BUSINESS-TRAVEL management platform CWT has launched a bilingual service centre offering round-the-clock travel assistance in English and Mandarin.
The service has been rolled out to meet growing demand from Chinese multinationals requiring corporate travel assistance for their employees based outside China.
CWT has set up a team of travel advisers based in Singapore who are fluent in both languages and have received training in Chinese culture and traveller preferences.
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Companies that sign up for the service will have access to 24/7 assistance for their employees’ travel arrangements including flight, ground transport and hotel bookings, as well as on-trip support in the event of trip disruptions such as flight delays and cancelations.
“We have seen a swift resumption in travel by our Chinese clients’ overseas employees, as countries around the world have relaxed restrictions,” said Albert Zhong, CWT’s general manager for China.
“In the case of certain companies, these travellers are already traveling as much – or even more – than they were pre-pandemic. Through our new bilingual service hub in Singapore, we can provide our Chinese customers and their employees around the world with a more consistent experience, whenever they need support, and in their preferred language,” Zhong said.
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One of China’s biggest tech companies became the first customer to begin using the service in May and has reported positive feedback. CWT also has several other Chinese multinational clients that have expressed interest and are expected to go live later this year.
CWT first entered China in 1996, with China Air Service (CAS) as its appointed partner. In 2003, CWT and CAS established a joint venture, CWT China, which now has offices in Beijing; Guangzhou; Meishan, in Sichuan province; Shanghai and Tianjin.
A CWT spokesman said its business has grown from supporting Chinese operations of international clients to increasingly working with more homegrown Chinese companies as the country’s corporate travel market has matured. In 2021, three in every five new customers signed by CWT China were local companies.
