THE Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and updates on how businesses in these sectors are resetting as they prepare for post-pandemic travel.
RWS leverages Trip.com’s marketing hub to meet post-pandemic demand from Chinese travellers
Trip.com Group has launched the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) Star Hub flagship store on its Ctrip platform, which makes it easier for Chinese travellers to make online bookings for post pandemic travel.
The RWS hub is a one-stop online portal on the Ctrip platform where users can make bookings with the travel guidance, food recommendations and business travel and conference information available at their fingertips.
“This allows RWS to better meet increasing demand from China’s emerging mass affluent segment and new millennials for more customised and personalised experiences,” said Trip.com in a statement.
Star Hub is the group’s travel marketing platform launched in March this year to allow its partners to expand and enhance marketing activities on its Ctrip platform to attract post-pandemic travellers.
“Since the introduction of the Star Hub channel earlier this year we have seen active participation from hundreds of valuable partners as they seek to adapt to new and unique ways of connecting with their target customers,” said Bo Sun, chief marketing officer of Trip.com Group .
“We will continuously seek to work with our partners to innovate and tackle new frontiers as we strive towards the recovery of the travel industry.”
RWS’s partnership with Trip.com Group enables the integrated resort to enhance its destination marketing campaign in anticipation of greater demand when global tourism returns.
Trip.com Group said that by leveraging its marketing solutions RWS can also “showcase its full suite of diverse product offerings, strengthen customer loyalty and improve the convenience of making online bookings.”
The two brands plan to deepen the partnership in international marketing to increase RWS’s social media presence across South-east Asia and global destination markets.
Before Covid, China was one of the largest inbound markets for Singapore, recording more than 3.6 million Chinese tourists in 2019. RWS is one of the most popular destinations for both leisure and business travellers visiting the city-state.
SITA makes its digital travel declaration tool free to governments
To show its support in the recovery of travel industry SITA is making its Digital Travel Declaration solution freely available to governments globally.
The digital too, operational since October 2020, allows travellers to complete health and travel declarations and share the documentation with governments ahead of travel.
The air transport IT provider is offering the entry level configuration of the tool to government agencies worldwide free for a period of 12 months to address the “challenge of submitting and verifying health documentation which remains a major impediment to the recovery of the global travel industry.”
According to SITA, “Inefficiencies and a lack of common standards around managing health documentation remain the single biggest obstacle to rebuilding the travel and tourism industry and supporting economic growth.”
Apart from helping to address this obstacle, the company said the tool could also be used to streamline other travel requirements such as future pandemics, local health concerns or more traditional security and immigration travel authorisations.
“In many cases, today’s onerous health requirements are discouraging travellers from flying or leading to long lines at airports. As an industry-owned organisation working at the crossroads of airlines, airports and governments we are able to connect the dots and streamline processes around health documentation,” said David Lavorel, CEO of SITA at Airports and Borders.
“Making Digital Travel Declaration freely available to governments will be an investment in the recovery of our industry, and we hope will go some way towards addressing the challenges we all face today.”
Hotelbeds teams up with ZUZU Hospitality to expand portfolio in Asia
Bedbank Hotelbeds has partnered with independent revenue management platform ZUZU Hospitality to extend its accommodation offering in Asia.
This partnership adds 2,700+ independent properties to Hotelbeds’ catalogue working with ZUZU, while securing special rates and exclusive offers for its clients across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In return, properties partnering with ZUZU are able to extend their global reach by gaining access to Hotelbeds’ 60,000 travel buyers based in more than 140 source markets around the world including travel agencies, tour operators, airlines and points redemption programmes.
ZUZU provides independent hotels with an all-in-one hotel operating system supported with their revenue management and distribution services. This technology plus service solution allows hotels with limited resources and time to get both the technology and expertise of larger hotel chains with none of their associated costs and restrictions.
• Featured image credit: Resorts World Sentosa
