Marriott International and Carlson Hotels recently detailed ambitious plans for Asia/Pacific growth. Marriott intends to double its portfolio in China by 2015. By year-end, Marriott plans to have 60 hotels representing six of its brands open in China, including Ritz-Carltons opening in Hong Kong and Shanghai Pudong. "China's buoyant tourism industry will host 2.1 billion domestic and international tourists this year, an increase of 12 percent over 2009," Marriott chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott Jr. said. "Within the next 10 years, China is expected to be the world's single largest source of international tourism and its number-one travel destination." Carlson aims to add 75 hotels to the Asia/Pacific region by 2013, more than doubling its portfolio of 51 hotels in the region. More than half will be Radissons, including hotels opening this year in India, Philippines, Thailand and Brunei.
Travelport Buys Asian Search Engine To Boost Hotel ReachTravelport's May acquisition of Singapore-based consumer travel search engine Sprice will bulk up the hotel content in its global distribution systems and enhance shopping capabilities, the company said. The four-year-old Sprice.com search engine has an online presence in Europe and Asia, where it offers air and hotel metasearch and more than 120,000 user-generated hotel reviews. Travelport plans to adopt some of Sprice's consumer-focused functionality and apply it to the GDS channel. Travelport said Sprice will connect GDS clients with more than 240,000 international hotel properties and help power new merchandizing capabilities, comparison shopping and bring content generally outside of the GDS into the agency channel. Travelport plans to use Sprice for non-GDS hotel inventory through its upcoming Universal Desktop by establishing an application programming interface option "for those travel suppliers who would not normally consider participation in the GDS channel."
American Express Unveils Mobile Travel SolutionAmerican Express Business Travel in May launched a mobile travel solution to allow travelers to manage itineraries and reservations through mobile devices, regardless of the booking channel they use. The tool, dubbed MobileXtend, is powered by technology developed by American Express that enables the transmission of travel reservation information to the traveler's mobile device in any global distribution system. Also involved in developing MobileXtend were technology suppliers WorldMate, ConTgo and Rearden Commerce, which has developed its own mobile solution.
BTN, NBTA Partner For Education In Sept. 6-8 Lisbon ShowManaging European business travel and meetings in a new era is the focus of an educational program
Business Travel News and
EuroBTN with the National Business Travel Association and NBTA Europe are partnering to present in Lisbon, Sept. 6-8. Sessions will focus on such topics as travel alternatives, alternative buying strategies, hotel negotiating and global versus local travel management.
Business Travel News will name its 2010 European Travel Manager of the Year during the opening night reception.
BTN editor-in-chief David Meyer also will facilitate a special session for those from companies that spent €15 million or more last year in European booked air volume who complete a survey. For more about European 100 benchmarking or the conference, contact
[email protected].