Marriott, Alibaba to launch new booking portal

The joint venture formed by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba and the world's largest hotel group Marriott International eight months ago will put an exclusive booking portal online next week, said Marriott in Shanghai on Tuesday.

The website, which acts as a flagship store also accessible through Alibaba's travel platform Fliggy, will allow Chinese tourists to book the group's more than 600 properties in the Asia-Pacific area.

It is expected that all of the group's 6,500 properties in 127 countries will be accessible through the website in the future. This is the first time that Marriott has created a one-stop booking experience, and it is created exclusively for the Chinese market, since it acquired Starwood Hotels and Resorts in September 2016.