Yahoo! today announced a partnership with leading online travel experts Expedia, who will provide a travel booking engine on Yahoo!’s sites across Europe (UK and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). Through the partnership Yahoo! Travel users will enjoy access to more than 123,000 hotels and 450 airlines making it easy for them to find the right deal for their holiday.

For the first time, Yahoo! users will be able to view deals for hotels, flights and car hire, using Expedia’s dynamic ‘e-packaging’ search technology, which offers travel combinations to provide even greater savings for consumers. This coupled with the easy to use filtering system and hotel reviews from Expedia guests it will provide the perfect accompaniment to Yahoo!’s premier travel which is attracting 115% users month on month*. Users will also gain access to a new ‘Deals Module’ with offers that are updated in real-time.

Speaking of the partnership Mark Rabe, MD and VP Sales, Yahoo! UK & Ireland, said: “We’re excited to announce our deal with Expedia. Travel is a cornerstone product for our users and Expedia helps us enhance the experience via greater functionality. Ultimately, this supports Yahoo!’s ambition to be the centre of users’ online lives.”

Alex Gisbert, Director, Online Partner Marketing for Expedia Europe, said of the deal: “The unique ability that Yahoo! has to inspire travellers, combined with Expedia’s market leading choice of travel products and booking engine, ensures that our partnership provides an excellent way for travellers to plan and book their next trip. Expedia’s functionality and the strength and breadth of choice with Yahoo!’s quality editorial will deliver enormous benefits for Yahoo!’s users and will enable a wider audience to take advantage of the choice of offers available through Expedia.”