Expansion in Asia and Africa: TUI Blue set to Grow to 300+ Hotels Worldwide

Industry News Expansion in Asia and Africa: TUI Blue set to Grow to 300+ Hotels Worldwide

By TUI Group

TUI Group will continue to expand its successful and profi table hotel segment. Following the relaunch of its operating business, the global hotel brand TUI Blue is again focusing on expansion and aims to grow to 300+ hotels.

The focus is on the development of new regions for expansion in Southeast Asia, China, Africa and the Middle East. An important driver for the future growth strategy are international partnerships in which TUI Blue hotels are operated either under management contracts or by franchisees.

“TUI has a an unrivalled strong expertise in designing, developing and successfully operating leisure hotel brands as well as developing holiday destinations”, said Erik Friemuth, Managing Director TUI Hotels & Resorts. “TUI Blue’s new management and franchise model allows our future partners to benefi t from this and off er guests unique holiday experiences. Together, we aim to become the leading leisure hotel brand with more than 300 hotels worldwide.”

The TUI Blue business model was presented to investors as well as representatives of the hotel industry at a hybrid event in Dubai today. In the metropolis at the Arabian Gulf and Hong Kong, TUI Blue will establish its own hotel development team. “We are delighted that Wesam Okasha, an experienced Global Head of Business Development, has joined us. Among other roles, he previously held the position of Senior Director Development West Africa for Hilton,” says Artur Gerber, Managing Director TUI Blue. “Our dedicated team in Asia has already started and has successfully managed to sign contracts for the fi rst TUI Blue hotels in China.”

The TUI BLUE model off ers partners the opportunity to increase the performance and revenue of their hotels, optimise costs and make hotel operations even more effi cient. In addition to TUI’s operational expertise and marketing and sales power with 27 million customers per year, it also provides access to a digital hotel platform. The smart technology enables effi cient hotel management and a seamless digital customer experience. For example, through the digital front offi ce which streamlines collaboration across departments and diff erent hotel areas in order to process the guest’s wishes faster and more effi ciently. All elements of the comprehensive ecosystem are based on the long-standing knowhow in designing holiday experiences. https://www.4hoteliers.com/news/story/22375

Image credit: https://www.tui-blue.com/en/en/ hotels/tui-blue-bahari-zanzibar/#c805

New Booking Sy

By Mitra Sorrells

This Travel Africa reprint from Phocuswire is focused on the short term rental segment of the travel booking market. Read the full article using the link at the end of the presentation.

Eff orts to create decentralized, blockchainbased travel booking platforms have been in development for several years but now two new systems are debuting – one for hotels and the other for short-term rentals.

The creation of these new direct-to-consumer channels, for hotels by Winding Tree and rentals by Dtravel, marks a new stage in the evolution of blockchain for travel distribution – and evidence that what may have initially been viewed as a fad is now gaining much broader acceptance and adoption.

And while these two new off erings are launching with diff erent strategies, both are focused on putting more control and more revenue into the hands of hoteliers and rental hosts.

Dtravel’s pivot

Dtravel launched last June as a marketplace for blockchain-based

bookings of private

accommodations. Now the company is changing its model. After meeting with hosts over the last several months to learn more about their needs, it will launch a direct booking product that is set to go live in May.

“There’s a real desire [from hosts] to drive more bookings back to their direct sites,” says Melanie Amos, head of operations at Dtravel.

“OTAs (online travel agents) bring a lot of demand and there are some benefi ts that come with it. But for a lot of hospitality entrepreneurs, vacation rental property managers, they are getting repeat bookings and repeat guests, so being able to drive them to a direct booking product was something that was going to add real value to their business.”

Dtravel is starting with a minimum viable product launching in partnership with Hostaway. Through an API integration to its property management system, Hostaway customers have the option to “turn on” Dtravel as a distribution channel, enabling on-chain bookings without a big learning curve or change in operations for hosts.

“But the booking is facilitated through a smart contract. That’s where the transparency, the