One, Abacus International signs a joint hotel sharing technology service agreement with TravelSky. This means both parties will share their hotel content to provide a more extensive range of hotel options to agency customers across the region.

Xue Qiang, Vice-President Tour and Transportation Solutions of TravelSky Technology Limited, calls it a “very unique and powerful alliance”.

“The new partnership will see both parties tapping on each other’s strengths to increase their portfolios and further their presence in the hotel content distribution sector both in China and across the region.”

Abacus will provide TravelSky’s agencies with access to more than 100,000 hotel properties from more than 300 hotel chains worldwide.

TravelSky will in return provide Abacus agencies with more than 30,000 hotel properties in China. This content will further strengthen Abacus’ hotel offerings in the local market.

“Our partnership with TravelSky significantly augments the number of hotel options we are able to offer our travel agents,” said Brett Henry, VP Marketing, VP India, Abacus International. “As travel to and from China continues to grow, it is important that we strike up the right partnerships and get access to content that our agencies need in order to meet the needs of their travellers.”

Sabre Holdings, which owns a stake in Abacus, also announced a similar hotel content agreement with TravelSky recently.

Two, news from Amadeus that Air China has implemented three additional technology solutions from its its e-Commerce portfolio.

The Amadeus Mobile Solution and German Rail Booking will give Air China a competitive edge in the growing online marketplace, help access new sales opportunities and deliver enhanced service to the airline’s customers, says Amadeus.

Additionally, with the Amadeus German Rail Booking solution, Air China customers can now book a combined German Rail and Flight itinerary through one consolidated platform. Air China is the first airline in Asia Pacific to implement the Amadeus German Rail Booking solution.

John Chapman, Vice President, Airline Group, Amadeus Asia Pacific said, “Our recent ‘Chaos to Collaboration’ report findings indicate that technology is very or extremely important to at least 89% of Chinese travellers, and is supporting evidence that Air China is taking a step in the right direction with the implementation of our advanced technology solutions.”