By Akram Medhat
Paula de Keijzer, senior director of market management for the Middle East, Indian Ocean, Africa, Turkey and Greece at the global company Expedia, said that Expedia is the world's largest travel agency, headquartered in Seattle in the United States, and was founded 20 years ago, and our goal is to revolutionize the world of travel through technology, by making it available to our hotel partners.
She revealed that an agreement has been concluded with Marriott International, under which travelers can book the group's hotels around the world, as well as flights, on Marriott's pages through the technology of Expedia's global website.
This came in press statements on the sidelines of the third annual conference of the global company Expedia, the largest contributor to international online tourism traffic, held in Cairo at the end of last week under the title "Strengthening Partnership with Egyptian Market Sectors," with the participation of tourism officials and experts from Egypt and around the world.
She stated that during the first nine months of 2017, tourist bookings to Egypt through Expedia rose 41% compared with 2016, with the United States ranking first in these bookings, followed by Britain and then Germany, noting that in general the United States tops Expedia's users worldwide.
She explained that the reason for the increase in bookings to Egypt is Expedia's spread around the world, and thus the promotion of the Egyptian market through it, as well as the recovery of tourism in Egypt and the gradual return of stability, in addition to Expedia's expansion through opening new offices, most importantly in Cairo, as a result of the continuous growth of Expedia's team, noting that developments are constantly being followed up with officials in tourist destinations that have experienced crises or tensions in the recent period.
On the other hand, Paula stressed Expedia's keenness to invest in the technological development of its services, having spent about $1.2 billion on this, adding that we do not focus on a particular region or tourist destination in the development plan, as this is a global product.
She explained that the payment methods available to travelers on Expedia's website are diverse, reaching nine methods, to provide options for bookers around the world, depending on the laws of each country.
On the decline in hotel prices in Egypt, Paula said: "We do not interfere in hotels' pricing strategy; our role is only to display the promotional offers or prices that the hotel markets according to its plan and what suits it in terms of season."
During the conference, Maged Mina Habashi, Expedia's manager for Egypt and Palestine, said the main goal of holding the conference is to boost tourism to Egypt through online hotel and flight booking, after noting the increase in demand for Egypt from various tourism markets compared with last year, and even compared with the year before, 2015, which are very good indicators.
He added that the conference addressed a number of topics, most importantly the latest developments in online tourist bookings and the latest statistics in this field, as well as the experiences of some advertising campaigns carried out by Expedia, noting that Expedia is one of the most important websites for online booking in international tourism, especially as it enjoys high customer trust thanks to its strong guarantees.
He pointed to the partnership with Egypt, represented by the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, through its promotional campaign on Expedia several months ago, which helped increase bookings by 25%.
It is worth noting that the global company Expedia was founded by Bill Gates in the United States and was part of the global Microsoft group before separating from it. It is an online travel and tourism agency that offers its services in 75 countries around the world, including booking tickets on various airlines, hotel bookings, car rentals and organizing land and sea trips.
In 2006, Expedia won the "Webby" award for best online travel and tourism website and the "Stevie" award for most innovative company from the American Business Association, and it has 200 web pages visited by about 600 million visitors, according to September statistics.
For his part, Hesham El-Demery, head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, stressed the importance of online bookings, whether for hotels or flights, and their contribution to boosting tourism, pointing to the growth of inbound tourism to Egypt from traditional markets such as Germany and Italy, and new ones such as Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland, China and India.
El-Demery explained that inbound tourism to Egypt is improving, noting cooperation with many global companies to promote the Egyptian product in many countries around the world, including Expedia.
