Draft 8/11/2001
Amazon.co.uk Launches Travel Store with
Trusted Partner Expedia.co.uk
London: 15 November 2001: Amazon.co.uk, the UK’s leading on-line retailer,
today opened a full service Travel store (www.amazon.co.uk/travel) featuring
booking services and the latest travel status information from trusted partner
Expedia®.co.uk.
Through this ‘trusted partner’ alliance, Amazon.co.uk’s three million customers
will gain access to Expedia’s one-stop shopping environment, where travellers
can find the best combination of choice and control in airfares, hotels, holiday
packages and rental cars along with timely customer service information.
Amazon.co.uk’s comprehensive Travel store will feature thousands of travelrelated products from the Amazon.co.uk site, including travel guides and books,
route-planning and language software, digital cameras, travel videos, world
music and entertainment for your trip such as audio books and portable
electronics. Amazon.co.uk’s hot 30 Travel & Holiday Books will also be featured
on the Travel store homepage.
The store will also offer Expedia.co.uk’s great Christmas gift ideas including
discount flight deals to Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, LA and other destinations,
and brilliant savings on hotels and car hires. Offers include:
Go shopping in Dublin
Take a romantic break in Paris
- Flights from £79
- Flights from £79
- The 4* Fitzwilliam Hotel from £138
- 5* Hotel de Crillon from £320
- Mercedes c180 hire from £95
- Hire a Alfa Romeo Spider from £290
Take in a London show
Go cruising in a Lotus
- Le Meridien Grosvenor House 5*
- Hire a Lotus Elite Cabriolet from £129
from £155
Draft 8/11/2001
-2Commenting on the launch of the Travel store, Amazon.co.uk’s managing
director Robin Terrell said, “We are delighted to be launching Amazon.co.uk
Travel alongside our trusted partner Expedia. Our customers can now find,
discover and buy any travel-related product they need from a flight to Paris, or
rental car in Milan to an MP3 CD Player and Bill Bryson’s latest book!”.
James Vaile, managing director of Expedia.co.uk, said, “Expedia and Amazon
are two of the biggest and best known names online, so travellers can expect a
fantastic and complementary service offering absolutely everything for travel.”
- ends For further information please contact:
Amazon.co.uk
Rachel Silk / Andy Stafford
Tel no: 020 8636 9280
Email: rsilk@amazon.co.uk
Expedia.co.uk
Rory Steel
Tel no:020 7465 7765
Email: rorys@redconsultancy.com
Editors note
Amazon.com (Amazon.co.uk’s parent company) opened its own travel store on
September 26th 2001 (www.amazon.com/travel), featuring booking services and the
latest travel status information from Expedia.com. The Amazon.com travel store also
offers discounted travel for the flexible traveller through Hotwire, cruise vacations
through National Leisure Group’s The Vacation Store, and thousands of travel-related
items from Amazon.com stores. At the same time Amazon.com announced that it’s
UK.subsidiary, Amazon.co.uk, would be launching its own Travel store later in the year,
featuring thousands of travel-related products from stores across the Amazon.co.uk
site. Leading online European travel agent Expedia.co.uk would be the featured partner
and booking engine for the store.
About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk opened its virtual doors on October 15, 1998, and today offers more than
2.5 million books, CDs, videos, DVDs, software titles, PC & video games, electronics and
toys, hosts online auctions and provides a complete online storefront for individual
merchants through its zShops. Amazon.co.uk has recently announced strategic alliances
with Carphone Warehouse, Waterstones, Virgin Wines and Expedia.co.uk. Amazon.co.uk
customers enjoy the benefits of industry-leading, online shopping technology such as
secure credit-card payment; personalised recommendations; streamlined, 1-Click®
ordering and hassle-free Bid-Click auction bidding. Through Amazon Anywhere,
Amazon.co.uk also is available on mobile phones with WAP technology; look at
www.amazon.co.uk/anywhere for details. Amazon.co.uk is ranked the #1 online retailer
in the United Kingdom, according to Media Metrix data measuring number of unique hits
and reach September 2001).
Draft 8/11/2001
-3Amazon.co.uk is the trading name for Amazon.com Int'l Sales, Inc., and Amazon.com
International Auctions, Inc., which are both wholly owned subsidiaries of global online
retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). With more than 38 million customer
accounts worldwide, Amazon strives to be the world’s most customer-centric company,
where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
About Expedia.co.uk
Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) operates Expedia.co.uk in the UK and has localised
versions for travellers in the US, Canada, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Expedia
and Expedia.co.uk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in
the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein
may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Expedia.co.uk is the best way to plan and book your travel online, giving you the choice
and control to easily plan travel, buy air tickets, make hotel and car reservations and
book last minute package deals by giving you access to exactly the same information as
a High Street travel agent.
Expedia.co.uk offers millions of published and discounted fares on over 450 airlines, a
directory of more than 80,000 accommodation properties world-wide and 4 million
rooms, car hire from the top rental companies and a choice of package holidays. The
site also includes in depth destination guides and maps, a comprehensive travel
information service, and links to relevant Web sites. Expedia.co.uk is entirely free to
anyone and does not require registration.