In the news: Flight Centre Travel Group’s acquisition of stake in 3Mundi, Deem’s Intelligent Attach solution for corporate travel, YTL Hotels’ new portal for Singapore, communications solution for Star Cruises
TRAVEL AGENCY: FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL GROUP EXPANDS FOOTPRINT IN EUROPE, ACQUIRES STAKE IN 3MUNDI
FLT’s European presence strengthened with latest acquisition (Image credit: Flight Centre Travel Group)
The Flight Centre Travel Group (FLT) expands its European presence by taking a minority interest in 3Mundi, a travel and technology company with operations in France, Switzerland and Spain.
The Australian retail travel outlet will initially invest in a 25% interest in the Paris-based business, with additional put and call agreements in place to allow FLT to potentially increase its holding to 100% in the future.
The cost of the acquisition is not disclosed.
3Mundi was established in 2006 by Jordy Staelen and Simon Renaud and has been the licensee in France and Switzerland for FLT’s global corporate travel management network, FCM, since 2015.
FLT managing director Graham Turner said the investment in 3Mundi would strengthen the company’s global corporate network, and would give his company a platform for further expansion in large and rapidly growing markets.
“France and Switzerland are important corporate travel hubs for our existing customers and for new multi-national accounts that we are targeting globally.”
He added the investment would strengthen FLT’s European presence, which now includes businesses in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland.
The acquisition will also deliver new technology, products and tools that can be adapted and rolled out in other geographies and brands within FLT’s global network.
“There is also opportunity to work with 3Mundi’s team to develop other new products and offerings in the future,” added Graham.
3Mundi, in addition to its corporate travel businesses in France and Switzerland, operates a Barcelona-based business travel lab that is successfully developing proprietary artificial intelligence technology and products for the travel industry.
The Paris-based company is expected to turn over in the order of €100 million (US$111.4 million) this financial year.
The acquisition is expected to be completed this July.
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: DEEM’S NEW SOLUTION IMPROVES CORPORATE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE, INCREASES HOTEL ATTACH RATES
Deem Intelligent Attach utilises AI and machine learning technologies. (Image credit: sodafish/iStock)
Deem, a leading mobile and cloud technology provider for the business travel industry, has released Deem Intelligent Attach, which it said could increase hotel attach rates by 16%.
“Low hotel attachment rates – the rates at which employees use company-compliant travel software to book hotels when booking a trip –continue to be a major stumbling block in corporations’ efforts to rein in business travel costs, a new study shows,” said the company in a media statement.
The report, U.S. Business Traveler: How Loyalty, Technology and Preferred Channels are Impacting Today’s Business Travel, looks at a wide range of business traveller behaviours including shopping, booking, the impact of loyalty programmes, their understanding of company policy, their use of mobile technology and factors contributing to low hotel attachment rates.
Deem said its new solution “utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to analyse corporate and agency preferences, past traveller behaviour, and employee profiles. in addition to 200 million sentiments extracted from more than 60 million traveller reviews of more than 750 thousand hotels.”
The platform then matches corporate travellers with preferred hotels by presenting optimized accommodations from either the GDS or Booking.com
“Travellers can quickly find lodging that meets their needs while using compliant tools and adhering to cost-conscious travel policies,” said Gadi Bashvitz, vice president and group lead, Deem.
“In early testing, Intelligent Attach increased hotel attach rates 16% for one of Europe’s leading online consumer travel agencies.”
The release of Deem’s Intelligent Attach comes on the heels of a report published by research firm Phocuswright and co-sponsored by Deem.
The study shows that less than half of travellers book the hotel portion of their business trips using their company’s designated travel management tools. Instead, most travellers book their lodging outside preferred channels, skirting company policies, driving up overall travel costs and hindering duty of care.
“Travellers are booking out of channel because they don’t have the level of choice, are not presented with hotels that match their personal preferences and are within the company policy, or simply can’t find what they want,” said Tony D’Astolfo, chief commercial officer, Deem.
“As a result, they have to wade through hundreds of properties that are outside their desired location, preference and policies.”
The Phocuswright also study finds that more than half of mid-sized companies have a travel policy, but convenience of hotels outside the corporate channel are luring travellers to book out of policy. Twenty-nine per cent of moderately managed travellers are violating policy because of loyalty preferences.
Rizzo said hotel attachment rates continue to lag. “While some companies are making improvements, most have attachment rates well below 50%. It’s clear this is a problem for almost everyone. It leads to increased use of non-preferred hotels and undercuts efforts to control corporate travel spending.”
Deem Intelligent Attach is available to Deem’s clients as part of the newly released Work Fource platform, a next-generation software suite that offers an alternative to the present corporate online booking tools used by many businesses.
HOSPITALITY: YTL HOTELS LAUNCHES NEW PORTAL FOR SINGAPORE
Pangkor Laut Resort, one of the featured property in new portal (Image credit: YTL Hotels)
YTL Hotels has unveiled a direct booking portal, singapore.ytlhotels.com,featuring new deals and packages curated specifically for the Singapore market.
Geraldine Dreiser, vice president of marketing & communications at YTL Hotels, said the group developed the portal customised for the Singapore market first “to provide an all-encompassing platform” to cater to Singaporean’s “ever-growing appetite for not just travel, but also unique experiences.”
The portal provides an easy option for users to filter all hotels and resorts by the type of experience they want to have. It also serves as a one stop-shop for holiday bookings by linking seamlessly to Skyscanner to make it convenient for guests to complete their flight bookings.
The new site is also mobile-optimised for bookings made on the go.
The portal kicks off with 10 short getaways for Singaporeans travelling to luxury resorts such as Pangkor Laut Resort, Tanjong Jara Resort, Gaya Island Resort, The Surin Phuket, as well as summer and winter offerings at The Green Leaf Niseko Village and Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse.
CRUISES: SMOOTHER SAILING FOR STAR CRUISES WITH COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS
SuperStar Virgo benefits from use of technology (Image credit: Star Cruises)
Star Cruises has deployed the Avaya IP Office platform, a suite of contact and voice solutions, to enhance onboard communications and for the conveniences of its passengers.
The solutions enable the cruise line to have seamless global connectivity with multi-channel communications, as well as handling higher volume of both inbound and outbound customer service calls with minimal lead downtime.
Star Cruises also benefits from faster response to customer needs with accurate re-routing of inbound calls while minimising call-waiting time; run on a single global platform for both land and sea, regardless of the quality of internet connection in different countries; always-on engagement regardless of the time zones or the communication platform used.
“Avaya IP Office has enabled Star Cruises to accelerate its growth through a seamless experience for both our customers and employees and we hope to expand our deployment to countries like Japan and Korea,” said Henry Pang, vice president, information technology for Genting Hong Kong Limited.
•Featured image credit (the Louvre, Paris): paolofur/iStock