Zuji ramps up its offering

Singapore - The travel industry may be under pressure from the combined might of the recession and the advance of swine flu, but Zuji is not standing still. The online travel giant is expanding its product offering and its use of social media.

Zuji has introduced a reverse auction feature where users can bid on hotel and flight packages as the price drops. The company is also launching a calendar shopping feature in Singapore soon, which is already available in Australia, and an enhanced hotel search function. Jetstar has signed on for the reverse auctions and Zuji plans to expand its list of hotels featured from 40,000 to 60,000.

Melissa Siew, recently promoted to general manager for Zuji Singapore, told Marketing that despite the current challenges facing the travel industry globally, Zuji is focusing on providing more innovation and value to customers.

Zuji claims that its hotel sales have gone up 10% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous year, unique visitors have gone up 10% and its package deals have gone up 70% compared with the same period. However, Zuji now offers different packaging solutions.

Zuji is experimenting with Twitter and Facebook as marketing channels to drive interest in its reverse auction deals. On Twitter Zujisg has 105 followers, as each Zuji office has its own Twitter profile, and on Facebook the reverse auction group has 774 members.

According to research conduced by Zuji, the Singaporean traveler is highly resilient and highly savvy online. Consumers are now focusing on short to mid haul travel with less lead time in booking, and with destinations such as Taipei, Seoul and Phnom Penh becoming more popular.