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Trip.com's contribution to responsible travel and tourism in Europe

Pledges

Trip.com's contribution to responsible travel and tourism in Europe

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Publishing organisations:

Trip.com

Organisation types:

Company with 250 or more employees

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As a global travel platform with a large and growing user base in both Asia and Europe, Trip.com has an important role to play in driving more sustainable tourism flows. In our pledge below, we set out what we are already doing to support responsible travel and tourism in the EU, as well as our future commitments.

Content source
https://be.trip.com/
Publishing org

Trip.com

Topics
Organisation Type

Company with 250 or more employees

  • Specific types of tourism

    • Rural tourism

    • Urban/city tourism

  • Transition Pathway Strategic Areas

    • Changes in tourism demand and opportunities

    • Cross-border travelling

    • Innovative tourism services

    • Multimodal travelling

    • Sustainable mobility

    • Tourism strategies

  • Business activities

    • Air passenger transport

    • Hotel and similar accommodation

    • Other tourism transportation activities

    • Rail Passenger transport

    • Travel agency activities

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Overview:
 
Trip.com is an end-to-end travel platform that brings together a full range of multimodal transport and accommodation options. In Europe, we are investing significantly in our rail offering. Not only because we believe rail, and high-speed rail, is a strong growth opportunity for tourism and travel in the region, but also because it can drive the right kind of future for travel: more sustainable, more competitive, more balanced. Rail enables travellers to move beyond traditional tourism hubs and discover the rich diversity of destinations Europe has to offer. As a global travel platform with a large and growing user base in Asia, Trip.com also has an important role to play in supporting more sustainable tourism flows into Europe. Rail travel is a crucial component of this transition.
 
Demand for lower-impact travel options is already growing rapidly. In Europe, our total rail bookings increased by 80% year-on-year in 2025, demonstrating that travellers embrace more sustainable travel options when they are easy to access and book. This reflects a broader shift in traveller behaviour: both international and European travellers increasingly want experiences that feel meaningful, responsible, and well connected to local communities.
How Trip.com is simplifying rail travel in Europe:
 
Our role is to make these choices accessible and scalable. That is why we are working closely with local and cross-border partners across Europe to expand access to rail and public transport through our platform. Over the past 12 months, Trip.com has introduced a range of innovations designed to make rail travel simpler, more transparent, and more convenient for travellers. These solutions include:
  • In Italy and Spain, we have recently launched discounted railcards to make rail journeys more accessible and cheaper for domestic travellers. There are no restrictions in terms of who can purchase these cards (age, route, carrier or ticket type) and no comparable product on the market in terms of flexibility.
  • We have also launched new carrier combinations (for example combining Eurostar with Deutsche Bahn tickets) to encourage cross-border rail travel and to position rail as a viable alternative to short-haul flights in the EU.
  • We are expanding delay-repay in the EU to assist passengers in securing compensation from operators for train delays. This is a good example of how we as a platform can be a tech enabler and make rail journeys more efficient and user friendly for passengers. This is a particularly strong selling point for cross-border and inbound (Asian) tourists, given individual operator compensation schemes are often difficult to access for consumers from outside the EU.
  • Europe-wide, we have established several regional rail partnerships to promote new domestic destinations and routes to Asian inbound tourists. These initiatives support lower-emission travel while encouraging visitors to explore less crowded regions of the country.
These kinds of innovations are essential to increasing traveller uptake for day-to-day travel, as well as positioning high-speed rail as an exciting, practical and cost-effective alternative to short-haul flights.
Looking ahead:
 
To support this goal, in 2026 and H1 2027 Trip.com plans to:
 
  • Promote European rail travel to Asian travellers through targeted marketing campaigns with European rail operators, particularly during peak travel periods such as Chinese New Year, one of the busiest travel seasons on our platform.
  • Work with European tourism stakeholders such as the ETC to promote responsible, off-peak, off-beat travel to our Asian consumer base.
  • Launch an EU-China travel and tourism dialogue to explore new approaches to sustainable travel between the two regions.
  • Expand multimodal transport integration by incorporating additional lower-emission and public transport solutions, including regional trains, metros, and buses, into our platform.
  • Leverage Trip.com’s AI travel planner, Trip Planner, to provide more lower-emission travel options such as rail and to guide users toward lesser-known destinations and more sustainable travel experiences across Europe.
Through these efforts, Trip.com aims to help make sustainable travel choices simpler, more visible, and more attractive for millions of travellers — while supporting Europe’s vision for a greener and more resilient tourism sector.

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