Expedia to leverage partnership with AirAsia

American travel company Expedia Inc, will leverage its partnership with AirAsia Bhd to seek more opportunities in Asia. Expedia president and chief executive officer (CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi said AAE Travel Pte Ltd (AAE) — a joint-venture firm between Expedia group and AirAsia, had been overseeing both Expedia and AirAsiaGo points-of-sale across the region since 2011.

“For us AirAsia has been a fantastic partner. We had no idea that Asia offered such significant and rapid growth opportunities until what we learnt through our partnership with AirAsia. It kicked us into an aggressive stage of growth through its scale and deep insight into this region.”

Expedia is the majority shareholder in AAE with 75 per cent share.

Khosrowshahi said that opportunities in Asia would be the company’s focus in the mid-term future, with plans to grow the region into the second-largest market for the online travel firm in the next five years.

“Our data is showing that success in the next 10-20 years will depend on how well we do in Asia.

“The investments we are making here, such as the Expedia Innovation Lab, allows us to understand our Asian customers better,” he added.

Expedia Innovation Lab for Asia deploys electromyography, real time eye-tracking software, which when combined with real-time questions to users, uncovers emotional responses that can be used to develop new products and the way users interact with Expedia.

Expedia is the largest travel company in the world, generating US$72 billion in gross bookings last year on 200 sites in 75 countries and 35 languages.

Its success is based on investing heavily in technology to understand the real outcomes customers desire, and innovating to create new ways to fulfil them.