French hospitality group Accor and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba have announced a strategic partnership to develop a series of digital applications and loyalty programmes to improve the consumer and traveller experience over the next five years.
The collaboration will leverage Alibaba’s nearly 700 million consumers across its China retail marketplaces to enable more Chinese travellers to enjoy Accor’s offerings.
Through Alibaba’s online travel agency platform, Fliggy, consumers can book Accor hotels, access its catering services, book entertainment and take advantage of other lifestyle services. Payments can be made with Alipay, the digital payment service operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.
In turn, Accor will also offer Chinese consumers a hassle-free hotel experience through its Haoke (means ‘welcome’ in Chinese) programme. Developed for Chinese travellers the certification programme ensures Accor’s hotels are ready to welcome Chinese guests by incorporating Chinese language, Chinese dishes on menus, Chinese-speaking staff and other services and payment systems that meet their needs.
(Image credit – Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour Hotel: Accor)
The two companies said in a statement the joining of forces would be instrumental to the roll-out of Accor’s soon-to-be-launched lifestyle loyalty program, ALL – Accor Live Limitless.
“Alibaba will make the programme’s services and benefits available to its massive consumer base, leveraging its ecosystem, consumer insights and digital marketing capabilities, accelerating the roll-out of ALL in China and around the world,” it added.
Gary Rosen, chairman and chief operating officer, Accor Greater China, said ALL forms “an integral part of Accor’s aggressive and visionary digital strategy leveraging the growing Chinese travel market.”
Sebastien Bazin: “This key collaboration with Alibaba will symbolically strengthen economic ties between China and France.” (Image credit: Accor)
Commenting of the partnership Sébastien Bazin, Accor’s chairman & chief executive officer, said: “China’s importance to the world’s tourism industry and this key collaboration with Alibaba will symbolically strengthen economic ties between China and France, while giving Chinese travellers access to exciting events and benefits through ALL – Accor Live Limitless.”
Daniel Zhang, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, added: “Over the past 20 years, Alibaba has formed two flywheels with one focused on consumers and the other on enterprises. Our consumer-facing business facilitates and stimulates consumption, of which travel consumption is an important segment.
“Through the Alibaba Business Operating System, we enable tourism industry partners such as Accor to fully digitise their business operations, from sales to marketing, brand building to member management and service innovations.”
Angel Zhao, president of Fliggy and senior vice president of Alibaba, sees the newly-formed partnership as a further step towards the digitisation of the tourism industry.
“We look forward to enabling the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers in Alibaba’s ecosystem to discover the world, and to enjoy stress-free and memorable travel with new digital experiences. By working with Accor, we will also be able to introduce a younger generation of consumers to the established Accor portfolio of hotels and lifestyle offerings.”
This latest cooperation between Alibaba and Accor follows the success of Accor’s flagship store on Fliggy, which was set up in 2016.
• Featured image credit: nito100/Getty Images
