Chinese travel giant interested in Portugal

A managing director of the trip.com group, one of the world’s largest travel agencies, pointed out this Friday that the Chinese company is “benefiting a lot” from the global tourism recovery and wants to expand to Portugal.

“As trip.com started working with the global market five years ago, even though [Covid-19] had an impact on the business and some impact on the domestic market in China (…), we are benefiting a lot in terms of global recovery abroad, because you travel freely right now in many countries,” said Edison Chen, trip.com’s general manager of destination marketing during a group conference taking place in the territory.

Due to the global upturn in the industry, Chen pointed out that the travel company’s business has “expanded quite fast” due to the global upturn in the industry.

Edison Chen noted that “Portugal is one of the target markets” for the group and destination it is “trying to expand into”.

“We want to provide services and products to serve outbound tourists from Portugal, and of course, we also want to reach out to Portugal and tourism organisations to bring more tourists to Portugal,” he continued.

At a time when the world has reopened its borders, China maintains a ‘zero covid’ policy, with forced confinements and mandatory quarantines.

Edison Chen defended the Chinese strategy, despite “the major impact it has had on tourism”.

“I believe that whatever the policy is, that is the best solution given China’s overall environment,” he said.

Chen also noted that with the relaxation of anti-pandemic measures, such as the easing of quarantine, now set at five days, “there are more international flights, compared to two years ago, flights are fuller, and prices are becoming friendlier.”

Regarding Macau, which also follows the ‘zero covid’ policy, the trip.com Group managing director stressed that in recent years, the administrative region had maintained a “not very stable” anti-covid policy, making it “a very unpopular destination” among the Chinese population.

“It is a good policy to ensure safe travel,” he stressed.

He reminded, “From November this year, the issuance of electronic visas within China to visit Macau has resumed, and there has been an increase in the number of international flights from within China to Macau.”

The trip.com Group, the owner of online travel companies such as Skyscanner, Trip.com, Qunar, and Ctrip, held a conference in Macau for the second consecutive year – Trip.com Group 2022 Global Partner Summit – with partners from the sector, where the recovery of tourism on a global scale was discussed.