CarTrawler has announced a three year partnership to become the sole car rental distribution partner for national tourism agency, VisitBritain.  It will offer car rental on the 46 www.visitbritain.com websites in 26 languages around the globe and on the domestic site, www.enjoyengland.com.

VisitBritain’s online network is one of the biggest tourist board portals in the world, registering 20 million visitors per annum. The addition of the CarTrawler booking engine will give visitors to any VisitBritain.com and EnjoyEngland.com site access to every major branded and independent car rental company across the UK seamlessly, in real time and in their own language.

CarTrawler is the latest partner to offer facilities for international and British consumers to search for and book with suppliers of flights, train journeys, taxis and now car rental. It furthers VisitBritain’s ambition to drive business success for the country’s £85 billion visitor economy ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

11% or 3.6 million overseas visitors use a rental car in the UK.  The partnership means that many more of them, as well as British travelers, will be able to rely on visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com as a single source of tourist information.

CarTrawler’s offering will be in a stand alone Metasearch format as well as a dynamic cross sell model alongside the other VisitBritain products. Visitors will be able to book car rental in both the “book and buy” and “travel and transport” sections of the websites.

CarTrawler’s Bobby Healy, Chief Technical Officer, comments: “This deal with VisitBritain is a very exciting one for us.  VisitBritain.com’s reach is in excess of 20 million users, giving us access to a phenomenal new distribution channel, and enabling us to demonstrate the breadth and reach of our content and the capability of our technology. 

“In this deal we have shown how the CarTrawler platform seamlessly connects with VisitBritian’s, is flexible enough to drill down to provide in-country car rental only and is simple and easy to translate into more than 25 languages.  We are proud to be a chosen VisitBritain partner in the roll out of its new website,”

Georgia Cleland, e-Commerce Account and Marketing Manager for VisitBritain comments: “Millions of potential visitors rely on our websites to plan their trips to and around this country. Through partnerships such as this, we aim to provide them with the best experience possible and give them the reassurance of booking through a trusted source. The size of our network in the UK and overseas, and the sheer volume of people using our websites, means that we can forge strong partnerships to benefit the tourism industry.

“Self-drive holidays are an important holiday option for many visitors and our agreement with CarTrawler is critical in ensuring that they can choose from the most comprehensive car rental options available today.”
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