The partnership between the French hospitality company and Chinese e-commerce specialists will enable Alibaba’s Chinese clients to access Accor’s hospitality products.

Clients using Alibaba’s travel arm, Fliggy, can book hotels and entertainment, as well as access catering and lifestyle services. Payments can then be made using Alipay – a digital payment services operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.

Accor will also offer Chinese consumers its Haoke certification programme, incorporating Chinese-language, Chinese dishes on menus and Chinese-speaking staff.

Sebastien Bazin, chairman and chief executive at Accor, said: “We are excited to enter into this strategic global partnership with Alibaba, a leading global technology company in the world.

“China’s importance to the world’s tourism industry and this key collaboration with Alibaba will symbolically strengthen economic ties between China and France while giving Chinese travellers access to exciting events and benefits through ALL – Accor Live Limitless.”

Daniel Zhang, executive chairman at Alibaba Group, said: “Over the past 20 years, Alibaba has formed two flywheels, with one focused on consumers and the other on enterprises.

“Our consumer-facing business facilitates and stimulates consumption, of which travel consumption is an important segment.

“Through the Alibaba Business Operating System, we enable tourism industry partners such as Accor to fully digitise their business operations, from sales to marketing, brand-building to member management and service innovations.”