BELLEVUE, Wash., June 7, 2011 — Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of global online travel leader Expedia, Inc., today announced a 3:1 media match offer for recent disaster-affected states. The offer is designed to help these nine states reach travel shoppers on Expedia, Inc. sites to drive visibility and, ultimately, tourism to their destinations.
The offer provides a three to one media dollar match for all advertising on Expedia, Inc. websites to allow destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and tourism boards in affected states broader marketing resources and promotional capabilities to reach their potential audience. This offer is being extended to Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Massachusetts, and is good for all media sold and run during June through September of this year.
“This offer allows our destination and supply partners to showcase the vacation spots across these states that are welcoming back visitors or haven’t been touched by the disasters,” said Noah Tratt, vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. “Our hope is that with the increased visibility of these destinations within Expedia’s sites, consumers will consider these areas for their summer and fall travel, thus reducing the economic impact to these areas.”
Last year, Expedia Media Solutions extended a similar offer to states affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill, and matched campaign spends for several DMOs. The New Orleans Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) is one organization that took part in this 3:1 offer with a multifaceted campaign on Expedia.com® featuring a variety of visually striking ads. The one-month campaign doubled unaided brand awareness of New Orleans as a destination and successfully lifted New Orleans higher in travelers’ consideration set, with consideration of New Orleans as a possible destination increasing from 31 percent to 41 percent.
Eligible destinations interested in participating may contact Expedia Media Solutions at expediamedia@expedia.com to inquire.
About Expedia Media Solutions
Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia’s network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world’s leading online travel brands, including:
• Expedia.com®, the world’s largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 31 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 13 countries on its 12 sites in North America, Europe and Asia
• Egencia®, the world’s fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLongTM, the second largest online travel company in China
• Venere.comTM, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• trivago®, a leading online hotel search company with sites in 39 countries
• Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, one of North America’s leading retail cruise vacation experts
The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in- market travel consumers through Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world’s leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.