FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Expedia Group unveils scientific approach to innovation

Expedia Group unveils scientific approach to innovation

Expedia Group, a travel platform with a portfolio of travel brands spanning 35 languages in over 75 countries, says it has solutions to some of the everyday challenges that Thai hoteliers face.

Technology is evolving at a rapid rate and the pace of innovation is changing how businesses deliver and meet ever-evolving consumer expectations, it said. As a result, Expedia Group said it witnessed an increasing amount of interaction made by consumers and hoteliers on its platform. In 2017, it said it facilitated over 2.3 billion daily interactions on its global marketplace and made over 22,300 platform enhancements for its hotel partners. This means hotel partners benefited from Expedia Group’s improved products and features every 24 minutes throughout the year, the company said. 
Pimpawee Nopakitgumjorn, director of market management at Expedia Group, said the average user of a smartphone checks it 110 times a day. In Thailand, the younger generation’s addiction to mobiles has prompted Kasetsart University to implement 500-metre-long “mobile users” and “non-mobile users” lanes on its campus. 
“This means every minute that you have with a customer now is worth way more than it used to be. The time that we have in terms of our ability to influence a customer is at a premium like it never has been before,” Nopakitgumjorn added.
“This is why at the heart of our innovation process is partner feedback – understanding and solving for their requirements. By listening to hotel partners who work with us on a daily basis, we are able to best leverage our technology and know-how to build solutions that helps hoteliers solve some of their business challenges.”
The approach requires development of new ideas, testing, observing, evaluating and interrogating to create an improved product in the next version. Every change leads to new insights, which in turn have a decisive influence on the next step, the company said. The aim is to place Expedia Group’s customers and hotel partners at the centre of product development, and tailor solutions to their wishes.

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