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The international consumer's appetite for travel is pre-covid high again. Ticket prices may drop. Travix COO Casper Maasdam is getting the organization ready, under a new mother, to fill the demand.

That sounds easy, but Cheaptickets' parent company has had a tumultuous few years. In terms of both organization and technology, it is straightening its back and getting everything ready to serve travelers in 35 countries.

In the middle of the corona period, the first big change began. Trip.com acquired Travix from BCD Travel to expand its international travel business. "We went from a small OTA," jargon for online travel agency, "to part of a large Asian company. Trip.com also does accommodations and rail travel in its own markets."

There is no mention of the latter yet at Travix, according to Casper Maasdam. Train travel as a travel mode is only on the agenda at the group level. "There is of course a strong demand for sustainability. It's a social trend that is also playing with us. The challenge is that it is at odds with air travel."

Another trend this year: further growth in air transportation. "In 2023, you saw building capacity of aviation because there was a shortage of people and machines. That will only grow this year. Consumers' appetite for travel is high. There is a lot of demand and limited supply in terms of capacity. So that means, ticket prices are going up."

Internally, the focus is on the organization and partners. Maasdam's organization still has a corona wound. "We are not yet at the old strength in terms of employees. This year I want to get the organization to full strength. And in terms of operations, we need to focus well on the right ratio of direct to meta traffic in 35 countries." That means as much as: keeping a healthy mix between direct traffic to its booking platforms and purchased traffic from general and meta search engines, for example.

This game listens closely, as Travix also competes with its traffic partners. Meta searchers such as Skyscanner and Kayak are active on the consumer market under their own names and deliver customers to Cheaptickets. The latter prefers to have those customers directly on its own platform, but again cannot do without the large volumes from those third parties.

"We need to establish relationships between the airlines and our agent role to customers and future-proof ourselves. That means constantly offering relevance to what your customer is looking for. Then you have to add value, because the competitor wants that same customer. Trip.com offers room for local business with local knowledge."

In terms of technology, the integration with the new parent is not yet complete. The companies mainly work together behind the scenes, in the backend. "That's an ongoing, strategic project that we hope to complete this year. It involves moving our technical backend to that of Trip.com."

To keep cloud costs manageable, group solutions are being looked at. Late last year, the travel group signed a contract with Amazon Web Services to outsource IT services to and, of course, co-develop AI applications.

Travix operates internationally with the brands CheapTickets, Vliegwinkel, BudgetAir, Flugladen and Vayama. Maasdam has been COO at this group since May 2023. Six months before that, Chee Teong Ooi was appointed CEO, an internal promotion.

In January 2024, Mira van Houwelingen was appointed chief marketing officer. She comes from Getir. The new CMO will begin positioning Cheaptickets more firmly in the Benelux market.

© The Content Exchange, source News