HNA launches customized travel platform

An Airbus A330 jet plane of Hainan Airlines of HNA Group takes off from the Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen city, South China's Guangdong province, December 30, 2014. [Photo/IC]

HNA Group launched its travel platform HiApp on Tuesday in accordance with the country's call for enterprise and industry upgrades.

At the Strategic Transformation and HiApp Launch Ceremony in Beijing, the group unveiled its business mode - mobile travel services and HiApp, an online platform that aims to provide customized services to users whatever they need during travel.

Tong Fu, president of the HNA Tech Group, said both outbound and domestic travel has proved to be a huge market with profound reach. With rapid technology development and the trend of consumption upgrades, the industry has witnessed changes and faced new challenges.

"Domestic tourism also faces change, while technology has become a key factor in users' experience," Tong said. "It has pushed technology providers to further upgrade their services, including artificial intelligence-powered services, interactive experiences and the use of big data to cater to the needs of tourists."

The industry also faces bottlenecks, such as language barriers for the tourists and experience sharing on social media, Tong said. To tackle these obstacles, the group is eyeing further growth in high-tech powered services.

"We want to digitize the process in order to provide better service, from journey planning to post-holiday experience sharing, including AI, big data and the Internet of Things," Tong said. "With this change, we are repurposing MTS to cover every link of the travel experience."