Caribbean News Now!

BELLEVUE, USA -- Expedia, the world’s leading online travel company, is the ideal marketing and distribution partner for hotels and resorts in the Caribbean, as shown by the increase achieved in the region in 2012. In the first three quarters of last year, annual global travel bookings for the Caribbean across all Expedia group sites was more than US$300 million.

When compared with 2011 in the same time period, travel bookings for the Caribbean were up over 20% year over year, and the average daily rate (ADR) was nearly $230, representing an increase of four percent year over year. The average length of stay in the region remained four nights.

While the Caribbean region broadly experienced the benefits of the added exposure and access to international markets provided by the Expedia group, some points of origin in particular achieved notable demand with the Expedia group in 2012. According to Expedia group data, key source markets for the region in the first nine months of 2012 were US, Canada, UK, Brazil, Italy and Germany.

“The Expedia group’s Market Management team is working on diversifying the mix of business we send our hotel partners in the Caribbean by increasing the amount of transactions through our international points of sale, with a specific focus on Canada, the United Kingdom and Brazil ,” said Demetrius Canton, director, market management for the Caribbean.

The Expedia group’s commitment to the Caribbean hotel industry is also reflected in the participation of the executive team at the Caribbean Travel Marketplace, the most important industry event organized by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), from January 20-22, 2013 in Paradise Island, Bahamas.

During the CHTA conference, the Expedia group will honour the company’s valued and loyal partners during a Partner Appreciation Event.

“We are thrilled to participate in another edition of the Caribbean Travel Marketplace, as we know it’s an important event to consolidate our relationships with tourism authorities and meet with our hotel partners to discuss marketing and distribution strategies to provide exceptional exposure and unparalleled access on all Expedia group platforms worldwide,” said Marco Tagliatti, vice president of lodging supply for Latin America and Caribbean.

The Expedia group recently launched the Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP) program. ETP is designed to better serve travelers by offering them the choice to pay either at the time of booking (called Expedia Collect) or upon check out at the hotel directly (called Hotel Collect). For participating hotel partners, early testing showed that participating hotels were seeing an increase in bookings and seeing booking with longer lengths of stay compared to non-participating hotels.

The package strategy launched by the Expedia group in the first three months of 2012 for the Caribbean has proven to be an important factor in the growth experienced by the hotels in the region last year and a great way to generate an increased booking window. The average package booking window is more than 60 days, which is substantially longer than the booking window for stand-alone hotel bookings. By offering package rates through the Expedia group, hotels are able to secure exposure and demand for their property among vacation travelers who book hotel and air travel together without seeing the actual hotel rate or airfare alone.

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