Guillem Gisbert (Trip.com): "FITUR is a time to set goals and strengthen our commercial ties"

What services does Trip.com offer? 

Trip.com is one of the most comprehensive travel platforms, offering users the ability to easily book flights, accommodation, train tickets, rental cars, attraction tickets and much more. Our platform is designed to help users at every stage of their journey, from initial inspiration and planning through to booking, with ongoing support throughout.

We are more than a booking website: we are a global travel partner with a strong local presence. Artificial intelligence is an essential part of our technology and allows us to offer a personalised experience. Whether it's to find ideas, organise a detailed itinerary or receive assistance during the trip, our platform adapts to users to offer them just what they need, when they need it.

Trip.com is available in 24 languages, 39 countries and regions, and accepts payment in 35 currencies. Through our platform, it is possible to book more than 1.7 million accommodation options, flights with over 600 airlines, a growing range of train tickets and car rentals, and thousands of attractions worldwide. And all from the same app.

In Spain, where we have been operating for eight years now, we have experienced a remarkable growth. It is one of our five priority markets in Europe and has great potential for both international and domestic travel.

What other benefits does the company bring to customers and the tourism industry? 

We use artificial intelligence and data analytics to make the booking experience easier and more personalised. We offer hotel and flight recommendations tailored to each user, as well as real-time information and itineraries based on their interests and behaviour. Our most popular features include TripGenie, our AI-powered travel assistant that inspires and helps you make decisions; Trip Moments, a social forum with user-generated content; Trip.Best, hand-picked lists of recommendations; and Trip.Events, which allows you to book personalised experiences for live events.  

Flexibility is another of our pillars. Whether it's with options like free cancellation or tools like FlexiBook to facilitate the exchange and refund process, we enable users to plan their trips with confidence. And when things don't go according to plan, our multilingual customer service, including Spanish-speaking teams, ensures speedy assistance from real people. Most calls are answered in less than 30 seconds.

For our partners, Trip.com is not just a distribution channel, but a strategic growth platform. We connect international travellers, particularly from high-value markets in Asia-Pacific, with partners across Europe and, in particular, Spain. We help hotels, transport providers and destinations attract demand through intelligent real-time data and information tools that enable competitive benchmarking, dynamic pricing capabilities, bundling and selling extra services through packages, flexible inventory management and increased brand exposure.

Since we added the ability to showcase videos within hotel galleries on the Trip.com platform, more than 80 hotels have taken the opportunity to use this functionality and have seen, on average, a 34% increase in page views and a 30% increase in bookings in just 30 days. This functionality allows hotels to utilise resources that previously could only be used in their marketing communications and websites, and fits with a growing audience of digital natives who consume and react better to content similar to what they see on social media, and who are also more often looking to recreate the experiences they see online.

And finally, our connection to the Chinese market offers a unique advantage. As one of the leading travel platforms used in China, our partners can access this key emerging market with customised marketing solutions and key data that only Trip.com can offer.

What does it mean for Trip.com to participate in FITUR? 

FITUR is a key event every year for Trip.com and an essential time to meet new and existing partners face to face. This is the third year we have attended, but this time we will have a much bigger presence. For us, FITUR marks the official start of the year: a time to set goals, strengthen our business ties and connect with a large number of partners, all concentrated into just three days. FITUR takes place just two weeks before Chinese New Year, a key time for us as we tend to have a huge increase in travel both within China and from China to destinations such as Spain and the rest of Europe, so it's the perfect opportunity to share the latest travel trends we've been seeing.

Can you give us a summary of your priorities in the Spanish market for 2025? 

This year we have our sights set on the railway sector, especially in Spain, which has the largest high-speed rail network in Europe, and the second largest in the world after China. This extensive infrastructure represents a unique opportunity to connect travellers not only to the main centres of the country, but also to lesser known destinations. With a record 94 million visitors in 2024, Spain is the second most visited country in Europe after France, and the Asian tourist segment is the fastest growing. Despite an excellent transport infrastructure throughout the country, Madrid and Barcelona continue to attract the most tourists year after year. As an online travel platform, we share the responsibility of raising awareness of lesser-known Spanish cities, dispersing travellers to other parts of the country and offering some relief to cities suffering from tourist saturation.