New Pacific Online Payment Solution Introduced
Anew and innovative payment platform for Pacific businesses has been introduced by the trade and investment promotion agency, Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) Australia, Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, Hotel Link and WHL.
This was done to introduce professionals from Fiji’s hospitality and accommodation sector to Kovena, a new and innovative payment platform for Pacific businesses.
The Online Payment Solutions webinar took place on Wednesday, October 6 via Zoom and hosted over 80 participants from across Fiji’s travel and tourism sector.
As part of PTI Australia’s Digital Tourism programme, the webinar addressed familiar industry pain points such as the ‘one size fits all’ approach by traditional banking institutions, the variance found in service fees, frequently required large security bonds and lengthy set-up lead times.
The webinar introduced ‘Hotel Link Pay’, a new solution to the myriad of e-commerce challenges faced by the Fijian travel and tourism sector.
‘Hotel Link Pay’ was created by Hotel Link and Kovena, offering accommodation providers a fully integrated solution to process online payments cost-effectively and efficiently via their Hotel Link Booking engine or Front Desk module.
It is expected that the integration will pave the way for Kovena as a payment solution in
other industries throughout the Pacific.
Onorina Fugawai, PTI Australia’s tourism and investment project officer said the ‘Hotel Link Pay’ product would be an exciting addition to the PTI Digital Tourism programme.
“Pacific Trade Invest Australia has strongly supported the development of the ‘Hotel Link Pay’ product as we are committed to bridging
the digital divide within the Pacific while ensuring e-commerce is as accessible as possible for Pacific operators,” she said.
“We look forward to offering the ‘Hotel Link Pay’ product to all Pacific tourism operators partaking in our Digital Tourism programme in the future.”
Speaking at the launch, general manager of
Kovena, Samuel Rutledge said the new platform presented exciting opportunities for Pacific businesses.
“We see this new platform as a game-changer for tourism operators in the Pacific,” he said.
“Now operators can get rid of faxing or scanning forms and access online payments software while offering their customers a secure, streamlined online payment experience.”
Chief executive officer of Hotel Link, the leading provider of hotel and accommodation software for the Asia-Pacific region, Len Cordiner said the integration came at an optimal time for the Blue Pacific.
“With tourism in the Pacific so badly impacted by the pandemic, we felt it even more critical for the service roll out to enable operators of all sizes to accept payments from guests locally and internationally,” Mr Cordiner said.
“This was previously a service that was hard for small and medium operators to access, and often extremely costly.
“With positive talks around some of the Pacific borders opening, particularly in Fiji, we felt it time to share the news of this innovative payment solution - Hotel Link Pay.”
As an agency of the Pacific Islands Forum, the role of the PTI Network is to improve the livelihoods of Pacific peoples by facilitating trade and investment into the Blue Pacific.