In the news: Accor’s strategic partnership with Huazhu, TTS WeBook for travel agents released, Yahoo Singapore’s year in review.
Accor allies with China’s Huazhu to form a hospitality powerhouse
ibis Shanghai Yu Garden: This brand will become part of Huazhu under a master franchise for China.
Accor has inked a deal with China’s Huazhu Hotels Group to create, what the hotel group described as, “the most prominent and diversified hotel company in China with more than 2,000 hotels and the strongest pipeline in the country.”
The strategic partnership will see Accor’s ibis, ibis Styles, Mercure, Novotel and Grand Mercure hotels in China become part of Huazhu, also known as China Lodging Group, under a master-franchise for China with a plan to develop 350 to 400 new Accor branded hotels in the mid term.
Sebastien Bazin, chairman and CEO of Accor, said the ground-breaking collaboration would leverage the strengths of the group’s global brands with a leading player in Chinese hospitality. “Joining Huazhu’s unparalleled local expertise with our brands will create a hospitality powerhouse which will deliver unprecedented value to both groups and to our customers.”
Ji Qi, Huazhu founder, chairman and CEO, added that the collaboration was an unequivalent alliance in the global hospitality industry, adding that both companies shared common values. “By combining forces we can facilitate growth and attract more customers to the expanded network.”
Accor will continue to lead the ownership and development of all its luxury and other upscale brands in China, including Sofitel, Pullman, Mcgallery and The Sebel.
As part of the deal, Huazhu will become a minority shareholder in Accor’s luxury and upscale business in China (10%) and will help support future development in the country, thanks to its in-depth relationships with key Chinese real estate investors.
In turn, Accor will take a 10% stake in Huazhu and will have a seat at Huazhu’s board of directors.
The arrangement also sees Huazhu becoming Accor’s exclusive master-franchisee operating and developing in mainland China, Mongolia and Taiwan for the economy (ibis, ibis Styles,) and midscale segments (Novotel and Mercure), as well as the upscale Grand Mercure brand.
Together the groups have more than 500 hotels in the pipeline in the region, and the alliance is expected to further accelerate development and faster expansion of Accor’s brands in China.
Huazhu has a portfolio of over 1,900 hotels, and was the 13th largest hotel group globally in 2013. Its brands cover the full spectrum of the market from upscale (Joya, Manxin) to midscale (JI Hotels, Starway) and economy (Hanting, Elan and Hi Inn).
The Chinese hotel group plans to open 350 to 400 new hotels under the Accor brands in the next five years.
Accor currently has 144 hotels in China across its eight brands. They will continue to be operated under their current international brand standards.
The agreement will offer the customers of both loyalty programmes (together 47 million card holders) the opportunity to access a network of over 5,600 hotels globally.
Bazin said: “This major step is key to our digital transformation as the agreement will link the power of both groups’ reservation and loyalty platforms, providing an expanded distribution capability.” said Sebastien Bazin.
The conditions to the closing of this transaction include the obtaining of requisite governmental approvals and the completion of certain corporate restructuring.
TTS launches new solution to enhance travel agencies’ online presence
TTS WeBook provides travel agencies with another sales channel.
TTS WeBook, recently released by Travel Technology and Solutions (TTS), is an online air booking solution to provide travel agents agencies with another sales channel to improve their online presence and face increasing competition from new OTAs.
TTS, a leading developer of innovative solutions for the travel and tourism industry, said the solution, formerly known as TTS Wagency, is affordable as it does not require any setup costs.
With its simple and fast online booking process, customers of a travel agency can easily search and book flights on its website or Facebook page using rich search and filters or more advanced booking parameters.
The solution is also quick and easy to integrate with any travel agency website or Facebook page. It comes with a set of features, which allows the agency to directly manage its settings in a back-office and keep track of registered clients information. It can also adjust the solution to better fit its brand by using the customisable sizes and colours.
Susana Gonçalves, product manager at TTS, said: ” Travel agencies are ready to start selling on their website or Facebook page simply by doing ‘copy-paste’ of an iframe. It’s really very easy and quick to implement.”
TTS WeBook supports full integration with all Travelport GDS cores (Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan).
Find out more at tts.webook or watch the video here.
Yahoo Singapore unveils 2014 Year in Review
iPhone 6, the most searched tech gear in 2014. (Image credit: Apple.com)
An animated film, a huge sporting event, and a smartphone all piqued the interest of Yahoo Singapore users during 2014, featuring among the top searches of the year.
The most popular news events that users could not get enough of included the aviation tragedies of Malaysia Airlines MH370 and MH17, Singapore haze, City Harvest trial, Hong Kong protests, Ebola and the South Korea ferry disaster.
The mysterious disappearance of MH370 came in at number 1 in the news events category. The ill-fated flight, which went missing enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014, puzzled aviation experts and consumed users across the globe.
The highly anticipated iPhone 6 was the most searched tech gear this year. Three other Apple products appear in the top 10 gadget searches, including iPhone 5 C, iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 plus. Samsung clocked in with two Galaxy devices.
Oscar-winning actress, Jennifer Lawrence, made it straight to the top of the most popular female celebrity list. Other local and international women celebrities who made it to the list included first-time moms Fann Wong, Kate Middleton and Kim Kardashian, and newlyweds Amal Alamuddin and Joanne Peh.
In K-pop crazy Singapore, Hallyu stars Lee Min Ho and Kim Soo Hyun topped our list of most popular male celebrities, followed by Prince George, Justin Bieber and local actor Qi Yuwu, whose engagement and subsequent wedding to Joanne Peh caused quite the stir.
2014 was also year of major sporting events. The FIFA World Cup topped the list of sports searches, with the Asian Games and WTA Finals making it to the list too.
Maria Sharapova was the top searched athlete in 2014 and the only tennis star to make it to a list dominated by football stars including Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Neymar and Fandi Ahmad.
The most searched destinations on Yahoo Singapore this year are popular beach destinations of Maldives, Boracay and Langkawi.
The Yahoo Singapore editorial team also identified the top 10 Singapore newsmakers in 2014. Heading the list is Roy Ngerng, the former healthcare programme coordinator behind the socio-political blog, “The Heart Truths” or teen blogger Han Hui Hui.
View Yahoo Singapore’s 2014 Top 10s here.
• Featured image credit (Partners sign): cosmonaut/iStock
