Priceline opened for business in Singapore today.The launch of priceline.com.sg

follows the successful debut of priceline.com.hk

in Hong Kong last month - the company`s first market entry in Asia.
Priceline

said that its Hong Kong customers are saving up to 20%-30% off typical travel market prices. “Hundreds of travellers have bought from Priceline in Hong Kong and the feedback has been very positive,” said Alfredo Gangotena, the CEO of Hutchison-Priceline. “This has encouraged us to move ahead into Singapore.”

Travellers from all over Asia can name their price for Priceline`s 8,000 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and North America. Hotels in Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico will be added soon. Priceline also has as many as 25 Asian and international airline partners which fly all around the world. Air travellers must have a Hong Kong or Singapore address to permit secure delivery of their air tickets.

“All travellers in Asia can enjoy Priceline`s hotel room services as it only requires a booking number to check in and Priceline provides all the necessary details within one hour,” Mr Gangotena said.

He added that Singapore is the ideal place to launch Priceline`s Name Your Own Price service to Southeast Asia. Government statistics show that Singaporeans are among Asia`s most prolific travellers, with overseas travel growing by an average of 11% per year for the past decade. Over the same period, the population grew by an average of only 2%. In addition, about 2.3 million Singaporeans now visit the Internet regularly, with 60% of households accessing the Internet from home, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

“The Singapore Government is extremely supportive of both the IT industry and new business for Singapore,” Mr Gangotena said. “We`re all about technical innovation, making travel more affordable and, at the same time, expanding the Asian travel market, so the fit couldn`t be better.”

The English-language transactional website in Singapore complements the company`s innovative multi-language, multi-currency adaptations of the Priceline model for Asia. Hong Kong has a bilingual site in Chinese and English.

 

Related stories on ITN:

(14/05/2002) Priceline.com Launches `Name Your Own Price` Packages

(14/03/2002) Priceline to Operate in Hong Kong

(01/02/2002) Priceline to Expand `Name Your Own Price` Service

(17/10/2002) Priceline.com Launches `Name Your Own Price ` European Hotel Service

——-