eDreams ODIGEO CEO Reveals Progress in Business Diversification
eDreams ODIGEO Chief Executive Officer joined fellow key decision makers from the European travel industry at the 2019 Phocuswright Conference in Amsterdam.
During an interview with Lorraine Sileo, Senior VP, Research and Business Operations at Phocuswright, Dana Dunne revealed that eDreams ODIGEO continues to see positive results from its business diversification strategy: “we are now selling over 70 products and services for every hundred flights sold” and explained that the company is well positioned to continue growing its non-flight business as “70% of customers that fly will also need a hotel, and individuals typically book a flight before they book any other travel product. This represents a great opportunity for us, as we can cross-sell hotels and other products and services”.
Dunne explained that the company is focused on further developing its diversification strategy with the aim of solving more traveller needs throughout the entire travel experience, notably “investing heavily in the post-booking part of the process”. The CEO of eDreams ODIGEO pointed out that, as the leading flight retailer in Europe, the company has access to key insights on “destinations, travel dates, number of travellers and their preferences” which the Group can leverage to “make a more informed proposal” to customers when it comes to additional travel products and services.
Dunne also announced additional progress in regards to machine-based learning and its application to provide personalised experiences: “we now use autonomous self-learning algorithms to figure out what should be presented to each individual” and explained that “many of our teams do sophisticated reinforced machine-based learning. This is definitely a change in the industry landscape versus four years ago”.
As a result of these and other investments to improve customer satisfaction, eDreams ODIGEO Chief reported that “ customer satisfaction has gone up significantly. We are now rated number one in customer satisfaction in Trustpilot versus any other OTA or airline in Europe” and added that “customers are increasingly shifting to our mobile app. Now, we are rated 4.7 stars out of 5 in the app stores”.
Finally, speaking about the company’s growth plans, Dunne highlighted that the recent integration of budgetplaces.com “was a great acquisition that has been incredibly helpful for our dynamic packages business” and said that “we look for organic growth but also for more M&A’s”, adding that the company is looking for “two dimensions: good technology and scale.”
About eDreams ODIGEO
eDreams ODIGEO is one of the world’s largest online travel companies and one of the largest European e-commerce businesses. Under its four leading online travel agency brands – eDreams, GO Voyages, Opodo, Travellink, and the metasearch engine Liligo – it offers the best deals in regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, cruises, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance to make travel easier, more accessible, and better value for the more than 18.5 million customers it serves across 46 markets. eDreams ODIGEO is listed on the Spanish Stock Market.