Digital travel platform Agoda and Meituan announced a strategic partnership catering to the resurgent Chinese travel market.
This collaboration will encompass the sharing of resources including hotel inventories and various other hotel-related content such as photos, reviews, and facilities.
These exchanges will take place within critical business domains, including supply chain management, product offerings, technology, data intelligence, and more.
Through this initiative, Agoda will leverage its extensive overseas hotel supply network to launch more platform-exclusive accommodations at competitive prices on Meituan, thereby offering Chinese travellers a wider range of cost-effective choices for their outbound trips.
In addition, Agoda and Meituan have jointly launched “Chinese Preferred” hotels in approximately 1,000 sought-after destinations worldwide.
These hotels have been handpicked for Chinese travellers considering language needs and convenient payment options.
The two entities will embark on more collaborative marketing initiatives during peak outbound travel seasons, such as the summer holidays and National Day holidays.
Throughout this year’s summer vacation period, Agoda and Meituan also engaged in a close collaboration regarding hotel technology and AI initiatives.
Throughout the summer holiday season, Meituan leveraged Agoda’s content bank of hotel images, descriptions and customer reviews to create AI-generated videos for over 3,000 hotels, thereby increasing user convenience and information available when selecting accommodations.
Looking ahead, they will further expand their focus on AI-driven initiatives together.
Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda, said, “We look forward to a more in-depth partnership with Meituan to provide Chinese customers with even better travel products and services.”
“We want to leverage both brands’ differentiated advantages in technology and innovation to maximise their experience. We believe this partnership can further energise China’s outbound travel market, particularly during peak periods such as the National Day holiday,” Omri added.
China’s outbound tourism sector is experiencing a resurgence, coinciding with rapid growth in Meituan’s overseas accommodation division.
Between January and August 2023 alone, Meituan’s bookings for overseas accommodations surpassed the total for the entire year of 2019, with particularly robust booking activity in regions such as Hong Kong, Macau,, Japan and Korea including Southeast Asia.
Zhang Chuan, Senior Vice President of Meituan, said, “As a technology-driven retailer, Meituan has also been expanding its overseas hotel and travel business in recent years to make life more enjoyable for its users.”
“We look forward to a strong and mutually beneficial expanded partnership between Meituan and Agoda that will benefit our customer base. We hope to offer better services, boost the quality and efficiency of overseas hotels, and promote long-term development of the travel industry,” he concluded
