Expedia Corporate Travel today announced plans to launch its first Asia/Pacific point-of-sale service in China, which is expected to go live in the next month.
With the announcement, ECT becomes the first online travel management company with local fulfillment services in mainland China, serving Greater China, and the second online TMC to enter the Asia/Pacific market. In October, Travelocity for Business announced its launch of service would begin this month
(BTNonline, Oct. 22).
"The real focus for Expedia Corporate Travel in China is to serve subsidiaries of our large global accounts," Pamela Keenan Fritz, ECT vice president of Asia/Pacific and global partnerships, told
Business Travel News. She said 50 percent of ECT's largest global clients have operations in China. "The driver for the business has been to serve consistently in as many markets as possible those large global clients that we have. This is something we have been discussing with our clients for many months, working with them to develop the kind of service offering that we need to be consistent in our standards."
While ECT is not initially going after China-based corporations, Keenan Fritz said the move into China strengthens Expedia's existing relationships with its largest customers and enables the travel management company to pursue multinational businesses that need Chinese fulfillment services.
Local fulfillment and support services will be handled through Chinese online travel agency ELong, in which Expedia Inc. has a 52 percent ownership stake. The in-country call center is staffed with bilingual agents who speak both Mandarin and English, and settlement is in local currency. Keenan Fritz, who now leads the company's Asia/Pacific operations, would not disclose the expected size of ECT's staff in the region, but said there are dedicated sales and account management teams headquartered in Shanghai.
The company will leverage ELong's relationship with the TravelSky global distribution system. In addition, through the ELong partnership, ECT clients have access to more than 4,700 hotels in more than 330 cities in China and flight options to more than 70 cities in the country.
Keenan Fritz would not disclose plans for the launch of additional point-of-sale services, but said there will be "more announcements next year. We very much have plans to continue our expansion both in Asia/Pacific and other parts of the globe. This is a long-term strategy for us to examine where our customers are doing business, where they have local operations and extend our footprint so that we can offer our customers one travel management relationship across all of their business."