In late autumn, at the foot of the Great Wall, the China-US Tourism Industry Summit Forum was officially held.
This time, more than 30 related companies from both sides participated in the forum.
The media from both sides also paid special attention to this forum because it is the first Sino-US tourism industry forum completely organized by private organizations.
As the organizer of the forum, Li Mu announced the new business segment of "Taobao Qunar" to the heads of companies on both sides.
"Qunar" will become a new secondary section of Taobao, with the domain name quna.taobao.com.
In this section, Taobao will provide consumers with air ticket bookings to and from first-tier cities in China and several major cities in California; provide hotel bookings in first-tier cities in China and throughout California; and provide other travel-related resources and services to tourists in both places.
"Qunar" is a travel product that Li Mu took the opportunity to build this time. However, he did not plan to spend money to promote it as soon as it came up. Instead, he planned to capture the tourism resources in his own hands through the resource-consuming route.
Ctrip's business model is that of an intermediary and aggregator in the tourism industry, but its resources are not exclusive. The hotels that users can book on Ctrip can also be booked on Qunar, Fliggy and other products. Get it, and there’s basically no difference in price.
Li Mu believes that the poor way to play is the poor way, the rich way to play the rich, the poor way is like Ctrip's routine, and the rich way is to simply spend money to buy resources first, buy them and then integrate them.
Therefore, Li Mu brought the heads of Makino Technology and Taobao to the summit forum, and asked Makino Technology to negotiate resource purchases with the service, and asked Taobao to discuss specific cooperation models and cooperation requirements with them.
For example, Li Mu requested that starting from December, 10% of the air tickets between first-tier cities in China and California be sold to Makino Technology at a 20% discount on the market price, and then increase by 5% every month, up to 30% of the total air tickets. %.
The reason why we need to take 10% first and then increase by 5% every month is because we need to leave a starting stage for the outbound tourism business, and gradual growth will be more scientific.
Take Air China as an example. Their flights from Yanjing to San Francisco and Los Angeles are not full most of the time. If it is the off-season for studying abroad and traveling, the occupancy rate will not even reach 40%. Only the Spring Festival, Christmas, and During the summer vacation for students, it is possible for the attendance rate to reach over 80%.
For such flights, Li Mu asked Makino Technology to directly spend 20% off the normal discount and take 10% of the tickets in his own hands. Makino Technology then authorized Taobao Qunar to sell these tickets. Makino Technology is responsible for its own profits and losses. Even if one piece is not sold, it will bear its own costs.
For Air China, a 20% discount on the price will not make a loss most of the time, because most of the time, the remaining seats on the flight are far more than 10%. In this case, Makino Technology spends money to buy 10%. On the contrary, it helped them a lot.
The only loss is the limited peak period each year. During the busiest days, the plane may even be overbooked. 320 seats are sold out of 300 seats on the entire flight. In this case, there is basically no discount on air tickets. , in this case, if Makino Technology is given a 20% discount, it will naturally lose 20% of the ticket price.
However, airlines are not fools. They measure the demand in peak and off-season every year, and they can naturally calculate that even if they lose a little money during the peak period, it is still more cost-effective to sell 10% to Makino Technology, so they don't Refuse for any reason.
The representative of Air China said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, we have no objection to the other conditions you proposed, but you require an increase of 5% every month until 50%. We want to know what you are going to do after reaching 30%." operate?"
For a route where the occupancy rate does not exceed 50% in most cases, Li Mu is willing to take away 30% of the seats. For the airlines, it is almost a dream to wake up from a dream, but they don’t quite understand why Li Mu set the A 30% cap.
Li Mu said: "If 30% of the seats on your route are bought by Makino Technology, then I will suggest that you try to open more flights and increase the air tickets of the flights. Makino Technology will directly take 40%!"
In Li Mu's view, he is not doing charity for the airlines. If 30% of the tickets are covered, the airlines will be happy, but there is still a 2-30% gap between them and their full capacity. For them, they are the most What they hope is that Makino Technology will directly cover 50% or even 60% of the total, so that their route can be close to full capacity all year round.
Therefore, for their current established routes and flights, Li Mu can only cover up to 30% for him. If he wants to cover more for himself, fine, you add a new flight. As long as the new flight is opened, I will directly take 40%.
This 40% is a guarantee for motivating airlines to open new flights. Only by motivating and inducing airlines to open more flights can the interaction between the two places become closer and closer.
The representative of Air China immediately understood Li Mu's intention and said with a wry smile: "Mr. Li, in this way, you have just pulled us out of the pit of fire, and then induced us to dig a new pit and jump into it!"
