Klook, STB sign deal to drive travel recovery
Klook and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) have launched a partnership to drive travel recovery across South-east Asia and promote Singapore as a destination. The partnership, launched in June 2022, builds on the collaboration agreement signed in 2020 and includes an integrated marketing campaign targeting travellers from key Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Marcus Yong, vice president marketing, APAC, Klook said: “Klook is excited to partner with STB to drive travel interest and invite visitors to experience Singapore’s reimagined offerings. As travel roars back, we want to continue to enable travellers in Southeast Asia to experience a sense of joy and wanderlust when they visit Singapore.”
John Gregory Conceicao, executive director, Southeast Asia, STB said: “We have seen strong demand for travel to Singapore from Southeast Asia since we opened our borders to fully-vaccinated travellers without testing or quarantine. Visitors from Southeast Asia accounted for nearly half of all international visitor arrivals in Singapore for the first six months of 2022 and continue to drive Singapore’s tourism recovery efforts. STB will continue to work with leading platforms like Klook to tap on new trends as we invite travellers to reimagine what Singapore has to offer.”
Since the pandemic, Klook has more than doubled the number of Singapore experiences, events and accommodation options available today to 1,200. Bookings on Klook for Singapore from Southeast Asian markets for the first half of 2022 have grown month on month by an average of two to three times.
It has also partnered with over 20 in-market Influencers/KOLs and content partners to create content customised to each market. To complement this and further drive travel recovery from these markets, Klook will be giving away more than $60,000 worth of deals, promotions and giveaways for visitors to Singapore till the end of December this year.
rezio partners with 2C2P to power payments
rezio, Asia’s mobile booking solution for attraction, tour and activity operators, has partnered with 2C2P, a global payments platform, to increase access to digital payments for its travel clients and their customers.
2C2P will power rezio’s payments system across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand, enabling customers to use multiple payment methods, from cards to mobile wallets, and accelerating travel’s post-pandemic bounce back.
rezio is an integrated software-as-a-service solution that helps travel and tour businesses set up a booking website that works with multiple payment gateways, do real-time inventory management across different channels and create customised vouchers for various booking scenarios.
The pandemic pushed many consumers worldwide into using digital and contactless payment methods, propelling these payments capabilities from “nice-to-have” to “essential” status for travel businesses. According to an IDC report commissioned by 2C2P, e- commerce spending will rise by 162% to reach US$179.8 billion by 2025 across South-east Asia, with digital payments accounting for 91% of total ecommerce payments.
“rezio is excited to work with 2C2P to help travel businesses optimize payments and connect them to the world. 2C2P’s innovative and comprehensive payment offering can give the boost that attraction, tour and activity operators need, driving increased sales and accelerating their digital transformation. With this partnership, it reinforces rezio’s mission to empower our merchant’s business to sell more in an efficient and effective way,” said Jasmine Lin, chief executive officer of rezio.
“2C2P is delighted to partner with rezio and support the travel and tourism sector’s recovery in Southeast Asia. The huge shift towards digital payments has created vast opportunities for businesses of all sizes. Our partnership will help travel companies gain a competitive edge in this fast-evolving landscape, providing a fast, easy-to-use, secure, and seamless customer experience and the payment methods consumers want,” said Agnes Chua, executive director of business and product development of 2C2P.
AirJapan teams up with Sabre’s Radixx
Sabre Corporation announced a new agreement between Sabre company Radixx and All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) new airline brand, AirJapan. The carrier will use the full suite of Radixx products including the Radixx Res passenger services system (PSS) and mobile check-in capabilities to support its aim of meeting emerging trends for international travel with superior service at a competitive price.
While Air Japan Co., Ltd. currently operates flights on behalf of its parent company ANA HOLDINGS INC., under this venture AirJapan will be launched as an entirely new brand that will concentrate on value-based services on medium-haul international routes; aiming to provide a caring passenger experience with a newly-created service concept and will be positioned between the ANA full-service and Peach Aviation low-cost brands within the ANA group of airlines.
“It’s incredibly important to us that we have the right technology partner who not only understands the ever-evolving travel marketplace and specificities of the Japanese market, but who can enable us to ensure success as we prepare to launch AirJapan under the ANA Group umbrella,” said Hideki Mineguchi, President CEO, AirJapan.
“The broad range of solutions we have selected from Radixx will support us in our strategy of focusing on medium-haul international routes while creating a new kind of air travel experience that is neither a full-service carrier nor low-cost carrier, combining the best of both worlds while being firmly rooted in Japanese culture and quality.”
