Expedia.com Expedia.com Introduces the Industry’s First Travel Shopping Cart Services
BELLEVUE, Wash. – May 29, 2002 – Shopping for and buying the right trip just got easier with today's launch of Expedia's Shopping Cart services. With the innovative Build Your Own Trip tool and the ability to add destination services and activities to flight or hotel reservations, Expedia.com® allows consumers to pick and pack the travel options they want, breaking new ground in ease-of-use, flexibility, and breadth of travel services.
Accessible directly from the home page of Expedia.com, the Build Your Own Trip tool sets new standards in design by enabling customers to save time and money while still retaining their flexibility. Customers are able to choose which travel components, locations, and dates they need, and can even decide which hotel, flight, car, or activities they want within those components.
For those travelers shopping simply for air or lodging, Expedia® is now the first full service online travel agency to allow customers to add destination services and activities – ranging from theme park tickets and tours to ground transportation – before completing a flight or hotel purchase.
“More important than how you get to your destination is what you do when you get there,” said Erik Blachford, president of Expedia, North America. “For business travelers, it might be as simple as ground transportation so they can get downtown for their meeting. For leisure travelers, it might be a variety of activities – from tours of Stonehenge to sea kayaking near San Diego. By providing the whole trip flexibly, easily, and with cost-savings, Expedia continues to set new standards in online travel.”
Expedia's Shopping Cart services are built on top of Expedia's Expert Searching and Pricing (ESP) platform, which dynamically builds and prices trips. Whether travelers are shopping for flights, accommodations, activities, or all three, they can see what the price is at every step and make decisions to match their preferences for dates, times, and supplier brands.
Adding destination services or activities is as easy as getting mints at the grocery store checkout counter. Customers simply select a flight or hotel, and, before booking, choose from a list of services, tours, and local attractions. The trip will be re-priced with the added components in real time, and, after booking, travelers can then view and print the vouchers they need to complete their activity.
“Nearly every traveler buys multiple travel components, especially when you consider destination services and activities such as ground transportation, dining at restaurants, and visiting attractions,” Blachford said. “And yet, according to PLOG's 2001 American Travel Survey, just 19 percent of travelers purchase 'packages.' We realized that, by providing Expedia's Shopping Cart services atop the ESP platform, we are breaking beyond the bounds of 'packages' and instead providing travelers with flexible and complete trips.”
About
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the world's leading online travel service and the seventh largest travel agency in the United States. To meet the needs of travelers around the globe, it operates Expedia.com in the United States and localized versions throughout Europe and Canada. Expedia.com helps travelers travel right with a wide variety of travel products and services, such as Expedia® Special Rate hotels and vacation rentals with the guaranteed lowest prices. Expedia's quality and leadership have been recognized in awards such as PC Magazine's “Readers' Choice” and “Editors' Choice” Awards, Forbes' “Favorite General Travel Site,” and Yahoo! Internet Life's Best overall travel site. Expedia is a majority-owned subsidiary of USA Interactive (NASDAQ: USAI).
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