Riding the China wave

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: What have been the highs and lows of doing business in China? How has your organisation dealt with the challenges?

Bindu Bhatia Managing Director, Asia Pacific CWT

China overtook the United States as the world's largest business travel market in 2015 and it continues to grow at a steady pace, so naturally it presents tremendous opportunities for our business. Just a decade ago, our client base in China was almost exclusively US or Europe-based multinationals with operations in the country. Today, we're proud to be working with many Chinese-headquartered companies that have a global presence. One of the biggest challenges, though, is that it's a market that is completely unique in many respects. The booking platforms, the payment systems, the way travellers prefer to reach out for support, are all different from what you find in other parts of the world - and so we have to be configured appropriately to apply global best practices/processes and technologies here. We've solved for this by making significant investments in developing solutions that are tailored just for China, and it's a strategy that is paying off for us.