Train bookings on Trip.com Group, have skyrocketed not only for travel in Europe – where the European Union is targeting climate-neutrality by 2050 – but also in Asia where more travellers want “to pursue the perfect trip for a sustainable future”.
Dennis Li, CEO of International Train Ticket, Trip.com Group, told TTG Asia: “We have a global customer profile and 50 per cent of them are under 35.”
Li added that sustainable travel as a concept and practice across the globe “had moved from the back of travellers’ minds to a dominant position in the decision-making process”.
“More than 16 million people have chosen sustainable travel options, with Gen Z exhibiting the highest preference for sustainable products, including travelling by trains compared to other age groups.
“We launched PalGreen Energy on Trainpal at the end of 2021. This feature allows users to view the carbon emissions they reduce when travelling by rail on our platforms. Since the launch, we have encouraged more than five million travellers to travel by train, collectively reducing over 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.”
Li shared that Trip.com recently joined the Science Based Targets initiative and is the first travel company in Asia-Pacific to commit to an ambitious corporate climate action.
One year since green tourism goals were launched at Trip.com, sustainable travel products have been incorporated into multiple business lines, including trains, flights, car rentals and business travel.
Meanwhile, “split ticketing” in the UK has become one of the “best-received features”, Li noted.
“We are the first company to launch this feature in Europe,” he continued, which allows passengers to save money by splitting their train journey into two or more tickets without the need to change trains.
“Alternatively, it can create new transfer routes to reach the intended destination for even higher savings for budget travellers. In practice, the feature can help a user save up to 95 per cent of the ticket costs, with an average saving of 20 per cent.”
He said: “It is very popular among our users, and 39 per cent of all tickets we issue are split tickets. We plan to further optimise this feature by covering more routes, improving split ticket monitoring. We are also going to be the first platform extending split ticketing to UK seasonal tickets.”
Launched in 2017, Trip.com Group’s “ticket snapping” service is another innovation for passengers using Ctrip’s WeChat mini programme to greatly improve their chances of getting a ticket by placing them on a prioritised waiting list to “snap” a ticket as soon as any inventory becomes available again.
