Sabre Corporation has acquired hospitality e-commerce provider Techsembly to expand and accelerate its hospitality retailing solutions.
Based in the UK with offices in Singapore and Hong Kong, Techsembly offers a fully automated e-commerce solution enabling global hotels to manage multiple online property stores, products, and logistics on one centralised platform, as well as selling and fulfilling of gift cards.
Sabre Hospitality’s SynXis Retail Studio enables hoteliers to retail an unlimited number of products and services with room reservations, resulting in more opportunities to create additional revenue streams beyond the room, differentiate their brand further and increase guest satisfaction.
By combining and integrating Techsembly’s e-commerce marketplace and gift card capabilities with SynXis Retail Studio, Sabre will create a single destination that offers an unlimited number of product types at all stages of the guest journey – replacing the need for hoteliers to manage multiple sites and providing a seamless guest experience while accelerating revenue.
Scott Wilson, president of Sabre Hospitality, said: “Not only will this acquisition accelerate our product roadmap via Techsembly’s marketplace and gift card capabilities, but it also enables us to come together and offer the most robust and effective suite of integrated retailing solutions designed to meet the retailing needs of today’s modern hoteliers.”
“Joining Sabre will allow us to expand and offer game-changing technology and increase our reach to more customers around the world,” added Amy Read, co-founder and CEO of Techsembly. “We look forward to bringing our knowledgeable team and deep understanding of global e-commerce technology, luxury brands, the digital customer experience as well as pricing and payments to Sabre Hospitality.”
As part of the transaction, Sabre will welcome Techsembly’s e-commerce experts and developers to the company.
The wait appears to be over, as Sri Lanka finally gets ready to launch a new destination marketing campaign come end-July. The 12-month campaign, which comes with a price tag of 1.45 billion rupees (US$17.6 million), will hit key markets the UK, Germany, France, Italy, India, Ukraine, Russia, West Asia, Scandinavia, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
As part of the campaign, Sri Lanka will also commit to participation at travel shows in other markets.
Officials said this is the first major promotion campaign in 15 years.
Chalaka Gajabahu, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, said: “We have appointed a strategic and creative agency, while the PR and social media agency will be soon finalised. We will then go ahead with a two-phased marketing blitz, where the first phase starting end-July is focused on rejuvenating Sri Lanka.”
He also told TTG Asia that the first part of the campaign is aimed at countering negative publicity and creating awareness of Sri Lanka’s readiness to welcome the world.
He elaborated: “Some foreign TV channels are still showing scenes of a (government) protest that happened last year in July. We have come a long way in our recovery, and need to tell the world that Sri Lanka is a safe and welcoming destination.”
More than 1,000 social media influencers from across Sri Lanka’s key markets are being invited this year for a Seeing is Believing campaign which is now underway.
Gajabahu also shared that a model is being developed to enable the country to attract travellers across all seasons, and to showcase Sri Lanka’s wide-ranging points of appeal.
“We want to promote our DNA of adventure, wellness, culture, wildlife and nature, sun and sand, all in one island,” he said.