Expedia.co.nz celebrates first anniversary

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Expedia.co.nz celebrates first anniversary with announcement of Air Pacific partnership and special birthday promotion

- Exclusive partnership announced with Fiji’s Air Pacific

- First Birthday special promotion on Expedia Special Rate hotels and launch of Expedia Price Promise

Auckland, 20 October 2008: Coinciding with the celebration of its first anniversary, Expedia.co.nzTM, operated by Expedia, Inc., the world’s leading online travel company today announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Air Pacific, Fiji’s national carrier.

Following the success of a similar partnership in Australia launched last year, under the agreement, Air Pacific will use the Expedia.co.nz platform to provide online booking services for both consumers and travel agents in New Zealand via the dedicated www.airpacific.com website.

The Air Pacific site, which will go live within weeks, will allow New Zealand travellers planning a trip to Fiji to easily book their holidays through Air Pacific Holidays, using a combination of international flights to and from Fiji on Air Pacific, domestic flights on the airline’s domestic carrier Pacific Sun, as well as hotel accommodation, car rental, transfers and local activities.

The site will offer all the features available on the secure Expedia.co.nz site, including independent traveller reviews, 360 degrees virtual tours of hotels and Expedia’s easy-to-use search, plan and booking facilities.

“Given that Fiji is a destination typically booked as a package, Expedia’s leadership in ‘dynamic packaging’ comes into its own in delivering competitively priced solutions for New Zealand travellers,” said Arthur Hoffman, Managing Director Expedia Asia Pacific.

Mr Hoffman pointed out that Fiji was the most popular destination for travel packages booked through the Expedia.co.nz site over the past year.

“Expedia’s unique Dynamic Packaging Technology provides significant savings to customers when booking an international flight and hotel and/or car rental together as a package. Travellers can plan and build their preferred travel itinerary with all the elements they need. The website then provides search results combining these elements with one single price tag including fees and taxes with no hidden fees, and. actual cost savings shown to the customer as well,” said Mr Hoffman.

New Zealand travellers also have access to a dedicated Expedia® customer service centre (0800 212 534), where travel specialists, who are trained Fiji experts, can help with planning and booking holiday packages to Fiji.

In addition to the consumer site, there will also be a dedicated entry to the site for travel agents to support them with booking holidays to Fiji destinations.

Top Ten destinations as booked on Expedia.co.nz over the past 12 months from October 2007 to September 2008:

Global hotel destinations
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Hong Kong
London
Singapore
New York
Sydney
Fiji
Hawaii

Global flight destinations
London
Sydney
Los Angeles
Bangkok
Melbourne
San Francisco
Brisbane
Las Vegas
New York
Vancouver

Global package destinations
Fiji
Las Vegas
Sydney
Melbourne
Hawaii
New York
Bangkok
Singapore
Hong Kong
San Francisco

Solid first-year growth for Expedia.co.nz

Mr Hoffman said he was very pleased with the growth of Expedia in New Zealand since launching here a year ago.

“According to Eye for Travel research 2007, the New Zealand online travel market is expected to grow by 27% year-on-year to US$1.9bn by 2010 – so it is an important market for Expedia in the Asia Pacific region,” Mr Hoffman said. “Despite toughening economic conditions, we are delighted to see our growth clearly outpacing the 2008 market growth forecast from the Ministry of Tourism, which is a reflection of the value that we are able to offer New Zealand travellers.”

“Expedia.co.nz offers Kiwi travellers an unprecedented global product range, with nearly 80,000 hotels, all major airlines, leading car rental companies and over 3,000 activities and attractions around the world.

“We are delighted to be helping New Zealanders research, plan and book their trip, with all the benefits of Expedia’s global product range, competitive prices and in-depth travel and destination information at their fingertips,” Mr Hoffman concluded.

Expedia.co.nz First Birthday discount coupon and Expedia Price Promise

In addition, Expedia.co.nz is celebrating its first birthday with a limited period promotion offering New Zealand travellers a 15% discount on all bookings of Expedia Special Rate™ (ESR) hotels booked through Expedia.co.nz.

And now with every booking, New Zealand customers will also enjoy the benefit of Expedia’s Price Promise. Already in effect in Australia, the Expedia Price Promise™ guarantees customers that they are receiving the best price with Expedia, but if they should find a better price on an available Expedia Special Rate hotel or international flight originating in New Zealand, Expedia.co.nz will not only beat the price by $1 but also give them a $50 coupon to use for their next booking.

ENDS

____About Expedia.co.nz

Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), the world's leading online travel company, operates Expedia.co.nz™ (http://www.expedia.co.nz) New Zealand and also has localised versions for travellers in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Australia, Japan, India and China, through its investment in eLong™. Expedia.co.nz helps New Zealanders plan and book their travel by providing a wide selection of holiday packages, flights, hotels, rental cars and attractions to suit their travel needs.

Expedia and the Airplane logo are either 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.

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