Accor and Alibaba announce strategic collaboration

Accor and Alibaba announce strategic collaboration

Chinese firm’s Fliggy will enable consumers to make travel bookings

Accor is to tap into the multi-million Chinese consumers who use the Alibaba Group’s online commerce platforms.

A strategic collaboration between the French hospitality giant and the Chinese online firm will give access to almost 700m Chinese users.

Alibaba’s travel arm Fliggy will enable consumers to book hotels, access catering services, reserve entertainment and other lifestyle services.

Payments will be made by using Alipay, a digital payment service operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.

The partnership will be instrumental in the introduction of a new lifestyle loyalty scheme, All – Accor Live Limitless, in China and around the world.

Accor chairman and chief executive Sebastien Bazin 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.”

Alibaba Group chief executive Daniel Zhang added: “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.”