 "Lily Cheng")
American travel website TripAdvisor, focused on travel-related content and interactive advisory services, wants to be the top company in that space in India by 2015. For that, it's open to tie-ups with local brands. Lily Cheng, president of its Asia-Pacific region, speaks to Arijit Paladhi on the plans. Edited excerpts from an e-mail interview:
Give us a sense of TripAdvisor's overall growth. How does it match with that of Asia and India?
TripAdvisor has come a long way since the company started in February 2000. Today, we reach 315 million unique monthly visitors, according to Google Analytics (Q3 of 2014), up 20 per cent over a year. Asia represents one of our fastest growing markets for TripAdvisor and within Asia, India is a promising market.
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The growth of India's online travel market is tied to the country's internet growth story. Since our launch, we have become one of India's top five online travel sites consistently. Our success in India is in part attributed to the strong content contribution from Indian users, making the site more locally relevant. In India, we've seen a 36 per cent year-on-year (yoy) increase in reviews from Indian travellers.
What areas do you plan to focus on to increase growth?
In the next 15 years, there will be a billion new travellers emerging from the Asia-Pacific markets. To enhance our user base, we'll continue to grow our travel content and community, partner with leading travel players, as well as create innovations in our products and platform to make our site more valuable for travellers. We're also very focused on mobile, with nearly half our users researching travel on mobile devices.
Are any prominent travel trends emerging from the Asia market?
Travellers are becoming increasingly reliant on review sites to plan their trips - for recommendations, see pictures and videos of where they are going, and find inspiration for what to do and see while there. What's perhaps less known is that travellers are still in planning mode when they are in destination.
What are some of the prominent outbound trends from China and India? What are the differences and similarities?
According to a joint TripAdvisor-Boston Consulting Group travel and tourism report, by 2030, more than 50 per cent of the growth in global traffic will come from Asia-Pacific, and travellers from China will account for around 40 per cent of Asian outbound travellers. The report shows by 2030, Chinese urban travellers will take 1.7 billion domestic and outbound trips annually, up from 500 million today, spending $1.8 trillion on travel and tourism-nearly seven times their current expenditures. China's outbound leisure market will grow the fastest, with its travel and tourism spending increasing by 15 per cent yoy between now and 2030.
In India, the global economic slowdown and a weakening rupee have been major impediments for the country's outbound travel, especially to long-haul destinations. The Indian outbound travel market is relatively smaller in comparison to the Chinese one but, going by the huge potential that the Indian market represents and the pace at which it is growing, India is expected to emerge as one of the key sources of outbound traffic in the coming years.
What are your plans for the Indian travel market?
According to a recent PhoCusWright survey, while air and rail remain the biggest online segments, lodging, at 23 per cent yoy, was the fastest growing online travel segment in 2013. The growth of India's online market is tied to the country's internet growth story. In addition to working with leading local travel players providing our vast content to their audiences, we've also partnered with local suppliers and online travel agencies (OTAs).
Going forward, we intend to capture the growth opportunity in India's online travel sector, given the shift from offline to online hotel booking, as well as that vast opportunity that mobile presents. In 2015, we will continue to pursue our goal in becoming the number one travel site in India.
TripAdvisor recently integrated Uber into its mobile application in some countries. What was the idea?
Yes, we announced it in August and the feature allows travellers to easily reserve a ride with Uber. Our partnership with Uber helps travellers to conveniently find a ride to their destination in cities around the world, making our app an even more powerful travel-planning resource for millions.
Where else are you planning to introduce this? Are you in touch with any online cab service provider for integration into your mobile platform in India?
We're not in touch with any online cab service providers in India at this point in time. However, we're always on the lookout for leading brands we can partner with, to help our travellers plan and have a perfect trip.
TripAdvisor recently acquired Viator, which offers curated content and views about individual experiences. That is a step away from TripAdvisor's model, which involves all views allowed, without most being curated. Is this a conscious step of things to follow at TripAdvisor?
We are investing more resources in delivering more value to users through all phases of travel planning and trip taking. Travellers want to explore local attractions while on a trip, and Viator's depth and breadth in global attractions, combined with their booking experience, will provide immediate benefit to our community.
How do you see mobile apps shaping the future of OTAs?
The shift towards mobile channels is a global phenomenon, representing unprecedented opportunities for businesses looking to capture travellers at every stage of the travel journey.
