Program Helps U.S. Travel Destinations Reach Potential Visitors Through One of the World's Largest International Travel Audiences

BELLEVUE, Wash., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising division of Expedia, Inc., today announced a 100 percent match on advertising(1) for travel brands that promote their destination or product to an international audience. This advertising extension program was developed as part of Brand USA's "Multiplier Program" to assist U.S. destinations and travel-related companies in driving international visitors.

Expedia Media Solutions has been working with Brand USA to develop an offer that stands to drive action among Expedia Inc.'s 60 million consumers, 40 million of which are international. Brand USA is strategically investing with a 100 percent additional commitment to Expedia advertisers through its Multiplier Program, and as a show of program and partner support, Expedia is offering an added 100 percent match, essentially tripling a brand's original investment. Furthermore, Expedia will feature all participating brand partners within a "Discover America" landing page for international visitors. VISIT FLORIDA and Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater are among the first Expedia Media Solutions advertising partners that have already signed on to benefit from the promotion.

"We're proud of this first-time partnership with Brand USA and destination marketing organizations to drive international tourism to the U.S.," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. "As an American company with a global travel audience, this is a perfect fit to our strengths and allows us to offer advertising partners a great way to reach even more potential customers."

"We've experienced incredible success advertising through Expedia, as it's a highly qualified and targeted audience for our company," said DT Minich, executive director, Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. "We're excited to be a part of this program. Along with the offering by Brand USA, it allows us to essentially triple our reach to Expedia's international audience."

"International visitors are a key part of Florida's tourism industry, and one that we highly value," said Tracy Vaughan, director, International Sales and Marketing, VISIT FLORIDA. "Through Expedia Media Solutions and Brand USA's strategic investments, we can guarantee that the ROI of our original investment will be strong and impactful. This is a great program for destination marketing organizations like ours."

The mission of Brand USA is to encourage increased international visitation to the United States and grow America's share of the global travel market. The goal is to bring millions of new international visitors who will spend billions of dollars in the United States, creating tens of thousands of new American jobs.

The promotion launches today for campaigns that run on Expedia's UK, Japan and Canada points of sale, on June 1 for South Korea and Brazil, and will soon expand to a number of other markets.

For more details about the Expedia and Brand USA promotion, please visit: advertising.expedia.com and send an inquiry through the Contact Us link.

About Brand USA
Brand USA was established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010 to spearhead the nation's first global marketing effort to promote the United States of America as a premier travel destination. Formed as the Corporation for Travel Promotion, the public-private marketing entity began operations in May 2011 and does business as Brand USA.  Brand USA works in close partnership with the travel industry to maximize the social and economic benefits of travel.  For industry or partner information about Brand USA, visit www.TheBrandUSA.com.  For information about exceptional and unexpected travel experiences in the United States, visit Brand USA's consumer website at www.DiscoverAmerica.com.

About Expedia Media Solutions
Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia's network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.

About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world's leading online travel brands, including:

• Expedia.com®, the world's largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in more than 25 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Leading discount travel site Hotwire®, which offers opaque deals in nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• China's second largest booking site eLong™ 
• Leading agency hotel company Venere.com®
• Destination services and activities provider Expedia Local Expert®; and
• Luxury travel specialist Classic Vacations®

The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through 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. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Expedia, Expedia.com and the Airplane logo are either a registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. 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.

(1) Valid on spends $10,000 or greater

Contact: Casey Ibbetson
310.566.2282
Casey.Ibbetson@zenogroup.com

SOURCE Expedia Media Solutions