of pre-pandemic levels. They are expected to recover to up to 65% of 2019 levels in the second half of the year.

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