Business data platform company Koocon announced that it is partnering with travel tech specialist Traport to jointly development payment and operational structure solutions specifically tailored for the online travel platform (OTA) market. This collaboration is recognized as a strategic move to lead the digital development of the rapidly changing travel industry and innovate user experience, combining Koocon’s strong financial and payment infrastructure with Traport’s GDS-based travel tech capabilities.
Strategic collaboration for Digital Innovation in the Travel industry
As the global travel industry rapidly grows, providing a seamless user experience across the entire process, from search to reservation, payment, and ticketing, is emerging as a core competitiveness. Accordingly, digital development is accelerating throughout the travel industry, and the demand for data-based specialized solutions to support this is continuously expanding. To proactively respond to these market changes, Koocon and Traport laid the groundwork for this collaboration by signing a strategic business collaboration for joint discovery of travel tech solutions last March.
The two companies’ collaboration focuses on combining Koocon’s financial and payment infrastructure, based on data from over 90 domestic financial institutions, with Traport’s GDS (Global Distribution System)-based travel tech capabilities. Koocon provides extensive data processing capabilities and a secure financial infrastructure, while Traport possesses GDS-based OTA solution operational know-how, specializing in real-time reservation information linkage for global travel products such as aviation, hotels, and rental cars. This combination of complementary strengths is expected to play a key role in implementing integrated solutions optimized for the OTA environment.
OTA Specialized Solution development Roadmap and Future vision
The solution development that Koocon and Traport will jointly pursue is expected to proceed in several stages. First, they will launch a payment solution development targeting online travel platforms, and also plan to develop operational and battery structure solutions specialized for OTA. Furthermore, they plan to verify real-world applicability through a pilot business and, based on this, expand collaboration institutions to enhance the solution’s versatility.
The technical development schedule has also been specifically presented. Both companies plan to officially commence joint technology development in the second half of 2026 to thoroughly verify technical completeness and market suitability. Subsequently, in 2027, they aim to commercialize the developed solutions and introduce them to the market. With this systematic roadmap targeting practical commercialization beyond mere ideas, this collaboration is garnering expectations to be a significant turning point that will change the future of the travel industry.
Expansion of Koocon’s business Area and Creation of Data-Based Synergy
Through this collaboration with Traport, Koocon plans to successfully expand its existing financial and public sector-centric business area into the travel industry, accelerating the diversification of revenue value. This will serve as an opportunity to demonstrate that Koocon’s data connectivity capabilities can be effectively utilized across various industry sectors beyond finance. Koocon specifically envisions combining data APIs from various fields such as finance, healthcare, and distribution with travel tech to expand into adjacent business areas, including travel-related mobility, rental car, and lodging, expecting additional synergy creation.
Koocon CEO Kim Jong-hyun emphasized, ‘The travel industry is rapidly being reorganized into a market where data and payment infrastructure determine competitiveness, and it is the field where Koocon’s long-accumulated period data connectivity capabilities can be most effectively demonstrated.’ He continued, expressing strong expectations and vision for this collaboration, stating, ‘By combining Traport’s travel tech expertise with Koocon’s financial and data infrastructure, we will introduce solutions that lead digital innovation across the travel industry and grow travel data into a new core revenue source.’ Traport, since its establishment in 2008, has been operating GDS-based OTA solutions and has secured major domestic and international travel and lodging platform companies, such as Hanatour, as clients. Based on this expertise, Traport is expected to play a crucial role in this collaboration.
This joint development by Koocon and Traport is expected to open new horizons in the online travel market through the convergence of data and travel tech, going beyond mere technical collaboration. The innovative solutions created by the two companies will provide users with a more convenient and efficient travel experience, while also serving as a powerful tool for travel companies to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness. It remains to be seen whether their collaboration will set the standard for the future travel industry and become a significant momentum to accelerate digital development.
