BELLEVUE, Wash.– The Expedia group, the world's largest online travel company, reported today that travel demand for the Dominican Republic increased by 24% during 2012, in comparison to the previous year. As a key destination in Expedia’s Caribbean portfolio, the executive team is visiting Punta Cana this week to strengthen relationships with hotel partners and participate in the Dominican Annual Tourism Exchange taking place from April 23rd through 25th.
Topics of discussion with hotel partners will include the development of tailor-made distribution strategies, campaigns aimed to increase visibility of their properties and boost sales – considering the valuable global exposure provided by Expedia in nearly 70 countries – and how to take advantage of market opportunities such as mobile technologies.
“The Dominican Republic is a very popular product on all Expedia websites, as shown by more than 380,000 room nights sold on Expedia websites last year,” said Marco Tagliatti, vice president of Lodging Supply for the Expedia group in Latin America and the Caribbean. “We see a big opportunity for hotel partners in participating on Expedia vacation packages, which currently represent over 70% of total sales to Dominican Republic, as package travelers tend to book their hotel stay further in advance, and they typically stay longer.”
While the United States remains the leading feeder market for the Dominican Republic, hotels in the destination have been successful in attracting a slew of international travelers from other feeder markets last year, such as Canada, United Kingdom, France, Brazil and Germany. Expedia data showed exceptional growth in travel demand in some of Dominican Republic’s emerging origination markets, such as Italy, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway.
To honor the company’s valued and loyal lodging partners in the Dominican Republic, the Expedia team hosted an appreciation event on April 22nd, recognizing outstanding performance in various categories. Below is a list of notable honorees which were selected based on revenue success in 2012:
· Top Producer in Punta Cana: Majestic Elegance Punta Cana - Luxury All Inclusive
· Top Producer in the rest of Dominican Republic: Renaissance Santo Domingo Jaragua Hotel & Casino
· Top Package Producer in 2012: Hotel Melia Tropical - All Inclusive
· Top Producer in international points of sale in 2012: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana All Inclusive
· Fastest-growing property in Dominican Republic in 2012: Hotel Bavaro Princess All Suites Resort Spa & Casino All Inclusive
· Best 2012 Partner: Majestic Colonial Punta Cana All Inclusive, due to its dynamic, proactive strategy and high performance.
At DATE 2013, Expedia will also be discussing the recently introduced Expedia® Traveler Preference™ (ETP) program with hotel partners. ETP is designed to better serve travelers by offering them the choice to pay either at the time of booking (called Expedia Collect) or upon check out at the hotel directly (called Hotel Collect). For participating hotel partners, early testing showed that participating hotels were seeing an increase in bookings and seeing booking with longer lengths of stay compared to non-participating hotels.
The Expedia group features more than 140 websites in nearly 70 countries worldwide, from brands such as Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Hotwire®, Egencia®, Expedia Affiliate Network® and Venere®. Expedia also generates bookings from mobile sites and apps as well as offline booking channels.
