Tourism & Hospitality | Saturday 30 March, 2019 3:37 am |

Accor has signed a landmark global partnership agreement with Saudi Arabia-based Al Tayyar Travel Group, the Middle East’s leading technology-powered travel and tourism company.

This significant agreement allows the French hotels group to give access to its entire portfolio of 4,800 hotels and resorts in 100 countries worldwide to Al Tayya’s customer base through its online and retail channels, according to a press release on Thursday.

Accor, the world-leading augmented hospitality group, will provide the Saudi company with direct access to real-time rates and availability across Accor’s hospitality portfolio. Therefore, this step will help strengthen Accor’s visibility and sales capabilities in major regional and international customer source markets through Al Tayyar’s extensive online and retail channels.

This partnership agreement was penned by Senior vice president, global sales organisation for Accor Markus Keller, and group CEO of Al Tayyar Travel Group Abdullah Al Dawood at the Accor headquarters in Paris, and was attended by senior executives from both companies.

Markus Keller commented: “This mutually-beneficial agreement provides us with a prime opportunity to amplify awareness of our unrivalled portfolio of diverse brands and lifestyle experiences around the globe to some of the region’s most dynamic and travel-hungry consumer markets, in particular Saudi Arabia, via Al Tayyar Travel Group’s leading brands and platforms as well as their far-reaching retail and online channels.”

This mutual agreement reinforces Accor’s distribution capabilities in major growth markets and bolsters its robust growth from the Middle East to major destinations including the US, Asia, and Europe.

Abdullah Al Dawood noted: “Accor is a global brand and connecting with them on our platform will bring thousands of well-known hotels to our travellers, giving greater choice and convenience. With over 90 million online sessions last year, we have the largest travel platform in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, which is why hotel brands such as Accor choose us as key regional partners.”

On Wednesday, Accor announced the appointment of Johny Zakhem as the new chief financial officer (CFO) for the group’s operations in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).