Caesars Entertainment and Fliggy, the travel service platform of Alibaba Group, have formed a strategic partnership to give Chinese travelers convenient access to Caesars’ Las Vegas resorts with its new virtual flagship store on Fliggy.
Through the Fliggy flagship store, Chinese travelers will be able to book 10 hotels in Las Vegas: Caesars Palace, Flamingo Las Vegas, The LINQ Hotel + Experience, Harrah’s Las Vegas, The Cromwell, Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood Resort, Bally’s Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas and Rio All-Suite Hotel. With this partnership, more than 700 million consumers across Alibaba’s platforms will have seamless access to Caesars’ 23,000 guest rooms and suites.
This partnership follows Caesars’ existing relationship with Alipay, the digital payment platform operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial Services Group. Since December 2017, Caesars has enabled Alipay mobile payments for Chinese travelers across 150 locations, including its restaurants, retail stores and attractions.
Caesars’ flagship store will allow for a more efficient and frictionless travel experience, from booking all the way to payment and itinerary management. Chinese travelers can use Alipay and Fliggy to plan their itinerary with a points-of-interest map and search for nearby shopping discounts. Geo-location-based “Discover” functions within the Alipay app help users find nearby merchants and receive promotional information. Users will even be able to receive after-sales care and follow-up promotional information from merchants after their trip ends.
“Caesars Entertainment is committed to meeting the needs of the Chinese traveler, and Alibaba has been an important platform in our effort to welcome more Chinese visitors to our resorts,” said Annette Weishaar, SVP of partnerships and channel marketing at Caesars Entertainment, in a statement.
The partnership between Caesars and Fliggy aims to serve Chinese travelers seeking experiences abroad. Chinese outbound travel has boomed in recent years and is expected to continue growing. According to China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chinese tourists took more than 140 million trips abroad in 2018. Overseas spending by Chinese tourists is forecast to reach more than $315 billion a year by 2020. By 2022, tourist arrivals from China to the United States is forecast by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office to reach 4.5 million visits annually, and Las Vegas is one of the most popular U.S. destinations among Chinese tourists.