SBC Travel Group, an emerging player in the travel technology, digital payments and business loyalty industry, has today announced its new white label travel benefits platform ‘SBC Direct Connect’.
Officially set to launch at ITB Asia on 16 – 18 October, the platform will further strengthen the company’s position as a leading technology provider for the travel and hospitality sector.
The travel and hospitality industry is currently facing a number of major challenges that affect how travel is consumed, booked and transacted. These range from rising Online Travel Agent (OTA) commission costs, to a significant decline in direct hotel bookings, the inability to identify new market segments, delayed or non-payments, and inefficient settlement procedures.
Perhaps most confronting is the increasing reliance of consumers on OTAs, who processed more than 75% of global hotel bookings last year, costing hotels anywhere between 15% to 25% commission per booking. It is expected that OTA commissions would continue to increase as OTAs race to secure a larger share of the market.
This paves the way for a new era of travel benefit solutions, derived from disruptive technology platforms that will re-shape the future of travel bookings for operators and customers alike.
Soon to be unveiled at ITB Asia next month, ‘SBC Direct Connect’ is SBC Travel Group’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) response to these specific industry challenges and pain points.
The innovative middleware platform streamlines the travel industry supply chain by directly connecting hospitality and travel suppliers – such as airlines, hotels and tourism attraction operators – to large businesses with established closed user groups (CUG) looking to increase customer loyalty and overall profitability through a white label travel benefits solution.
The platform’s unique selling point is built around the core service that enables travel suppliers to connect directly with the consumer.
SBC Direct Connect will disrupt the inefficiencies of traditional payment systems by facilitating new payment methods such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, QR pay and Crypto Currencies.
Furthermore, the platform has the capability to enable additional payment types specific to different geographies, providing exceptional flexibility and convenience to the modern traveller.
Travel suppliers on the other hand can expect to benefit from a minimum 33% cost reduction over traditional payment methods for cross border payments, and up to 75% faster fund transfer speeds.
The platform provides both travel suppliers and community groups (CUG’s) with a variety of other products and services including hotel booking engines, multi-currency prepaid travel card functionality, rewards and loyalty platform management, digital voucher and anti-fraud ticketing solutions, digital and crypto currency issuance and management, and a range of comprehensive payment and collection tools.
Additionally, businesses and community group members will enjoy a wide range of value-add incentives, such as attractive hotel partner rates on over 175,000 hotels worldwide, client branding on all travel agency assets, and access to a VIP concierge service that provides personalised travel itineraries for members, including flights, accommodation and experiences.
Daryn Griggs, SBC Travel Group CEO, commented “We are excited by the upcoming launch of our SBC Direct Connect platform and the critical role it will play in the future of travel bookings.
“Our team’s industry expertise and knowledge of disruptive technologies has already proven successful with the signing of a number of hotel chains and large closed user groups in the Chinese market,” he said.
SBC Direct Connect will launch at ITB Asia 16-18 October 2019.
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