China’s Digital Commerce: The Recovery Strategies of Hospitality and Tourism Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

China is one of the first countries in Asia to gradually resume hospitality (e.g., lodging) and tourism activities (e.g., leisure travel, retail shopping) during the COVID-19 crisis. The widespread use of digital commerce in China is one of the key factors behind the swift resumption of the industry. The country is at the forefront of service innovation through its use of digital commerce, which includes both ecommerce and social commercemodels. Against this backdrop, this chapter explains the basis of the recovery strategies adopted by China’s hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis from a digital commerce viewpoint. Our discussions include key examples of digital commerce features adopted by hotels and the Chinese travel industry as part of their recovery strategies. The chapter begins with an overview of the digital commerce landscape in Asia, primarily covering the trends and changes within it during the COVID-19 crisis. This is followed by a presentation of the strategies that industry players adopted to navigate through the crisis. The next section offers a discussion focused on dynamic capabilities as a new competitive advantage, digital service innovations, the adoption of social commerce, and strategic directives from the government. The chapter concludes with a summary of the key challenges and learnings from the discussion.