Sunrate, headquartered in Hong Kong, announced plans to integrate its online travel solution with Agoda’s digital travel booking platform.
“At Sunrate, we are committed to continuously improving our solutions so that, in the end, we can be the one-stop B2B partner for the travel sector, satisfying diverse business demands for our travel partners and clients,” Shawn Qin, the company’s card business leader, noted in a news release. “We are looking forward to working with even more firms in the travel sector and beyond.”
Sunrate says that its travel solution involves the issuing of virtual cards and that it can let online travel firms set spending limits, define use, and pick vendors.
According to the company, “this gives its travel partners total control over how expenditure is divided and recorded.”
Agoda became the first online travel operator in the Asia Pacific region to accept Visa credit card payments earlier this year.
The payment program is now accessible to HSBC Bank Malaysia credit cardholders, but it will soon be extended to consumers in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, according to sources.
Consumers are increasingly turning to digital solutions to pay for air travel and mitigate travel challenges, according to recent research.
Consumer usage of airline booking apps and websites climbed 16% in the second quarter of 2022, making it the fastest-growing digital activity among those analyzed in the study “How The World Does Digital: The Impact Of Payments On Digital Transformation.”
The use of apps to book and pay for train, bus, and taxi rides climbed by 15%, making it the second-fastest-growing type of digital activity.
These data show a strong desire to travel despite inflation, as well as the rising digitization of how individuals pay for travel. Some of the digital tools available to consumers this holiday season will allow them to pay for and manage their trips via public transportation and air travel.
