Business travel firm FCM bets on AI to boost efficiency as Chinese work trips rebound

FCM Travel Greater China, a business-travel management company, plans to invest in its artificial intelligence capabilities and give its staff the skills they need to get the most out of the technology as China's outbound travel market enjoys a resurgence.

The drive to adopt and integrate AI into its operations began recently with the opening of the company's new "AI centre of excellence" in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The city was the ideal destination thanks to its large pool of talent, proximity to Hong Kong and its position in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), according to Calvin Xie, the general manager of FCM Travel Greater China.

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Artificial intelligence is a means of allowing companies to work more efficiently, cutting down on time which can be put towards "high value" tasks such as offering better quality customer experiences, he said.

It is not as simple as "just doubling the number of employees," said Xie.

'We want a lean operation, we don't want to end up with a large army,' says Calvin Xie, general manager of FCM Travel Greater China. Photo: SCMP Handout alt='We want a lean operation, we don't want to end up with a large army,' says Calvin Xie, general manager of FCM Travel Greater China. Photo: SCMP Handout>

"We want a lean operation," he added. "We don't want to end up with a large army. It's more about how we will transform our workforce to get [employees] equipped with the skills they need for the next decade."

FCM is the flagship corporate travel arm of Australia's Flight Centre Travel Group. It has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Having offices in Guangzhou and Hong Kong offers deeper synergy to access business in the bay area economic zone, said Xie.

"We don't have a plan to expand our offices further. Given [FCM's] business nature, we don't need to open offices in all the cities, but we do want to maintain our presence in the tier one cities," he said added.

The coronavirus pandemic led to a brain drain in Hong Kong, which made it difficult for the group to hire and retain talent. But these days it is easier to recruit, particularly on the mainland where a lot of young professionals are eager to join a multinational company, he added.

"But do we need more elite people to join us? I think the answer is yes, particularly in the Greater Bay Area," said Xie.

Business is picking up for the group as both corporate and leisure travel rebound across China.

At the end of March, outbound travel was up almost fivefold from a year earlier, according to a report by Sabre Market Intelligence in June.

The report said that while traditional favourites such as South Korea and Japan remain popular, new destinations are emerging. Australia and Malaysia have entered the top 10 destinations for Chinese travellers, with the former moving up seven places and the latter leaping from 18th to ninth.

China's business travel expenditure grew 12.6 per cent year on year to US$360 billion but was still slightly below pre-pandemic levels of US$380 billion, according to the a report last year by the Global Business Travel Association. It is forecast to recover by the end of this year to US$4.1 billion.

There has been a leap in the number of business travellers tagging some leisure time onto the end of their trips - a trend sometimes referred to in the industry as bleisure.

FCM has seen an increase of around 40 per cent in "bleisure" trips as difficulty in securing visas and sluggish international air capacity compared to pre-pandemic levels has made business travellers more willing to extend their trips.

China's business travellers most frequently stay within Asia, with Singapore ranking as the leading destination, according to Flight Centre's data. Tokyo, Bangkok, Seoul, and Frankfurt were the other most popular destinations.

Singapore is maintaining its lead as the number one destination for Chinese business travellers in 2024, its appeal boosted by the 30-day visa-free entry arrangement agreed in January.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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