BWI: Expedia Ramps up Investments in India to Set up R&D Centre

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Expedia.co.in
Friday, October 19, 2012 03:11 PM IST (09:41 AM GMT)
Editors: General: People, Travel & tourism; Business: Accounting & management consultancy services, Business services, Hospitality, Information technology, Travel & tourism; Technology
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Expedia Ramps up Investments in India to Set up R&D Centre
Moves to a new office and plans to hire 300 by end of 2012

Gurgaon, Haryana, India, Friday, October 19, 2012 -- (Business Wire India) -- The Expedia Group announced plans to set up a global technology centre in India as part of its enhanced investment in India. The Expedia group's Indian subsidiary companies also moved to a brand new office premise, spread over 42,000 sq feet in Gurgaon. The facility will primarily house employees working on sales and marketing, research and development, and travel supply support services activities in support of Expedia Group's Expedia-brand, Expedia.co.in, Hotels.com-brand, and Egencia (corporate travel) businesses. The Gurgaon set-up represents one of the Expedia Group's largest facilities outside of Expedia, Inc.'s Bellevue, Washington corporate headquarters. The new office is the largest facility for the group in Asia Pacific and the fifth largest globally. Expedia Online Travel Services India Private Limited (Expedia India), the Indian subsidiary of Expedia Inc., also plans to hire 300 people locally by end of 2012 as it strengthens its workforce in the region.

As the R&D hub for the region, the new development centre in India will create travel applications for local as well as the global markets. India will be the only other location besides Bellevue, where the Expedia Group will work on solutions across all brands and platforms. The Gurgaon location will house a balanced mix of teams across operations, search and supply functions along with core common infrastructure teams and data centres.

The new office offers a vibrant and engaging work space with travel themed common areas.

At present, the Expedia Group has R&D presence globally in 11 centers in Bellevue, London, Springfield, San Francisco, Geneva, Paris, Prague, Montreal, and now Gurgaon.

Statements of Support

Announcing India's growing importance and launch of the R&D centre, Edmond Mesrobian, Chief Technology Officer, Expedia, Inc. said, "India is of strategic importance to us and offers us access to a vast pool of bright technology talent. As one of the fast growing travel markets and given our success in this region, we are delighted to be able to expand our presence by way of setting up an R&D centre that will significantly contribute innovations and new solutions across our full suite of brands both here and globally. We are bullish on the long-term potential of the market and are expecting to hire 300 resources before the end of the year ".

Rajesh Rai, Director, HR, Expedia India said, "While the Expedia Group has gradually become synonymous to 'Travel Experience', we really wanted our teams to comprehend to the core, what they stand for. We are a very strong technology company with innovation at the center of its being. And that's what we look for when we hire - the hunger to make an impact!. Further, the idea was to extend a fun, comfortable, refreshing and open work environment- that seems less like an 'office' and more like a unique travel experience in itself. Full of comfort, we're in pursuit to make Expedia a great place to work."

Vikram Malhi, Country Head, Expedia.co.in commented, "Expedia.co.in has seen tremendous success in the Indian market over the last 3 years. At Expedia, we are committed to facilitating a seamless and fulfilling travel experience. We continually strive towards improvising ourselves and remain in pursuit of innovation, bringing to the Indian consumers, a new travel purchase experience supported by a strong supply of travel products and services. The new technology centre being set up in Gurgaon will be the platform for taking our engagement in the Indian market to the next level."

"Our Egencia business brings the global best in class technology & operating solutions to business travelers in India, a key emerging market for us" said Gaurav Sundaram, Country Director Egencia India Travel Private Limited. "Whilst our strategy is growth through innovation and investment in technology to better serve our Indian customers, developing and sustaining the next generation of technology experts locally in Gurgaon is an exciting byproduct."

"The opening of the new office in India is an exciting step on way of Hotels.com's strategic goal to establish as the leading hotel booking website in India said Abhiram Chowdhry, Sr. Director of Marketing, Hotels.com Asia Pacific. The Indian market has great potential and one where our singular positioning as the hotel booking expert has shown great results already. We intend to continue with investments in our product, technology and marketing and offer ever greater value to address the hotel booking needs of the Indian consumer. The new office will be a great conduit for us as a brand in India."

Notes to Editors

About Expedia

Expedia 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 30 countries ( India Website - Expedia.co.in- http://www.expedia.co.in/)

-- Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries

-- Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe

-- Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company

-- eLongT, the second largest online travel company in China

-- Venere.com® , the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe

-- Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide

-- Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist

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. (NASDAQ: EXPE)

Collectively, the Expedia brands cover virtually every aspect of researching, planning, and booking travel, from choosing the best airplane seat, to reading personal travel reviews of hotels, to planning what to do in a destination once you arrive. The Expedia, Inc. portfolio serves both leisure and business travellers with tastes and budgets ranging from modest to luxury. Expedia delivers consumer travel demand from nearly every continent to nearly 155,000 hotels and hundreds of airlines, tour operators, car rental companies and destination services supply partners.

About Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. Company

Egencia is the fifth largest travel management company in the world. As part of Expedia, Inc., , the world's largest online travel marketplace, Egencia helps businesses get ahead by offering the only truly integrated corporate travel service. Egencia's industry expertise helps drive results that matter, delivering meaningful advancements that have a real impact. By combining a powerful offline and online service, Egencia delivers a complete corporate travel offering supported by global market expertise and a best-in-class technology platform.

For more information, go to www.egencia.co.in .

About Hotels.com

Hotels.com is a leading online accommodation booking website with almost 155,000 properties around the world, ranging from international chains and all-inclusive resorts to local favourites and bed & breakfasts, together with all the information needed to book the perfect stay. Hotels.com benefits from one of the largest hotel contracting teams in the industry, negotiating the best rates for its customers, and offers frequent sales, special deals and promotions. Regular customer e-newsletters provide exclusive offers and advance warning of up-coming sales. There are more than 6.5 million reviews on the site from users who have actually stayed in the hotels to ensure customers can make an informed choice when booking. Through its industry-leading loyalty program Welcome Rewards, customers can earn a free night for every 10 nights stayed at more than 65,000 hotels. Under its Price Match Guarantee, if a customer can find the same deal for less on a prepaid hotel, Hotels.com will refund the difference. Travellers can book online or by contacting one of the multilingual call centres. Special apps for mobile phones and tablets can also be downloaded at www.hotels.com/deals/mobile_app/ enabling customers to book on the go with access to 20,000 last minute deals. For the last eight years, Hotels.com has published an award-winning twice-yearly review of international hotel room price trends called the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index which is now produced in 31 individual country editions. Hotels.com is part of Expedia Inc., the largest online travel company in the world with an extensive portfolio that includes some of the world's best-known brands.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved.



CONTACT DETAILS
Beedisha Chakrabarti, Text 100 India Pvt. Ltd, +91 9899003192, Beedisha.chakrabarti@text100.co.in
Swati Guwalani, Text 100 India Pvt. Ltd, +91 9873220117, swati.guwalani@text100.co.in
Saba Sinha, Text 100 India Pvt. Ltd, +91 9810976439, saba.sinha@text100.co.in
Gaurav Sundaram, Country Director, Egencia India, +91 (124) 4311214, gasundaram@egencia.com
Zoe Chan, Senior PR Manager, Hotels.com APAC, +852 3607 5719, zchan@hotels.com

KEYWORDS
PEOPLE, TOURISM, CONSULTANCY SERVICES, BUSINESS SERVICES, HOSPITALITY, TRAVEL, TECHNOLOGY

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