Amex GBT sanguine about China market prospects

American Express Global Business Travel, or Amex GBT, a software and services company for travel, expense, and meetings and events, is bullish about its prospects in China and will step up investments in the country, a senior executive said.

Tessa Mowat, vice-president and head of Global Travel Partner Network and Joint Ventures of Amex GBT, said China's high-level opening-up as well as its huge market potential make the country strategically important for multinational companies, which garner great business opportunities for the company.

"We're really excited to see that the renewed opening-up of China and business travel, particularly for multinational and global customers, certainly kicked off at the beginning of last year with acceleration into the second half of 2023," Mowat said.

"China is a very important market for many enterprises across the globe, and we can see that there are a lot of favorable policies and overall positive background for this industry … We're very positive about the outlook ahead and anticipate international (travel) to really gain some more pace by the end of this year and accelerate the growth as well."

Mowat said China offers travel management great market potential.

In big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, there is already a relatively high level of adoption of travel management services. Meanwhile, smaller cities have not seen enterprises managing travel in a modernized way, which presents very good opportunities, she said.

In addition, as the Chinese economy experienced rapid development in the past decades, people and enterprises' need for travel management has also evolved to focus more on services' quality rather than prices, she added.

"We believe that travel is a force for good and that it is essential for economic, social and environmental progress. Our global strategy, China included, is to make this a reality by offering our customers unbeatable choices, pricing and a caring and seamless experience," she said.

Amex GBT has formed three joint venture companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou since 2002, together with China International Travel Services, or CITS, which is now known as China Travel Group.

With a presence in 140 countries, Amex GBT's full-year 2023 transactions were up 19 percent year-on-year, while Asia-Pacific growth was significantly higher at 29 percent, benefiting from a delayed recovery in the region.

To further tap the potential of the China market, Mowat said the company will continue to invest in digital technologies and building online business travel platforms.

In the past three years, the JVs of Amex GBT and CITS have invested heavily to build a first-of-its-kind digital corporate payment solution to address heightened customer needs for compliance, simplicity and efficiency in travel scenarios besides air travel.

The goal is to ensure that both travel bookers and travelers can book flight, hotel, train and car services at the best prices, while making travel a simple experience.

Companies are empowered by aggregated payment solutions and periodic consolidated billing, which is seamlessly integrated with their existing business travel management and IT systems to effectively cut costs and optimize travel expenditures.

"We invest heavily in the digital experience, making sure we have the right digital technology to ensure a smooth process from booking, on the road and then post-trip," said the executive.

"In China, we're very focused on having the right tools and technologies to drive a seamless experience for travel bookers, and really focusing on technical development and the application of the technologies."

Apart from multinational corporation clients, the growing number of Chinese enterprises going global also provides new business opportunities for Amex GBT in China, Mowat said.

"China is a very important market. What we do is not only serve foreign enterprises doing business in China, but also Chinese enterprises doing business in overseas markets," she said.

Kevin Tan, vice-president of Amex GBT, said that there is strong demand from enterprises for business travel in the post-COVID-19 era.

Although the operations of MNCs in China contribute to around 95 percent of Amex GBT's local revenues, a growing number of Chinese enterprises going global — for example, those in electric vehicles, healthcare and high-tech sectors — have been increasingly driving its growth in the country as well, said Tan, who is also general manager of CITS-American Express Global Business Travel.

According to the Mastercard Economics Institute, the global travel sector is breaking boundaries in 2024 as consumer spending on tourism remains robust and passenger traffic soars. For the Chinese mainland, air passenger traffic has fully normalized and even exceeded 2019 levels, benefiting local businesses.

Meanwhile, international tourist traffic leaving the Chinese mainland continues to recover and is now at 80.3 percent of 2019 levels.

Additional upside growth is expected in 2024, supported by visa exemptions in Asia-Pacific, as well as an increase in international flight capacity, benefiting destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, the report said.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn