To support its pan-European expansion strategy, Barcelona-based travel portal, eDreams, has selected Madrid-based Amadeus to provide air reservations and booking.
EDreams so far operates sites in Spain (www.edreams.es) and Italy (www.edreams.it).It recently launched its services in the UK (www.edreams.com) and France (www.edreams.fr).
Amadeus will integrate eDreams` country sites with the Amadeus System, giving eDreams` customers a user-friendly way to find and buy flights from more than 500 airlines.
“This agreement gives us a seamless air sales infrastructure that supports our aggressive growth into new European markets and allows us to offer our customers a fast, easy and powerful way to find value-for-money air travel, in addition to our unique vacations,” said eDreams` co-founder and CEO, Javier Pérez-Tenessa.
EDreams was founded in March 1999 in Silicon Valley by Javier Perez-Tenessa and James Hare, who met at Stanford Business School and worked together at Netscape. EDreams now has offices in San Francisco, Barcelona, Milan and London and Paris.
Central to eDreams are its DreamGuides, people (guides) based throughout the world who are experts about particular destinations or activities. EDreams` users can e-mail DreamGuides to get a personal insight or an insider`s scoop on subjects ranging from EcoTourism in the Galapagos to skiing the Swiss Alps to strolling the pink sand beaches of Bermuda. EDreams already has signed on 400 DreamGuides.
The site also has an online chat function, allowing visitors to `chat` to eDreams call center staff while still being able to explore the site before making a final booking decision. This instantaneous, one-to-one service can be utilized while still logged on to the eDreams site, which means that visitors can continue to explore the eDreams site while `chatting` online.
EDreams boasts that it is a `sticky` site. On average an eDreams user will look at nine to 10 pages per visit, compared to an industry standard of five to six pages, the company claims. Following its launch in these markets, eDreams has 125,000 registered users and receives more than 3.5 million page views per month.
EDreams launched last December with $20 million in funding by financial backers that include Apax Partners, Venture Atlas, BSCH, Doll Capital and Net Partners. Since then, eDreams has signed on a variety of tour operators, including Amathus Holidays, American Dream, Bales Worldwide, Bridge The World, Brittany Ferries, Butlins, Crown Blue Line` Elegant Resorts, Festival Cruises, Haven, Indus Tours and Travel, Journey Latin America, Oasis, Jetlife Holidays, Saddle Skeddadle, Sherpa Expeditions, Simply Golf, Tapestry Holiday, and Warner.
——-