Skyscanner owner to create up to 200 new jobs in Scotland

Ctrip, China’s largest and the world’s 2^nd largest online travel agency, has been expanding its travel services for both outbound Chinese travellers and international travellers for several years. The Edinburgh call centre aims to provide a high-level customer service experience across time zones and languages.

While the call centre will be separate to operationally independent Skyscanner, Ctrip will also learn best practice from Skyscanner’s experience in providing online customer service across multiple time zones and 26 languages.

“Ctrip’s leadership team has visited Edinburgh several times since the acquisition of Skyscanner at the end of last year. It is clear to us that there is considerable talent in Scotland and the city makes an ideal base for Ctrip to open a dedicated call centre” said Ctrip Director Coley Dale.

“While Chinese travellers continue to be the focus for Ctrip, we’re step by step investing in our services across the world. We’re excited to be building roots here in Edinburgh and will be recruiting at scale for our new office.”

The Ctrip customer service office will be located in central Edinburgh and is set to open in the first two months of 2018, with recruitment scaling towards the end of 2017. Successful candidates will undergo between one and a half and three months of training. A number of Edinburgh call centre employees will also visit Ctrip’s Shanghai headquarters to learn from peers there. Ctrip’s award winning customer service centre is recognised as the best in China.

Managing Director of Scottish Development International, Paul Lewis, said: “We are delighted Ctrip has chosen Edinburgh for its first call centre outside China. The company joins many international investors which recognise the strength of our skills base, competitive business environment and effective support network.  We look forward to working with Ctrip to help deliver this significant investment and new jobs for Scotland.”

Ctrip acquired Skyscanner in December 2016 for £1.4bn.