Expedia.com Offers Travelers Ground-Breaking Tool for Planning Activities and Itineraries for Their Trips
Consumers Can Now Create Customized Itineraries for Their Travel Destinations Based on Their Interests and Travel Style
BELLEVUE, Wash., July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Expedia.com® (NASDAQ: EXPE), the world’s leading online travel agency, today announced it is offering consumers a free tool that plans customized travel itineraries based on their personal interests, trip preferences and travel style with an innovative “virtual guidebook” tool through an exclusive partnership with Home&Abroad. This is the first trip planning tool of its kind available from an online travel agency.
“Expedia.com is dedicated to offering our travelers trusted, personalized service and advice throughout their entire travel experience,” said Sally McKenzie, general manager, Expedia.com. “We are the only online travel agency to offer such a complete, personalized traveler service that matches destination information and activities with a traveler’s personal preferences. This is just another way Expedia® is delivering innovative tools and information to help travelers plan the trip that’s right for them.”
Through Home&Abroad, Expedia.com is offering consumers access to highly personalized and customized itineraries for more than 50 of the most popular travel destinations in the world, including information on thousands of activities in each destination, compiled by city experts and accomplished travel writers.
Expedia.com customers, as well as visitors to Expedia.com who have not yet booked a trip, can go to the Expedia.com® Activities (http://www.expedia.com/activities) or Deals and Destinations (http://www.expedia.com/dealsanddestinations) pages and click on the “Virtual guidebook” link to plan highly customized trip itineraries with personalized recommendations based on information they provide about their interests and travel goals. The traveler simply fills out a questionnaire indicating their destination city, who is going, trip purpose and specific interests. Then they receive a recommended itinerary based on their personal preferences.
For example, families who want to design an educational trip for their kids would indicate the ages of the travelers and their interest in a city’s history and monuments to receive a customized itinerary that fits the bill. An art buff who wants to hit the major museums in Europe can simply provide their destination cities and indicate a high level of interest in museums, art and culture to receive recommendations on the best itinerary for them. And the beachgoer who wants to fit in one non-beach activity on their trip could indicate that they prefer to visit beaches as well as museums or theme parks, for example.
This news follows on other innovative features from Expedia aimed at offering a more personalized experience to its travelers, such as Personal Trip Guide, which provides customers with detailed destination information. And with the Expedia® Best Price Guarantee (http://www.expedia.com/guarantee), customers can be completely confident they are receiving the best value possible when planning a trip through Expedia.
Added Mark Schroeder, CEO and co-founder of Home&Abroad: “Home&Abroad is very excited to be a part of Expedia’s initiative to provide a more complete and personalized travel experience for its travelers. More than 60 percent of leisure vacations include a visit to a cultural or historical site. Expedia customers will benefit by planning in advance how to spend their vacations thanks to Home&Abroad’s customized itineraries.”
About Expedia.com
Expedia.com is the world’s leading online travel provider, helping more than 25 million travelers per month easily plan and book travel. Expedia.com (http://www.expedia.com/) aims to provide personalized service, the latest technology and the widest selection of vacation packages, flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and in-destination activities, attractions, and services. With the Expedia® Best Price Guarantee, Expedia.com promises to offer to its customers the best rates available online for all types of travel, making it the most comprehensive customer guarantee in online travel. Expedia.com is an operating company of Expedia, Inc.
About Home&Abroad
Founded by a team of seasoned Internet veterans and world travelers, Home&Abroad’s (http://www.homeandabroad.com/) mission is to become the indispensable travel planning and purchasing tool of travelers worldwide. Home&Abroad has developed an innovative suite of tools that match users to sites in the most popular destinations in the world, as well as the products and services that broaden and deepen the appreciation of those sites. For more information, contact mark@homeandabroad.com.
NOTE: Expedia, Expedia.com, and the Airplane Design mark are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.
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SOURCE: Expedia.com
CONTACT: Erin Krause of Expedia.com, +1-425-679-4317, or
press@expedia.com</br/>
Web site: http://www.homeandabroad.com/
http://www.expedia.com/ </br/>