Japan-based comms giant LINE announced a new five-way partnership deal with Agoda, Lions Travel, KKday and Tripresso to create what they believe will be “a new model of tourism e-commerce”, dubbed LINE Travel, at a press conference yesterday.

The new concept will be rolled out to LINE users across Taiwan – that;s about 2,100 10,000  people — to provide a “one-stop travel booking service” with access to an impressive vast of travel goods, such as 95 airline flights, hundreds of thousands of global accommodation options ,travel experiences in 80 countries and group trips from more than 30 established travel agencies – not to mention  in excess of 15,000 popular tourist attractions.

On top of which, it will be possible for LINE account holders to share their travel itinerary with their LINE friends and acquire LINE Points kickbacks on participating bookings.

“Digitally savvy, mobile-first consumers in Taiwan increasingly turn to one-stop apps”

Lin Shihuan, head of tourism services at LINE Taiwan’s e-commerce department, said that from his own experience, observing the travel habits of Taiwanese consumers, the time and effort required for people to book a holiday by themselves is no less an undertaking than “writing a three-credit final report” — LINE Travel is a solution to make travel planning and booking more convenient.

“Digitally savvy, mobile-first consumers in Taiwan increasingly turn to one-stop apps like LINE Travel, so we’re thrilled that through this partnership, LINE’s 19 million plus customers can access Agoda’s extensive range for properties including hotels, villas, hostels or Agoda homes, to plan their next trip.

Not only can they directly make bookings this way, they can also share itineraries with friends in their network,” said Spencer Low, managing director for Greater China at Agoda.

This is the second piece of Japanese involving Agoda this week after the Booking Holdings owned OTA struck a deal with JTB Corp yesterday.