Expedia sees Korea as testing ground for mobile
Aaron Price, chief marketing officer at Expedia, talks about the company’s seven years of business in Korea at a news conference on Tuesday. [PRAIN]
In terms of mobile, Korea is Expedia’s most important market, and to attract more users, the company is offering a service that lets people book cheaper hotel stays after ordering plane tickets on its app.
Celebrating the company’s seven years of business here, Expedia’s chief marketing officer, Aaron Price, said the company is introducing Add-On Advantage, where users who book plane tickets to overseas countries can come back to Expedia any time to view hotels with lower prices that are usually offered to those who purchase a package deal from the beginning.
As long as users come back before they get on the plane, the cheaper prices will be available, Price said.
“We seek to revolutionize travel through the power of technology,” Price said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Expedia sees Korea as a market where its mobile app has the most development potential. More than half of Korean users access Expedia’s travel services through mobile, and a third of users make payments on the mobile platform, according to the company’s survey.
Expedia expects to see the Add-On Advantage service bring more Koreans back to the company to make hotel reservations, since 63 percent of Koreans book plane tickets first and then search for places to stay.
“Getting the best deals, providing the biggest choices and making [the reservation process] simple for our customers” are the pillars of Expedia’s business, said James Marshall, vice president of transport partner services.
The company also plans to add more features to make it easy for users to change and cancel their travel plans. It also hopes to build a network that connects hotels, airlines and other companies in the travel industry.
BY LEE SUN-MIN [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)