Gillian Tans

As CEOs or board members, women are still underrepresented, and that gap is actually growing.

Not only do we need more women in the technology sector, we also clearly need to refocus energy on improving gender equality in the global economy.

If you look around Booking.com, it's a very gender-balanced company.

I think companies need to take more ownership over the gender gap themselves because if everybody does that, then overall, it will improve.

What always drove me was my curiosity. That's what made me join Booking and not be afraid to leave a very successful job and then go into a startup.

Booking travel is not like shopping or groceries or booking a restaurant. It's much less frequent, so understanding what works just takes a lot more time.

I don't think there's ever a wrong answer as long as people are willing to learn, share. You're never done learning.

Things like chatbots, machine learning tools, natural language processing, or sentiment analysis are applications of artificial intelligence that may one day profoundly change how we think about and transact in travel and local experiences.

From the early days, Booking.com has been disruptive. Our aim is to create the best product for our customers, and we do that through constant innovation and testing.

We know that companies which have more women in leadership positions have a better performance.

China's domestic travel is increasing, and that's why we are building our teams here in China.

Starting a business and building a product are not for the faint of heart. You have to learn to not let little disappointments get you down and to stay focused on the big picture.