Starting this January, the company, which is the largest online travel agency in Europe and the fifth-largest worldwide (as well as being Europe’s largest e-commerce company) will offer flights from more than 440 aircraft operators, with over 150,000 different combinations and over 550,000 hotels in 40,000 destinations, plus car rentals, for Japanese travellers.
The company’s aim is clear: to achieve the leading position in Japan, just as it currently has in Europe, thereby covering an international presence in a total of forty-four countries around the world. To do this, eDreams has focused all its efforts on adapting its range of services to the tastes and needs of the Japanese market, from the language to the currency, through a wide range of domestic and low-cost flights. All of this, while keeping its prices and customer service at the same level, which has allowed eDreams to achieve one of the highest rates of customer satisfaction and repetition. Additionally, the company has a dedicated, local team in Spain with different profiles for marketing and call centre, among others.
The Director of Business Development at eDreams, Pablo de Porcioles, emphasizes that “although price is the main reason why our over 15 million customers worldwide first used our service, eDreams’ levels of quality and service have always managed to exceed their expectations, making clients faithful to the company, and turning the company into the clients’ traveling companion.” And the quality of pre- and post-sales service is highly valued by customers. That’s why the expert team of eDreams agents helps users to have an unparalleled travel experience, and why millions of euros a year are invested in technology that facilitates the process of searching, booking, payment, billing and post-sale control.
With these services, Porcioles acknowledges that “we hope that, in the not-too-distant future, Japan will be the largest travel market in the region. For this to happen, we have created competitive content that is able to successfully meet the demands of this market.” Porcioles notes that “eDreams has a wide range of airlines that will allow it to compete, both in regard to international flights, as well as domestic flights and low-cost, with key players of the moment.”
In recent years, according to JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), both international and domestic flights have grown significantly in Japan. The first, accounting for 20% of the total, has grown by over 20% since 2004. Meanwhile, domestic flights, which account for 80% of flights, have increased almost 11%. In addition, there is ample room for growth in the segment of low-cost airlines, which are relatively new to the Japanese market.
With this release, eDreams, the online travel agency, continues to work on one of its key pillars, internationalization as the basis of its success. This comes after having expanded to ten new countries in 2012, to Greece and the Netherlands in 2013, and to Russia last June. These are operations that have allowed the company to geographically diversify its business and position itself as an attractive option for users on five continents thanks to its combination of supply, price and service.
