The deal will see Travelport expand its operations in China

Travelport has announced a new content and data partnership agreement with Alitrip, the online travel platform of the Alibaba Group.

With this partnership, Alitrip will have access to Travelport’s pricing and availability data to support its own fare and shopping platform, as well as the use of Travelport’s suite of flagship shopping products: ePricing and Search Control Console.

It is hoped these will improve Alitrip’s content richness and operational efficiency.

Zheng Zhou, general manager of Alitrip’s transportation business unit said: “We are impressed with the quality of Travelport’s content feed which supports our online platform.

“With this partnership we can now have a more efficient way to engage the wider agency community and bring them onto the Alitrip platform.

“This will provide our users with the best fare options.”

The partnership agreement also enables Alitrip to expand their merchant and customer base outside of mainland China, working with Travelport and Travelport enabled agencies.

On the other side of the equation, Travelport’s connected agents and partners will benefit from having a simpler access to the growing demand from mainland China by participating on the Alitrip platform.

Mark Meehan, managing director, Asia Pacific, Travelport, described the agreement: “We are delighted to have Alitrip as our newest online partner.

“Travelport has led the development of technologies that support online travel platforms such as Alitrip.

“We are excited to work with the most successful name in e-commerce and help bring that same success to online travel commerce.”