Expedia.co.in, one of the world's largest full service online travel sites*, today released the all-new Expedia® app for tablets. It is available today for free download from the App Store and Google Play. Expedia’s hotels and flights booking app for tablets presents a fresh way for travelers to shop destinations: the new search tools enable consumers to shop for both hotels and flights on one screen, simply by entering or selecting a destination. This is a stark contrast to the user interface seen across the industry, and Expedia made the leap to create an experience specifically for tablets.
Expedia is moving from being just a website to being a travel data platform for the user wherever they are, on whatever device they are on,” said Kathleen Tan, CEO of AAE Travel, which operates the Expedia brand in Asia. AAE Travel is a joint venture company between one of the world’s largest travel companies - Expedia Inc; and the world’s best low-cost carrier – AirAsia.
“Travelers expect an easy, convenient way to explore travel destinations and browse flight and hotel details and they expect to be able to do it in a way that feels right for them when they’re on their tablet. Our tablet app gives them this experience, while leveraging the in-depth industry knowledge and personalized insights our powerful Expedia search engines provide”.
As per an industry report, 2013 saw an increase of 427% in tablet sales in India with 51% users spending more than 2 hours on tablet. This trend clearly suggests a surge in tablet users and therefore the need to have applications that cut across devices and provides the best travel planning experience. PhocusWright data shows that about 40% of people use tablets when they are browsing for a travel destination. For Expedia, this data paired with internal findings marked the time to provide content geared towards tablet users.
“At Expedia, investing in technology has always been our priority and with the exponential rise in Indian tablet market, we wanted to explore this vertical and ensure an all-round presence with this first ever tablet travel app in the Indian market”, said Vikram Malhi, MD, Asia, Expedia.
Expedia Unveils a New Direction with Unique Features
To address travelers evolving needs, the new Expedia tablet app is specifically optimized for mobile exploration and browsing and introduces a handful of unique features:
- Single Search Box: To eliminate hefty search interfaces, the new tablet app offers a single search box to do the lifting. When a traveler enters a city name, landmark, or airport code, the app will surface hotels and flights relevant to that query – no dates or specific details are required at the start.
- First-Ever Combined Hotel & Flight Travel Search: For the first time in the industry, combined search has arrived for the travel market. Rather than searching for trips in a rigid, linear progression of flights then hotels, or hotels then flights, Expedia is introducing one combined search that provides both hotel and flight results simultaneously, available all in one glance.
- Collections: Expedia presents various themed travel destinations to spark interest in future journeys. Collections offer customers the opportunity to explore vacation destinations they may not have otherwise considered. Beautiful locations come to life in a particularly compelling way on tablet devices. Collections offer a rich combination of design, mobility and travel research. Content is catered to various regions and will be updated based on traveler feedback.
- Integrated Trip Planning, Booking, & Data, Shared Across Devices: Earlier this year, Expedia introduced Scratchpad in certain markets around the globe. Scratchpad is an easy way to keep track of your travel searches. When a traveler is signed into an Expedia app, trips researched on a tablet device will appear on the desktop or mobile Scratchpad. This allows travelers to begin their travel planning from where they left off – on any device.
“The travel industry has largely thought about each trip as a single transaction and has poured energy into making individual transactions better. That’s no longer enough for travelers who dream, plan, research and buy travel across multiple devices,” notes John Kim, Chief Product Officer at Expedia Worldwide. “We’re beyond the era of just desktop and mobile. Expedia is evolving how we think about that connected customer and how we invest to best serve them before, during and after they travel. Our new tablet app embraces Expedia’s core strengths by bringing together our marquis hotel and flight capabilities to create one beautiful and easy-to-use combined search experience. We encourage people to give it a try and share their feedback.”
Download the new Expedia app for tablets today for free from the App Store and Google Play. For more information on the Expedia app for tablet, including an overview of all product features, please visit
www.expedia.co.in/app.
About Expedia Expedia.co.in is the one of the world’s largest online travel companies. It prides itself in helping travellers plan and book their travel by providing personalised service, the latest technology, as well as a wide selection of over 3,25,000 hotels and 400+ airlines. Every local website offers holiday packages, cheap flights, hotel bookings, car hire and in-destination attractions to suit all travelling needs. In Asia, Expedia operates 11 sites including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and India. Expedia has been awarded the ‘Best Online Travel Agent’ in 2010, 2011 and 2012 by TTG Asia, Asia-Pacific’s leading travel trade publication and is voted as the “World’s Leading Online Travel Agency Website” in the 20th annual World Travel Awards (WTA) in 2013.
*Based on a comparison of other full-service online travel agencies, defined as those providing booking and services related to air, hotel, cruise, car and activities to a global customer base. Data based on comScore Media Metrix for Expedia, Inc. Sites, Worldwide, Average Monthly Unique Visitors, Oct '12-Sept '13. 1”The Mobile Travel Landscape: A Multi-Region Spotlight” Cathy Schetzina Walsh, PhoCusWright, April 2014
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Expedia launches new travel app for Tabs 
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