World’s Largest Online Travel Company Expands Presence in Brazil

Expedia, Inc., the world's largest online travel company, announced the expansion of its operations in Sao Paulo and growth in the international travel bookings the company is delivering to Brazilian hotels. Expedia® operates more than 90 Expedia and Hotels.com® travel booking websites in more than 60 countries, including 23 websites in Latin America such as Hoteis.com. Sao Paulo is home to a team of hotel market managers who work with Sao Paulo region hotels to offer their properties on Expedia and Hotels.com sites worldwide.

Today, over 850 hotels in Brazil work with Expedia, a nearly 90 percent increase from 12 months ago. Travel bookings to Brazil made on Expedia and Hotels.com sites worldwide have grown nearly 100 percent in the past 12 months, with intra-Latin America bookings growing more than 250% over the same period of time. In fact, travelers across the globe have booked more than 150,000 room nights at Brazil hotels through Expedia and Hotels.com just this year. Expedia is helping Brazilian hoteliers reach an international audience of travelers they have never had access to before. The highest number of travelers visiting Brazil after booking on Expedia sites are coming from the U.S.,  U.K., France and Italy.

“Hotels in Brazil have a huge opportunity to extend their reach to our entire Latin American and international customer base,” said Marco Tagliatti, Vice President of Market Management, Latin America, Expedia, Inc. “We are expanding our team in Sao Paulo because it is a tourism market that is growing rapidly both domestically and internationally.  We’re seeing many international travelers visiting Brazil for the first time, and we want to help Brazilian hoteliers grow their businesses by helping them reach our millions of customers across the globe.”

On a global basis, Expedia offers more than 127,000 hotels on its travel booking sites around the world. By partnering with Expedia, hotels automatically appear in the search results on any of the company’s more than 90 websites when customers search for hotels in that destination. Expedia has partnership programs for hotels of all sizes, from the small 10-room pousada in Buzios, to a larger 100-room hotel in the center of Sao Paulo.

“By working with Expedia, we have been able to improve demand and occupancy for our property by reaching international visitors to Brazil who may not have otherwise booked with us,” said Helida Cristina Silva, sales manager for Porto Bay Hotels. “Expedia’s team in Sao Paulo has been extremely helpful in helping my team understand how we can maximize our online distribution strategy.”

The Expedia/Hoteis.com Sao Paulo team hosted an ecommerce seminar earlier today, Thursday, Aug. 17 at Hotel Melia Jardim Europa. Approximately 200 members of the Brazil hotel industry community were in attendance at the event, at which Expedia executives and hotel revenue management experts presented an overview of online travel trends and opportunities for hotels that wish to grow their business by developing their online sales strategy.