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BREAKING: Expedia Launches Full-Service Site For Mexico
Friday, February 10, 2012
On Twitter @hotelinteractiv
Expedia
Responding to the growth and evolution of the traveling public in Mexico, Expedia launched the full-service site www.expedia.mx this week. Expedia Mexico is one of 20 full-service global Expedia sites, on top of 10 additional “light” Expedia international sites, which offer partial online booking services.
“Mexico had been a ‘light’ site – hotel-only – since 2010,” says Traci Mercer, vice president of market management, North America, for Expedia’s Partner Services Group. “But once we saw strong adoption, we saw the opportunity to build out a full site, which will allow our partners to drive more bookings there.”
Speaking to the trend of travelers’ origination in Mexico, the U.S. Travel Association reports that 25 percent of all visitors to the U.S. originate from Mexico, totaling 13 million visitors per year. That represents the second largest source of international travelers to the U.S., trailing only Canada. Given the increased emphasis on attracting international travel through industry and government partnerships, this number stands out as an important reason for U.S. hoteliers to take note.
“The 25 percent popped out at us, and it shows as we’ve seen continued adoption for different points of demand,” says Mercer. “What we’re doing on our home page is targeting typical locations, like Texas and California, but also Las Vegas, New York and Florida, destinations where we’re seeing large demand. We’re testing a few variations to whom we are showing and what type of products, trying to make it as simple and easy as possible to focus and prefilter so we drive most relevant information to potential guests.”
Expedia does all the heavy lifting to “translate” the content to the .mx site. Therefore, if U.S. hotels have all their page content updated in local language, Expedia will carry that over to all its international sites. That’s one of the main thing Mercer stresses, that hoteliers take advantage of the 50 photos and robust copy allotments on Expedia. Properties that doubled the amount of information on their pages saw an uptick in conversions of 3 to 4 percent, she says.
“If hotels have their content set up, we can add them seamlessly to the international sites, which allows them to penetrate a new market first, and then determine how they put into play their individual sales strategies after they get a feel for their potential business there,” she adds.
Since international travel is a key source of incremental demand to the U.S., Expedia’s international expansion can help hotels continue to extend their own international reach. International travelers spend more and stay longer.
“As online adoption continues to grow, we only see more need for hotels understanding the international dynamic and managing the booking window, in a way consistent with yield management,” Mercer notes. “Doing what you’ve always done isn’t going to work, so really understanding research and demand specific to your destination is critical to driving incremental demand in this space.”
Friday, February 10, 2012
On Twitter @hotelinteractiv
Expedia
Responding to the growth and evolution of the traveling public in Mexico, Expedia launched the full-service site www.expedia.mx this week. Expedia Mexico is one of 20 full-service global Expedia sites, on top of 10 additional “light” Expedia international sites, which offer partial online booking services.
“Mexico had been a ‘light’ site – hotel-only – since 2010,” says Traci Mercer, vice president of market management, North America, for Expedia’s Partner Services Group. “But once we saw strong adoption, we saw the opportunity to build out a full site, which will allow our partners to drive more bookings there.”
Speaking to the trend of travelers’ origination in Mexico, the U.S. Travel Association reports that 25 percent of all visitors to the U.S. originate from Mexico, totaling 13 million visitors per year. That represents the second largest source of international travelers to the U.S., trailing only Canada. Given the increased emphasis on attracting international travel through industry and government partnerships, this number stands out as an important reason for U.S. hoteliers to take note.
“The 25 percent popped out at us, and it shows as we’ve seen continued adoption for different points of demand,” says Mercer. “What we’re doing on our home page is targeting typical locations, like Texas and California, but also Las Vegas, New York and Florida, destinations where we’re seeing large demand. We’re testing a few variations to whom we are showing and what type of products, trying to make it as simple and easy as possible to focus and prefilter so we drive most relevant information to potential guests.”
Expedia does all the heavy lifting to “translate” the content to the .mx site. Therefore, if U.S. hotels have all their page content updated in local language, Expedia will carry that over to all its international sites. That’s one of the main thing Mercer stresses, that hoteliers take advantage of the 50 photos and robust copy allotments on Expedia. Properties that doubled the amount of information on their pages saw an uptick in conversions of 3 to 4 percent, she says.
“If hotels have their content set up, we can add them seamlessly to the international sites, which allows them to penetrate a new market first, and then determine how they put into play their individual sales strategies after they get a feel for their potential business there,” she adds.
Since international travel is a key source of incremental demand to the U.S., Expedia’s international expansion can help hotels continue to extend their own international reach. International travelers spend more and stay longer.
“As online adoption continues to grow, we only see more need for hotels understanding the international dynamic and managing the booking window, in a way consistent with yield management,” Mercer notes. “Doing what you’ve always done isn’t going to work, so really understanding research and demand specific to your destination is critical to driving incremental demand in this space.”