The agreement comes as part of The Co-operative’s plan to extend its travel capabilities into the TMC sector and help make the business travel division, Co-op Travel Management, a truly unique player in the corporate travel market.
Travelport will provide Co-op Travel Management with real-time access to content from over 400 airlines, unique hotel properties, and 35,000 car rental locations. With over 400,000 hotels, from global chains to unique independent properties worldwide, travel experts from Co-operative Travel and its standalone corporate travel division will use the Hotelzon platform for all its hotel bookings, reservation management, and travel policy implementations. This will provide corporations and their staff with special negotiated rates and other offerings from independent hotels to broader capabilities such as reporting and data integration with back-office systems.
Furthermore, with over 250 airlines signed up to use Travelport’s unique merchandising technology, the corporate travel division will be able to display, gain insights from and sell branded fare families and ancillary products (such as paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc.) from these airlines.
Commenting on the new agreement, Alistair Rowland, Group General Manager – Specialist Retail at The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “Travelport’s industry-leading technology and content will help to differentiate us in the growing corporate travel market by meeting the demands of our customers and providing the best possible service”.
Mike Crotty, Head of Co-op Travel Management commented: “Using technology is a key aspect of Co-op Travel Management and our partnership with Travelport is the next step in making our service even more sophisticated with this market-leading software.”
Paul Broughton, Regional Managing Director of UK and Ireland at Travelport, added: “Travelport is delighted to support Midcounties Co-operative Travel as its technology partner to help it differentiate the corporate travel division and achieve its goals for growth. We are proud to power their business, help enable them to sell more tailored itineraries and stay connected to their travellers at every stage of the journey.”
