Amadeus Next has marked its two-year anniversary with plans to develop a presence in new markets, including China.

The APAC-focused start-up community has so far powered 33 startups and has more than 70 partners. The announcement today also names three new members of the community, and give an indication of the variety of businesses and use cases Amadeus Next is interested in.

There is Xank, a blockchain payments business; CarePod, which wants to improve the airline experience of “pet owner” passengers and their pets and generate ancillary revenues for carriers; and Global Himalayan Expedition, ” a social enterprise focused on providing energy, education, connectivity and livelihood access to remote Himalayan villages.”

The decision to look at working with start-ups in China makes sense, in terms of not only the scale of the inbound, outbound and domestic market but also the volume of successful tech-focused travel businesses which have emerged.

But Amadeus has also said it is planning to engage with start-ups in Indonesia and Vietnam. Indonesia is a market of increasing interest following Expedia Inc’s $350 million investment in Indonesian OTA Traveloka this summer.

Simon Akeroyd, vice president of corporate strategy and business development for Amadeus on APAC said:

“Our key focus for next year will be expanding into new countries to improve our understanding of market specificities.”

He added that as well as new territories, Amadeus Next is looking at new verticals “such as fintech, insurtech and IoT to discover emerging technologies and trends before they reach the travel sector”.

Related reading from tnooz:

Amadeus offers its take on Blockchain (Oct17)
Amadeus looks to developers and partners to widen innovation strategy (Oct17)