When Xing Xiong, Chief Operating Officer of Trip,com Group, took to the stage at its Airline Global Conference in Amsterdam last week, he did so with the perspective of someone who has watched the travel industry and the technology underpinning it transform beyond recognition, and along with it, the group’s growth.

“Not too long ago,” he recalled, “we were a very small player in the international market. We were a group of engineers and business people who could barely speak English.”

Today, Trip.com Group stands as one of the world’s largest online travel platforms, and Xiong’s address, spanning AI’s evolution, distribution challenges and the rise of corporate travel, offered a candid, technologist’s view of where the industry is heading.

A recovery that held, until it didn’t

Xiong opened his presentation, “Travel Into The New World”, with a frank assessment of global travel’s post-pandemic trajectory. “The recovery from 2021 to 2025 had been very steady, kind of predictable,” he said. Cross-border growth was driving the industry forward, easing earlier fears about deglobalisation. “From the industry point of view, the world continues to be more and more connected.”

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