THE Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology sector – new partnerships, product launches, aviation industry updates, innovative solutions, and more …
STB partners Agoda to ramp up tourism drive in South-east Asia
Celebrating a new partnership (L-R): Agoda’s Crystal Koh, Enric Casals, Ollala Rey, and STB’s John Gregory Conceicao and Nicholas Lim (Image credit: STB, Agoda)
To drive visitors from South-east Asia to Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is forming partnerships with the region’s leading travel players, inking a strategic deal with AirAsia last month and recently with Agoda.
The two parties have signed a “partnership agreement” for an integrated marketing campaign to target South-east Asia travellers to Singapore.
“This marks the first direct partnership between STB and Agoda to better capture travel demand as border restrictions begin to lift in the region,” said the two partners in statement..
Under the agreement, Singapore-headquartered Agoda will utilise its technology and travel expertise, data insights and integrated marketing capabilities to drive more affinity for travel experiences to Singapore.
John Gregory Conceicao, STB’s executive director said: “As borders gradually re-open it is important for the industry to collaborate and drive our travel sector forward.”
He added that through this partnership and with each partner’s insights and knowledge “we can reach a wider audience and invite them to rediscover Singapore and our vibrant neighbourhoods, variety of delicious food and unique attractions.”
Enric Casals, director of Agoda, hopes “this will be the first in a longstanding partnership with the Singapore government, towards stimulating the tourism economy.”
Malaysia’s Mayflower Holidays taps TA Network’s technology to increase direct hotel bookings
MayFlower Holidays partners TA Network to increase direct booking of dynamic rates with its hotel partners. (Image credit: hanieriani/Getty Images)
Mayflower Holidays is expanding its collaboration with Trip Affiliates Network (TA Network) for its online hotel B2B direct booking services for agents, wholesalers and corporates within the TA network ecosystem.
As part of the deal TA Network will provide its dynamic content management system to Mayflower Holidays to enhance customer online engagement with customisable promotion pages that are fully integrated via TA Network multi-product booking engines.
The partnership will also enable Mayflower Holidays to expand its wholesale business through TA Network channels.
Head of business at Mayflower Holidays, Jean Tung, said the partnership with TA Network would enable the company to increase direct booking of dynamic rates with its hotel partners, and have access to hotels that have engaged TA Network for their B2B direct booking services.
“Through this collaboration we will also be able to work closer with our hotels for tactical promotion rates and offer value-added products to our partners and customers, inclusive.”
Mayflower Holidays, established in 1960, is a travel service specialist in Malaysia with a global network serving 57 countries, catering to both individuals and corporate clients.
TA Network, headquartered in Singapore with offices in Indonesia, Vietnam & Thailand, provides online hotel direct booking services for travel agents, wholesalers and corporates within its ecosystem.
Automation and Integration vital to recovery, say hoteliers
New report on revenue management for hoteliers from Duetto (Image credit: Duetto)
Nearly 78% of hoteliers will increase their investment in hotel tech in the next three years, according to a Duetto survey.
The survey was carried out among hoteliers worldwide to gauge their sentiment and priorities regarding revenue management, revenue tools and technology innovations.
The majority of respondents working in revenue managment said automation and integration were key to future success, with 77.6% of expecting to increase their hotel tech investment in the next three years.
67.6% currently use a revenue management system (RMS) such as Duetto. Of the remaining 32.4%, 50% sought to invest in revenue technology in 2022, with 23.4% looking to invest in the next two years.
The respondents identified technology as the most important trend in revenue management for 2022, with 58.6% citing integrated systems followed by 54.8% naming automation as critical.
The top five responses were mixed between technology trends, revenue trends, and guest behaviour: integrated systems (58.6%), automation (54.8%), TRevPAR (36.7%), digital guest journey (31.4%), ancillary revenue (29%)
55.2% of revenue managers surveyed also reported they’ve increased their focus on strategic revenue management as automation has helped reduce manual tasks such as data entry, reporting, and other time-consuming efforts.
“Tech adoption in hotels has been increasingly accelerating as hotels seek greater efficiencies in both front and back of the house,” said David Woolenberg, CEO of Duetto. “It’s promising to see that more industry leaders are focusing on tech adoption, tech upgrades, and creating an integrated tech stack.”
Download the report: Re-booting Revenue: Refreshing Strategies for 2022 and beyond.
• Featured image credit (OCBC Skyway & Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay): Corinne Wan
