Noluniverse moved to strengthen inbound tourism competitiveness by expanding Japanese sales channels for domestic accommodation. Noluniverse said on July 13 it signed a strategic partnership with Japanese hotel distribution company Apple World Inc. This is Noluniverse's first global hotel distribution partnership with a Japanese company.

Under the partnership, Noluniverse will supply about 30,000 South Korean accommodation listings from its inventory to Apple World's network of Japanese travel agencies and global sales channels. Domestic accommodation partners will secure new overseas distribution channels, including local Japanese travel agencies. Japanese travellers will be able to book South Korean accommodation products on local sites, improving access to domestic accommodation products in Japan.

Apple World operates a global hotel reservation platform for Japanese travel agencies and distributes about 400,000 properties in about 200 countries worldwide. It has built a B2B distribution network through long-standing partnerships with local Japanese travel agencies. It has recently continued to increase its supply of South Korean accommodation products in line with growing demand for travel to South Korea, and plans to distribute vetted domestic accommodation products more broadly in the Japanese market through this collaboration.

The two companies plan to complete system integration within the third quarter and to sequentially link Japanese hotel inventory to NOL. NOL customers will then be able to book a range of Japanese accommodation products. The partnership is part of Noluniverse's strategy to expand overseas distribution networks for its global B2B distribution organisation. Noluniverse plans to further expand cooperation with global distribution partners to strengthen outbound and inbound competitiveness.

Oliver Libutzki (올리버 리부츠키), head of Noluniverse's global business group, said the partnership is Noluniverse's first local distribution partnership for Japanese hotels and will serve as a stepping stone to provide domestic accommodation partners with new opportunities for global growth. He said Noluniverse will continue to expand cooperation with global distribution companies to support domestic travel content reaching more overseas travellers and to contribute to revitalising tourism to South Korea.

Takeshi Fukada (후카다 다케시), a director at Apple World, said Apple World has supplied travel agencies with accommodation inventory of about 400,000 properties across about 200 countries worldwide. He said the partnership with Noluniverse will allow it to provide accommodation in South Korea's fast-growing travel market to global partners, including those in Japan. He said he expects the two companies to offer more diverse choices to both travel agencies and travellers by mutually supplying their accommodation inventories to the South Korean and Japanese markets, and to contribute to growth in the two countries' travel markets.