“The biggest lesson we learned is that we need to develop various customer sourcing channels and cooperate with core suppliers from diverse destinations”

Tourmind is an artificial intelligence company based global hotel travel search engine and booking platform. A few months ago, Tourmind joined TravelgateX as a new Premium Partner Seller. In this interview, Angela Chan, Global Commercial Manager, explains to us how her company is preparing for the opportunities after Covid-19, what lesson they have learned from this crisis and how she sees the future of technology in the travel sector.

Angela, has the crisis motivated Tourmind to make internal or external changes?  

Yes. Internally, we pay attention to optimize our resources (especially the supply chain), increase the numbers of our direct sourcing hotels and diversify our product line by adding package product. Simultaneously, we expand our IT team, upgrade our API interface, optimize the local static data, the intelligent match of room type and the intelligent risk control strategy.

Externally, we expand our distribution channels (customer sourcing channels). Our customers are not just B2B travel buyers (OTAs, travel agencies, TMCs, DMCs & tour operators), but B2C direct travelers from Shenzhen and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are also our target customers.

What is your growth strategy post-COVID-19 and how is TravelgateX going to help you?

We resume to work after Chinese Lunar New Year holidays when the pandemic outbreaking. We summarize last year’s operating experience to formulate the strategies post-COVID-19 and make great achievement. In the first half of 2020, we have been the first in the industry to recover or even exceed the performance of the same period last year. Our strategies are:  

• Timely adding more Chinese domestic hotels into our global hotel portfolio, especially strengthening our exclusive hotel resources by connecting more domestic direct-contracted hotels or chains. 
• Stabilizing overseas distribution channels and continuously developing overseas superior resources, even expanding direct sourcing hotels worldwide.           

For better development in the future, we need to establish a cooperative relationship with some excellent partners like you TravelgateX. On one hand, we need you to introduce us to more power buyers, helping us expand our distribution channels to overseas market. On the other hand, we also would like you to recommend us some excellent sellers, helping us improve competitiveness  of our travel products.  

How did you come to work with TravelgateX?

We came to work with TravelgateX via Smyrooms.

 With regard to partners in our platform, what destinations are interesting for Tourmind?  

We are interested in those destinations such as Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and Australia.

In your personal point of view, what would you say has been the biggest lesson learned from this crisis?

The biggest lesson we learned is that we need to develop various customer sourcing channels and cooperate with core suppliers from diverse destinations.

What do you think are some of the biggest opportunities that may come from this time for your sector? For the travel industry?

For our sector, we think no matter focusing on the Chinese domestic market or resume developing and wait for the overseas market to revive are both biggest opportunities to us.

For the travel industry, the biggest opportunity is there would be some well-rounded and excellent companies will earn more market shares as the pandemic has eliminated many single resource or single market companies.

What is a crazy or out-of-the-box product or technology that you would personally like to see attempted for the travel industry? 

Nowadays, most our accommodation products are standard hotels. But more and more people prefer characteristic or theme accommodation products to get different accommodation experience. I think if there comes a platform which could provide various kinds of accommodation products to select, that would be more welcome.