Four major travel players in Asia have joined forces to form the OPP Alliance in its bid to “reshape the travel landscape” by sharing hotel and travel supply, exchanging technology resources/best practices and improving industry innovation.
The coalition said in a statement it also aims to penetrate Asia’s rapidly-emerging markets by providing more effective distribution through a single partner, while providing “considerable benefits to travel suppliers and travel agencies, thus revitalising the Asian B2B landscape.”
Describing itself as an “industry-first cooperation”, the alliance’s members are AntaVaya, Hotelpass Global, WebBeds and Westminster Travel. Each member will remain completely independent, retaining its brand identity. They will enjoy benefits comparable to airline and hotel alliances with an expanded network, centralised coordination and the ability to offer a stronger proposition to their respective clients.
WebBeds is the alliance’s central coordinator and will provide central support and coordination, enabling partners to leverage its technology and global platform to optimise distribution.
AntaVaya will be responsible for procurement in Indonesia; Hotelpass Global will cover contracting in South Korea and Japan; Westminster Travel will be responsible for Greater China including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; and WebBeds’ focus will be on Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
The alliance believes that by exchanging best practices and business intelligence, it will also drive innovation and efficiency and be in a better position to anticipate and serve the needs of the travel industry across Asia.
According to OPP Alliance, it will enable hotels to penetrate into Asia’s rapidly-emerging markets by providing more effective distribution through a single partner.
Currently the alliance generates over 2.2 million room nights.
Brian Lee, CEO of Hotelpass Global, revealed the initial target is to sign up to 2,000 new hotel contracts in the first six months, and promote these hotel partners to its respective distribution networks. “We are aiming to improve the direct relationships with our hotel partners and bring them closer to the action in the world of travel distribution.”
He added that “hotels across Asia will enjoy widespread global distribution with dynamic contracts, rate parity and improved pricing capabilities. We are very excited to be part of such a pioneering collaboration.”
Larry Lo, CEO, Westminster Travel, said that one of the main goals of their hotel partners is to have more effective and widespread distribution. “OPP Alliance will enable this through a coalition of highly respected market leaders, which creates an unprecedented regional force. This makes us the perfect partner for hotels across the region, and we are delighted to be a founding member of such a dynamic initiative.”
Both Daryl Lee, CEO Asia Pacific of WebBeds and Andreas Sulaeman, AntaVaya’s vice president of business development & marketing, are optimistic that with the “immense potential for expansion” the alliance will grow into “a truly global coalition going beyond Asia.”
Looking ahead, the alliance said it will seek new members in other Asian markets and globally “as long as they do not overlap with existing members.“
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