Marriott International and Alibaba Group to launch joint venture

The giants’ partnership will be established in order to boost travel experience for hundreds of millions of travelers on the Chinese market

 

The deal between the two companies will allow Marriott International to use its global hospitality expertise, while Alibaba’s retail virtual platform will link international brands in order to reach all 500 million monthly users and increase travel flow for Chinese people eager for international visits.

Practically, the joint venture consists in strategically managing and operating both companies’ resources, in order to increase the Chinese-language-based webistes, such as Marriott.com and Starwoodhotels.com, as well as the company’s app and storefronts on Alibaba’s travel service platform.

The loyalty programs of both Alibaba Group and Marriott International will be directly linked and they will be especially tailored for the needs of the Chinese traveler.

“We are proud to join forces with Marriott International – combining our large-scale consumer base, leading-edge technology and consumer insights with their unparalleled hospitality expertise. Together, we are elevating and redefining the travel experience for Chinese consumers to be more seamless and personalized as they embark on adventures to discover the world,” commented the CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang.

On the other hand, Marriott will benefit a bigger share of the boosting Chinese travel market, while lowering the distribution costs.

“We have long admired Alibaba’s digital expertise and deep understanding of Chinese consumers’ needs and behaviours. By forming this partnership, we are pairing our hospitality expertise with Alibaba’s digital travel platform, retail expertise and digital payment platform, Alipay, and driving membership to our loyalty programs. With the growing number of Chinese consumers exploring new destinations, this venture will introduce our hotels worldwide to this new and growing traveling class,” Arne Sorenson, the president of Marriott International, replied.

With the medium wage slowly on the rise in China, the citizens of the East Asian country have started to search for better, higher quality travel services, along with other products. As expected by analysts, more than 700 million people will travel until 2022, therefore both Marriott and Alibaba have accepted this challenge in the awaiting of the opportunities that the Chinese travel industry is able to provide during the next 5 years segment. 

 

Source: breakingtravelnews.com