Expedia Data Shows Rising Demand for Travel Into Mexico

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• Latin America - español

ACAPULCO, Mexico and BELLEVUE, Wash., March 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia, Inc., the world's largest online travel company, today released booking data from its global websites showing rising demand for travel into Mexico.  Travel bookings to Mexico made on the more than 90 Expedia® and Hotels.com® travel sites worldwide have risen nearly 25 percent over the past 12 months, with the majority of international demand coming from travelers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.  

"Year after year Mexico continues to be a preferred destination for Expedia customers, consistently ranking as one of the top three destinations for Expedia in terms of traveler feedback.  In fact, this past year more than 120 Mexico properties were named to the Expedia Insiders' Select list, a designation given only to a small percentage of Expedia's top-ranked hotels," said Marco Tagliatti, Vice President of Market Management, Latin America, Expedia, Inc.  

The number of Mexico hotels that have partnered with Expedia has grown more than 30 percent over the past year.  For these hotels, becoming a part of Expedia's global online travel marketplace means exposure to over 50 million travelers that visit Expedia and Hotels.com sites each month, including Expedia.com.mx and Hoteles.com in Mexico – a number that is expected to increase as a growing population of domestic and international consumers choose to use the internet to research and book their travel.  

"Expedia's extensive reach makes us an effective marketing channel for our Mexico hotel partners looking to attract an entirely new audience of travelers," added Pablo Castro, Director of Market Management, Mexico and Central America, Expedia, Inc.  "Our global scale and wealth of data gives us insights into travel trends and consumer booking behaviors that, when shared with our hotel partners are instrumental in helping them develop online distribution strategies to achieve maximum revenue and occupancy rates."  

Today Expedia's Latin America market management team is comprised of nearly 40 revenue managers whose focus is on developing relationships with local hoteliers and counseling those partners on creating effective strategies to drive incremental demand using the numerous merchandising and promotional opportunities Expedia offers.  Expedia plans to expand this team in 2011 in order to assist an even larger number of Mexico hotel partners interested in extending their reach to an ever-increasing global audience of travelers.

"Our partnership with Expedia has afforded us exposure to travelers on practically every continent across the globe, generating increased bookings and consumer awareness for our properties through their innovative marketing and promotional campaigns," said Mr. Robert Chapur, CEO of Palace Resorts.  "In fact, by actively participating in marketing and promotional initiatives with the Expedia and Hotels.com sites, we were able to grow revenue by more than 50% over the course of a year."  

The Expedia Latin America market management team is in Acapulco this week attending the annual Tianguis Turistico event.  Earlier in the week, Expedia hosted an e-commerce seminar for approximately 100 members of the Acapulco hotel industry, where Expedia hotel revenue management specialists were on hand to present on the 2011 industry outlook, emerging online travel trends, and strategies for hotels to maximize revenue and occupancy using online distribution channels.  Expedia routinely hosts educational events like this for hotel partners throughout Mexico.

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes more than 90 localized Expedia.com®- and Hotels.com®-branded sites; leading U.S. discount travel site Hotwire®; leading agency hotel company Venere.com™; Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company; the world's largest travel community TripAdvisor® Media Network; destination activities provider ExpediaLocalExpert®; luxury travel specialist Classic Vacations®; and China's second largest booking site eLong™. The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers vast opportunity to reach the most valuable audience of in-market travel consumers anywhere through TripAdvisor Media Network and Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network.  (Nasdaq: EXPE)

Expedia and Insiders' Select are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.  hotels.com is either a trademark or registered trademark of hotels.com, L.P. in the U.S. and/or other countries.  Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Expedia, Inc.  All rights reserved.  

SOURCE Expedia, Inc.