Ctrip is less than 20 years old, about the same age as the most established low-cost airlines. And its effect on the world has been at least as revolutionary.
Chinese-based Ctrip sounds like any Western travel agency — it does booking and ticketing, it's a leisure firm and a corporate travel management company. It's different though inasmuch as while many agencies are struggling to demonstrate value and make any profit, Ctrip has grown by leaps and bounds. It grows by so much as so quickly that it is difficult to capitalise it accurately but it is worth many billions — whether that is pounds, dollars or yuan.
And corporate travel managers could pick up some tips by watching how this company recognises and understands changing behaviour and the changing means, namely technology and mobile.
Ctrip has purchased Skyscanner and attracted investment from Priceline, which counts Booking.com and Kayak in its stable, and it could run masterclasses in how to be successful in travel.
It developed the slogan "Travel anywhere, anytime with Ctrip" in recognition of people increasingly taking advantage of smart devices to do things while on the move which had previously been done on desktops.
In an interview conducted during last week's China Connect conference in Paris Kevin Guo, general manager strategic cooperation & marketing innovation, gives some clues about where the travel industry is heading. According to Guo, "Over 70% of Ctrip bookings are done by mobile."
He continues, "Ctrip started with PC-based products, and when mobile was becoming more important, we built all our product, business and sales strategies around mobile. Nowadays we first develop a product for mobile then transfer it to the PC if needed. I believe PCs are in decline and will be replaced in the long term."
The need for travel managers, like travel agencies/TMCs, has been around for a long time. Like TMCs what people want from travel managers is regularly — and rapidly — changing. And that is because behaviour is changing. More and more of the transactional aspects of travel management have become automated and are undertaken more often by corporate travellers on the move than travel managers at base.
Just as Ctrip offers Skyscanner and Kayak to consumers. TMCs and corporate travel managers can offer shopping and booking channels to their travellers which can compare what's on offer from different suppliers. And they can offer it in a process which makes it easy for them to use.
This frees up travel managers to find better solutions for what their businesses want from travel whether that be more efficient processes, faster and more comprehensive and accurate data or lower costs.
Can those solutions be found in how travellers are changing their tools and changing their behaviour?