The Big Data trend is no exception when it comes to the largest outbound market in the world - China.
Chinese travel brands are heavily involved in data crunching to make sense of data, personalize website customer experience, predict traveller needs and generate revenue as well.
Qyer is a China-based content-driven travel community that helps travellers in their travel decision making process.
The company has identified a number of travel patterns among its users who plan their trips on the site. It has used these patterns to help users plan their travel better and predict what travel products a traveller might need in the future (predictive analytics).
For example:
- Among the 59% of Qyer users who travelled to Bangkok, 49% took a flight, 9% travelled by train, and rest took a bus. After visiting Bangkok, 42% of this group went to Phuket too. Qyer identifies patterns like these and tries to serve the group travellers with various travel services.
- In 2010, Iran attracted a number of negative reviews/comments in Qyer. But, in 2012, Iran started receiving positive comments in Qyer and suddenly there was an urge among Chinese travellers to visit the destinatio. When Qyer identified this pattern, Malaysia Airlines approached it to promote its flight service to Qyer users. Then, the airline launched a discounted package product exclusively for Qyer users.
Qyer is also working on personalizing the trip planning experience for its users. By tracking user browsing pattern on the site and analyzing its other past data, the company sends customized newsletters to its community, this activity has increased conversion by more than 20%.
Alibaba investment
In July 2013, Alibabainvested in Qyer to complement its Taobao Travel platform to create a "one-stop shop" for Chinese travellers to plan and buy travel products.
Alibaba's Taobao Travel is working on a solution to get a 360 degree view of its users by understanding the users browsing and purchase pattern from the Taobao platform (non-travel) too.
Taobao Travel uses the 360 degree customer data in scenarios where it has to select a priority list of customers to refund ticket cancellation money immediately. Interesting to note that in an effort to increase customer satisfaction, Taobao Travel is working on a solution to immediately refund cancellation money to a user account, and later it will collect the refund money from the bank.