In the news this week: It’s all about partnership this week as Tune Hotels collaborates with China’s Plateno, Ryanair partners with Amadeus, Travelport renews agreement with BCD Travel, and AirAsia BIG teams up with Hilton Hhonors.
Tune Hotels targets Chinese travellers in first foreign deal with Plateno
Shaking on a deal, Tune Hotels’ Mark Lankester (right) with Plateno’s Alex Zheng.
Malaysia-based budget hotel chain, Tune Hotels, makes a breakthrough in tapping the Chinese outbound travel market with the recent inking of a marketing collaboration agreement with Plateno, one of China’s leading hospitality group.
For a start, 14 Tune Hotels’ properties in Asia, Australia, England and Scotland are featured on Plateno’s booking engine.
Guangzhou-based Plateno operates over 2,000 hotels under five different brands across more than 300 cities throughout China. It also operates the country’s largest hospitality loyalty programme with over 80 million members who travel for business and leisure, domestically and overseas.
The Chinese outbound market is big as 97 million China residents travelled out of the country last year, a 16.8% increase from a year before. As of August this year, the year-on-year increase for the corresponding period is a staggering 17%.
Tune Hotels group CEO Mark Lankester said: “As more mainland Chinese citizens begin to look towards outbound travel to see and experience different parts of the world, the question is who do they rely on? This is a natural synergy whereby Plateno will be able to help their members in their outbound journeys by recommending hotels overseas that are in the same category as, for example, their 7Days Inn brand.”
He added that China is historically a very important market for Tune Hotels, and its properties are popular with mainland Chinese due to the connectivity provided by its sister companies, AirAsia and AirAsia X.
Plateno founder and co-chairman, Alex Zheng said, “Through this collaboration with Tune Hotels, Plateno looks forward to building a new business model that connects our members through a common platform towards achieving mutual benefits. I believe this will result in a significant impact on the travel industry in China.”
Ryanair’s partnership with Amadeus GDS improves its business travel offering
More business travel offering from Ryanair
Low fares airline, Ryanair, has signed a GDS partnership with Amadeus, Europe’s leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, allowing Amadeus-affiliated travel agents across Europe access to Ryanair’s low fares and Europe’s largest route network.
Ryanair said in a media release that the combination of its low fares, extensive route network at primary and secondary airports, and leading market share in most of Europe’s major travel markets, and Amadeus’ technology, would enable it to further improve its business travel offering.
Under the terms of the agreement, effective from 1 November, Amadeus subscribers will not be subject to any surcharge when booking Ryanair. The fares displayed via Amadeus will have parity with Ryanair’s other distribution channels, including its website.
The agreement also marks a significant milestone for Ryanair in its journey to appeal to a wider cross-section of travellers.
This partnership (Ryanair’s second GDS agreement) follows the August launch of Ryanair Business Plus and a dedicated corporate and group service, which will allow even more businesses access to Ryanair’s low fares, saving European companies millions in travel expenses every year.
This is the latest in an on-going programme of Ryanair customer improvements, including the launch of the airline’s new website, a new app with mobile boarding passes, allocated seating, a second carry-on bag allowance and a dedicated family service, Family Extra, as Ryanair continues to offer so much more than just the lowest fares.
Michael O’Leary, CEO Ryanair, said, “Ryanair is pleased to partner with Amadeus whose technology represents a significant opportunity for us to reach a wider range of business and corporate customers. With more than 27% of our customers already travelling on business, we are continuing to improve Europe’s best business service, with the lowest fares, most on-time flights and our tailored Business Plus service. For business travellers, corporations and TMCs, this agreement will mean greater access to our low fares and Europe’s largest route network.”
Added Holger Taubmann, Amadeus’ SVP distribution, “Ryanair is one of the world’s most successful low fare airlines so we are delighted the airline has seen the value of working with Amadeus to increase its reach, yield and merchandising capabilities. Our technology will enable travel agencies to book Ryanair flights easily and seamlessly. For our subscriber partners, this agreement underlines our commitment to continued innovation in order to offer the widest possible range of airline content.”
Travelport, BCD Travel strengthen partnership with new global agreement
Better support and services for BCD Travel’s customers
Travelport has entered into a long-term multi-yearglobal agreement with travel management company, BCD Travel, which marks a significant milestone in its more than 25-year business partnership with the travel company.
The agreement enables the two companies to offer expanded service and support to new and existing multinational customers. It will eventually provide BCD Travel’s travel agents with Travelport Smartpoint, a dynamic and interactive desktop technology for improving agent productivity and customer service.
The deal will also give BCD Travel access to Travelport’s industry-leading Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution.
Travelport Rich Content and Branding enables airlines to more effectively control how their fares and ancillaries are visually presented and described on travel agency screens, bringing agency screens more in line with the airline’s own website experience.
Introduced earlier this year the solution has 60 airlines have now signed up to participate, including leading carriers such as Delta, Avianca, Air India, Sun Country Airlines, Peruvian Airlines, Ryanair, British Airways, Iberia, easyJet, SilkAir, Singapore Airlines, Air China and United Airlines.
BCD Travel operates in more than 100 countries globally, and services about 30% of the top 100 largest companies in the world ranked by total annual airline volume.
Travel on AirAsia, stay in Hilton hotels
Stay in a Hilton hotel with points from AirAsia BIG and Hilton HHonors. / Image credit:Hilton International
AirAsia’s frequent travellers can earn points to stay in Hilton Hotels as AirAsia BIG has entered into a partnership with Hilton HHonors, the loyalty programme for Hilton Worldwide’s 11 distinct hotel brands.
AirAsia BIG chief executive officer, Alice Goh, said the partnership would allow members of both AirAsia BIG loyalty programme and Hilton HHonors to earn BIG points and HHonors points when they stay at any of the more than 4,200 hotels and timeshare properties in the Hilton chain worldwide.
“For every US$1 spent at Hilton hotels the guest will receive 10 Hhonors points and 2 BIG points, redeemable at any time with no blackout dates,” she added.
Traveller can accumulate the points and convert them for free flights to any destinations that AirAsia flies to.
Hilton Worldwide vice president of operations for Southeast Asia, William Costley said Hhonors currently has about 41 million members with 4.3 million reward night redeemed in 2012 alone.
“Members can redeem points for any room, anywhere, anytime including the most luxurious suites, in addition to gaining AirAsia BIG points that can be used to redeem free flights”, he said.
• Featured image (Tune Hotel Ahmedabad, India) credit: Tune Hotels
