The Asian offices of Yahoo!
and Priceline
have announced a regional agreement to market a new travel booking service.
The two companies will launch co-branded Name Your Own Price travel sites in Asia that will allow Yahoo! users to save up to 20%-30% off typical market rates for airline tickets and hotel rooms all around the world.

The agreement covers Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian markets to be announced when appropriate.

As a first step, a Priceline Smart Travel Club has been created for users of Yahoo! Hong Kong. Users will be able to log on to Yahoo! Hong Kong Travel, research and plan their holidays, then purchase air tickets and hotel rooms directly through a special Priceline Name Your Own Price travel booking service available on the site. In addition, the Priceline Smart Travel Club features valuable travel tips from successful Priceline customers, special deals for Yahoo! Hong Kong users, and the latest travel news and information. Priceline`s air and hotel destinations include the Asia-Pacific region, Canada, Europe, the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico. The company partners with 25 Asian and international airlines, plus more than 8,000 hotels.

According to global Internet research house NetValue, visitors to online travel and tourism sites sky-rocketed by 322% in Hong Kong, year-on-year, in the first quarter of 2002. Said Tony Tan, Sales Director for NetValue in Hong Kong: “The recently launched Priceline is a good example of an innovative portal that offers a refreshing `matchmaker`` approach to help travellers plan for their holidays.”

In Hong Kong, priceline.com.hk
was rated the leading travel/tourism site by number of unique visitors (623,000) in May-the latest NetValue figures available. In Singapore, visitors to travel sites from their home computers rose 46% year-on-year by last December, NetValue said. In June this year, priceline.com.sg was the leader in transactional travel/tourism sites by unique visitors (410,000)

E-Travel attracted the third-biggest online spending in the Asia-Pacific region last year, with total online travel sales forecast to reach US$30.9 billion in the region by 2005- a cumulative growth rate of 138% - according to the International Data Corporation. In the U.S., online travel is already the No.1 Internet business, with annual sales for this year estimated to reach US$31 billion.

 

Related stories on ITN:

(30/05/2002) Priceline Launches `Name Your Own Price` in Singapore.

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

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