Online Travel Corporation plc (LSE: ONT.L) (“Company” or “OTC”), the Internet based travel technology and distribution group, today announced an enhanced five year deal with leading e-commerce travel supplier, Worldspan.

As part of the deal, OTC will receive an enhanced version of Worldspan’s SMI technology. This technology is included in OTC’s Build-Your-Own Holiday and Fare-Compare systems due to be launched this month.

 

Mark Jones, CEO of OTC comments “We are already seeing the benefits of a long-term relationship with the world’s leading e-commerce travel supplier. Our new booking system allows multiple air-fares to be packaged online with hotels, villas, car hire and other travel products at discounted rates. We’ll get the benefit of using Worldspan SMI technology to book the flight element and at increased booking fees. This is positive news, particularly in the current climate.”

 

Tim Wright, Staff Vice President - E-Commerce for Worldspan, explained: “Worldspan process more than 50 per cent of all online travel bookings and it’s important for us to work with other market leaders in the field of e-travel. We expect the integration of our SMI technology into OTC’s new holiday booking system to bring direct benefits to all parties.”

 

OTC also announced an increase of gross sales for the month of September of 76% on the previous year.

 

Jones adds “Sales in the last few weeks are understandably down from our original expectations, but our rate of our growth continues to be impressive. We are fortunate to have a large distribution network across three travel sectors and the large travel suppliers continue to use our extensive customer base to distribute their products electronically.”

 

The Company also announced new travel services for The Mirror Group, Yell.com, Deckchair.com and Cheapflights.com to take the number of OTC client sites to over eighty.

 

OTC sites generated over 1.8 million visitors and 1.1m unique monthly users in August.

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