Travel company Trip.com to promote a friendly China to the world

Trip.com, previously known as C-trip.com, is working on promoting a friendly China image to the world, and emphasizing on building a sustainable tourism ecosystem, Jane Sun, CEO of the Trip.com Group told the New Economy Forum on Wednesday. 

Speaking of the re-branding, Sun said C-trip started with the domestic market, serving Chinese people traveling within China.

But with the per capita GDP increasing, “a lot of people are going abroad and then gradually we realize we can also attract customers from outside of China to China,” so the “C” in the company name, standing for China, was removed. 

Promoting a friendly China image to get more overseas travelers

Sun noted traveling in China during non-peak time, such as outside the Golden Week, is attractive and more economical for overseas visitors. 

Sun said overseas tourists “don’t have to pay premium prices to book accommodation, and it’s also wonderful for hotels because that will give them a little bit more volume during the slow season, which is win-win.”

She also pointed out that some people may lack understandings of today’s China, “I think China in a way is not very well understood by the world. Lots of people who see China through movies, they know panda and kungfu, but they don’t really know the new China.”

She continued, “I think the new China is very dynamic, and young people are very innovative. Chinese people overall are very friendly. So we want to have a slogan called friendly China and promote the image of friendly China to the world. So I think it’s very good for the world to know China better and also it’s very good for China to host foreign friends, so we forge a close partnership between China and the rest of the world.”

Focus on ‘4R’ initiative to build a sustainable ecosystem for tourism

Trip.com joined the founding of Travalyst, led by UK Prince Harry, in September, with the ambition to change the ecological impact of travel, for good. Echoing this, Trip.com later set up its own version of standards, called “4R”, to call for their partners to work together to promote sustainable traveling.

“Our belief is that we need to build an eco-system that is sustainable. So Trip.com has set up the ‘4R’ initiative – reduce, reuse, recycle waste products and regenerate lives including plants, marine animals, protection of other animals all around the world. I think it’s a good initiative for global travelers to be aware of,” Sun said.

Source: CGTN                                                              Update: November 23, 2019