UK-based rail booking service Loco2 is bought by Voyages SNCF, one of France's largest OTA selling European rail tickets and passes, hotels, attractions and tours and activities.
The ability for passengers in crisis to communicate with an airline via Facebook Messenger or chatbots provides instant relief. Implementing chatbots helps drive bookings, ancillary sales and customer satisfaction.
Tongcheng Tourism is said to eye a strategic investment in Hongtu Airlines, as China’s OTAs seek to extend on supply and demand sides to gain customers and build their own core advantages by providing a full range of services.
Sabre Labs that explores capabilities that will affect travel over the next decade, believes this open approach will spur exponential growth in AI and the services that are built on it.
“There are the really eye-watering numbers showing that on one day, November 11, 2016, more than 100 of the online platform’s suppliers hit revenue of about USD 736,000.”
Emirates' decision to make their offerings available for booking on Alitrip (Fliggy) via an NDC API indicates the readiness of intermediaries in China to embrace new developments.
A report shows a positive correlation between Google search data and hotel demand measured by STR. Google reports that 46% of travellers say they make their booking decision on mobile devices.
By 2021, China will add $1.8 trillion in new consumption, roughly the size of Germany’s consumer economy today, according to a report by BCG and AliResearch.