In 2020, with the impact of the pandemic continuing to be felt across the travel industry, Trip.com Group began expanding its content offering, and upgraded this approach in March 2021 with the launch of its content marketing strategy. It focused on increasing and enhancing engagement between travellers and partners inspiring user travel. Largely centred on the sub-brand Ctrip platform to date, the content pivot has informed a Group-wide approach that also been implemented on the Group’s Trip.com platform.
In a keynote presentation at the Global Partner Summit, Bo Sun, CMO of Trip.com Group, shared with the audience that the two key pillars of user growth and traffic growth have guided the strong performance of the Group’s content marketing push. Over the past year, the amount of content traffic on Ctrip has doubled, with a 100% increase in the total amount of published content and a 200% year-on-year increase in the number of signed traveller content creators on the platform.
Commenting on the rich content ecosystem developed on the platform, Sun said “The comprehensive marketing toolkit available on our Ctrip platform empowers partners to achieve more with their offering. By better connecting products and partners we are optimizing user engagement, inspiring more travellers and generating increased traffic.” This year, Ctrip content accumulated over 220 million user views with 35% of unique users regularly browsing content hosted on the platform. In addition to the vast exposure generated for partners, up to 30% of users placed an order within one month of viewing content.
Core to this strategy has been the building out of marketing products, tools and channels to empower partners to increase traffic and drive sales. Ctrip’s livestreaming platform has hosted over 3,000 partners who have presented over 10,000 livestream sessions showcasing their products and promotions. To further generate engagement, Ctrip rolled out a series of campaign days that spotlight specific partner destinations, brands, offers and more to boost brand and product recognition as well as sales.
Sun, who announced the launch of Star Hub in May, shared the benefits seen by the over 260 destination, hotel and attraction partners who have established their own Star Hub channels. Star Hub channels are dedicated partner channels where partners can share products, promotions, host content and engage directly with users. Evidencing the advantages Star Hub channels can bring, the Trip.com Group CMO noted that a user who follows a partner Star Hub channel has a 20% higher repurchase rate and is 300% more likely to visit the channel than a non-follower user.
At the Summit, Sun concluded by acknowledging the fruitful results Trip.com Group’s content marketing strategy has achieved whilst faced with the uncertainty of the global travel market, and that the Group will continue to build out the marketing toolkit available to partners in 2022.
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