Some travelers to Macau have been surprised by offers made by the online booking platform Trip.com after searching for accommodation in Macau. In a direct email from the company, the operator was offering the travelers many options located across the border, either in Hengqin or Gongbei areas in the neighboring city of Zhuhai.
In response to a Times inquiry, Chen Si, Global Public Relations for Trip.com Group explained via phone that these emails are automatically generated and take into account different factors. She explained that there is no marketing strategy behind the offering of hotels in the mainland instead of in Macau, noting that the results might come from user data, related to the time and popularity of searches, searches from others users, among others factors.
Questioned by the Times whether price played a role, as the hotels on offer presented prices about 60 to 70% below the average prices in Macau, Chen said that such a factor might play a role but reaffirmed that offers are always the result of multiple factors attempting to cater to the needs of the users.
Still, in the information that the Times had access from several readers, as well as a personal experience from a Times reporter who tested the system, the majority of offers are for hotels located in the neighboring city of Zhuhai, a fact that might confuse particularly non-Chinese tourists attempting to book.
In searches performed by the Times, there were several hotels in Zhuhai featured on the first page of “Most Popular” choices for hotels in Macau, appearing side-by-side with hotel units located in Macau.
The Times also noticed that most of the hotel units appearing in Macau are referenced in the Trip.com web platform as “Near Gongbei Port [Border Gate],” a fact that might explain why they were being offered to those searching for hotels in Macau, although the company did not claim this.
MGTO: Macau searches only deliver Macau
hotels options
When questioned on the same matter, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has said in a written reply to the Times that “if a user searches for Macau hotels on the OTA platform (e.g Trip.com), only Macau hotel information will appear,” although as mentioned previously, several searches done by the Times on different occasions over the past few days have proven this information to be not completely accurate as, if the users opt for a search taking into account the “most popular” hotels (the default option), several hotels located in Zhuhai do appear also in a direct search.
Questioned on the partnership that MGTO has announced on several occasions to maintain with the Trip.com platform to promote Macau as a destination, the same office said to be cooperating with several Online Travel Agencies (OTA), noting that such “cooperation is not an exclusive partnership.”
“For some users who have not made a reservation after searching, the platform may push promotional emails or onsite advertisements according to certain algorithms, and the pushed content varies according to the user’s browsing preferences and the platform’s promotional content,” MGTO concluded, adding that “the platform mentioned [Trip.com] provides an option for the user to not receive promotional emails.”
To understand the opinion of the local hospitality industry, the Times contacted at least two tourism and hospitality local associations. As of press time, the Times had not received any comments from representatives of any of those sector groups.
