New Delhi : Expedia.co.in today launches its brand campaign, heralding the entry of the “Big Daddy of Online travel” into India. Starting February 12th 2011, the campaign will showcase Expedia’s world-class suite of products with the world’s largest inventory of over 130,000 hotels, more than 430 airline partnerships and over 5000 holiday activities for the Indian consumer.

Expedia currently commands the largest share of international travellers coming into India through any online travel portal, and with this launch, will offer the same great combination of great value and quality service to more Indian customers for travel in India and around the world.

As part of this launch, Expedia will be spending up to Rs. 25 crores on marketing and branding activities, along with its special introductory offer of ‘Zero Expedia fee’ for the Indian consumer. The ‘Zero Expedia fee’ offer will provide travellers with the freedom, flexibility and value to change or cancel bookings made via Expedia without incurring any fees or charges. These cancellations or changes can be with respect to hotels, flights, holiday packages or even car hires made using Expedia.co.in.

According to Dan Lynn, Managing Director of Expedia APAC, “It’s time for Expedia to say hello to more Indian customers, and introduce our fantastic range of great value products, our easy to use website, and the security and professionalism of booking with the World’s Largest Online Travel Company. We have spent the last two years really understanding how Indians want to book and travel, and are excited today to be offering our “Zero Expedia Fee” offer as we launch our brand campaign. Not only will the Indian traveler get the security of booking with the World’s Largest Online Travel Company, but they’ll also get a cheaper way to book online travel than ever before!”

“As the Big Daddy of online travel, handling over 31 million transactions, we are not only in the unique position to provide our customers with the widest range of great value travel options, but are the only site who can give them the reassurance of a worldwide network supporting them through their travel. We expect this brand launch to result in an increase of over 150% shoppers on Expedia.co.in over the coming year,” added Lynn.

As a prelude to this launch, Expedia also conducted a proprietary consumer segmentation study to understand the Indian traveller base and its unique needs. A psychographic analysis of consumer attitudes towards travel, the study broke up the Indian traveller into the family focused recreational traveller, the cautiously independent experimental traveller and the extremely adventurous experiential traveller. Expedia has decided to target the Experimental and Experiential traveler in India which contributes to 65% of the market.

Elaborating on the brand launch, Mr. Manmeet Ahluwalia, Marketing Head, Expedia.co.in said, “The brand launch will see us focusing on the needs of the Experimental and Experiential Indian travellers. This includes an evolving group of travellers who like more control over their itinerary, exercising the power of personalizing their own trips; from choosing their flights, to deciding the duration of travel, hotels as well as the holiday experiences that they feel are relevant to them. Our ‘Build Your Trip’ packages provide all this and much more including best in class pricing, and the widest choice of inventory”

The ‘Build Your Trip’ solution, gives Indian consumers the flexibility to design their own holiday packages. This unique product produces typical savings of up to Rs. 9000 or approximately USD200 per trip. In 2010, Expedia consumers globally, were able to save over USD440 million by making use of the ‘Build your Trip’ tool and booking hotels and flights together.

In addition Expedia offers permanent travel tools – ‘Big Daddy’s, Big Deals’ – around the year. These offer deep discounts for domestic or international travel.

· 72-Hour sale: Best-in-class deals and discounts of up to 50% off hotel reservations. These hot deals are available for 72 hours on selected destinations

· Last-Minute deals: Last minute deals provide travelers with 20% to 50% off, or free nights, at top quality hotels. Travellers planning to travel within the next 21 days love these offers

· Deal Hunter: Gives travellers a chance to receive upto 70% discounts on hotel tariffs. Valid for travellers who are planning a long term trip, outside 21 days

· Seasonal Promotions: Discounted products at half price or more even during the peak travel period including summer holidays, winter vacations, Diwali holidays or other long weekends & festivals