Li Mu smiled and said: "You have to seize the general trend. The national economy is getting better and better, people have more and more money in their pockets, and more and more people will travel abroad in the future. Planning in advance is not necessarily a bad thing, even if it is a loss A little money is not a big deal.”
A representative from American Airlines asked: "Mr. Li, I have a question. If the tickets you booked cannot be sold, are we still allowed to re-sell them before the departure date?"
Li Mu thought for a while, nodded and said: "That's no problem. If the resources in my hand are really idle, you can re-sell the remaining seats within 48 hours before the flight takes off, and I will pay your guarantee. We will share the income from the sale 50/50, so you will make more money and I will lose less."
If the price of a ticket is 5,000 yuan, Li Mu has to buy it from the airline for 4,000 yuan. But if it is not sold before takeoff, it is a pure waste, and the airline can make money from himself. 4,000, instead of doing this, it is better to unlock it and sell it to the airline before takeoff. In that case, if they sell it at 4,000, and both parties share it 55, Li Mu can get back 2,000, but the airline makes 6,000.
Both China Airlines and American Airlines are very satisfied with this clause. For them, this is to maximize their interests and there is no reason to refuse.
After negotiating with the airline, communication with hotel groups in both places followed.
Regarding the hotel, Li Mu also proposed a 20% discount on the price. Starting from next month, 10% of the room resources will be taken directly from the hotel groups in the two places. It will also increase by 5% every month in the future, up to 50%. capped.
The hotel had no problem with this and all agreed to the cooperation proposal.
Air tickets and hotels are relatively simple. The most troublesome thing is integrating the various resources of the travel companies on both sides.
Including but not limited to tour guide resources, ground transportation resources, and various peripheral supporting service resources.
Li Mu’s idea is that in the future Taobao Qunar will focus on selling self-operated bilateral group tours, such as selling group tours from Los Angeles to Yanjing to users in California, and then selling group tours to Los Angeles to users in China.
In the past, travel companies, especially travel agencies, organized such cross-border travel groups by integrating their own air tickets, hotels and other resources to provide users with a set of plans, and then when enough people were gathered, the group would be dispatched from the local area.
The tour group is led by a local tour guide, and is picked up by the local cooperating ground pick-up company, which is specifically responsible for the various travel affairs of the tour group in the local area. The group-departing travel agency then settles with the local pick-up travel agency.
For example, a tour group from Yanjing took 100 people to Los Angeles. There were only two tour guides when the group was launched. The accommodation, meals, entertainment, and cars for these 100 people in Los Angeles were basically all provided by local travel agencies or Provided by travel companies.
The vast majority of tour groups generally leave people alone after sending them to their destinations and connecting with local partners. Many domestic low-price tour groups even directly sell tourists on a per-person basis. For example, a travel agency organized a hundred people to go to Spring City. , they are all low-cost tour groups. They directly find a low-cost airline to fly people there, and then sell all 100 people to local black tour groups. The local tour groups spend money to buy the people away and take them shopping everywhere. , can be a trap, and even forcefully buy and sell in order to make money.
Now, with Taobao in the middle, Li Mu certainly cannot allow anything that harms his customers to happen.
Therefore, Li Mu's requirements for the travel companies in the two places are: first, all resource quotations must be lower than the prices they usually cooperate with travel agencies in the industry.
This is because, in Li Mu's eyes, these cooperative travel agencies could only be regarded as small wholesalers before, but he will become an unprecedented large wholesaler in the tourism industry.
They usually cooperate with some travel companies and send a few tours a year, adding up to only a few hundred guests. But if they can work with Li Mu, the number of customers sent to them from Taobao Qunar in the future may reach tens of thousands a year. People, this is the power of the platform. Therefore, any company that cooperates with the platform must obey the platform's requirements honestly and never dare to make mistakes.
This is very similar to Apple's App Store in later generations. Almost every APP developer will take the initiative to send their APP to the App Store for sale. However, Apple's App Store is very ruthless. As long as user consumption is generated, it will deduct 30% from the developer. , and he also has a lot of restrictions. If he violates the rules even slightly, he will be punished or even removed from the market.
But even if Apple is so domineering, no APP has taken the initiative to remove it from the Apple App Store, because they want to make money by following the platform, and they must do whatever the platform requires.
In addition to offering lower prices, more importantly, Li Mu has to take on the role of organizing and organizing tours, and at the same time arranges tour guides and necessary service personnel.
Destination travel companies must provide the required services for Taobao Qunar’s self-operated tour groups in good quality and quantity according to Taobao Qunar’s requirements, and they must provide services at home without neglect, because only when users are satisfied can they start from Taobao Qunar. From the settlement income, if a customer complains, Taobao Qunar has the right to deduct part of the fee and even impose certain penalties!
(End of chapter)