Alibaba, Marriott Team Up to Serve Chinese Tourists Abroad
August 07 2017 - 7:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Liza Lin
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it would team up with U.S. hotel
giant Marriott International Inc. to expand its online-travel
footprint as more Chinese venture abroad.
Chinese consumers will be able to use Alibaba's travel-service
website and app to book rooms in the more than 6,200 hotel
properties world-wide that Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott
operates under such names as Marriott, Courtyard, Ritz-Carlton,
Sheraton, Alibaba said Monday. They will also be able to use the
same Alipay smartphone payment platform they use at home when they
stay in Marriott properties abroad.
Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba, based in Hangzhou, is
expanding beyond traditional retail categories such as clothing
into entertainment and travel bookings as the Chinese appetite for
world travel rises in tandem with income.
Alibaba's latest tie-up throws a challenge to China's largest
travel website, Ctrip.com International Ltd, which in November
acquired U.K. travel search engine Skyscanner Ltd. In the past year
Ctrip has also invested in three U.S. travel operators and an
Indian tourist search website, seeking to position itself as the
first choice online for Chinese traveling abroad.
China's online travel-sales market this year will be worth 584
billion yuan ($86.9 billion), up more than 20% from 2016, forecasts
industry researcher Euromonitor International.
Write to Liza Lin at Liza.Lin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 07, 2017 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
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