Includes Hotwire, Discount Travel Site, and National Leisure Group's Cruise Vacation Provider, the Vacation Store
SEATTLE--Sept. 26, 2001-- Amazon.com today opened the Amazon.com Travel store (www.amazon.com/travel), featuring booking services and the latest travel status information from Expedia, the leading online travel and customer service provider.
The store also offers discounted travel for the flexible traveler through Hotwire, cruise vacations through National Leisure Group's The Vacation Store, and thousands of travel-related items from Amazon.com stores. With these partnerships, the Amazon.com Travel store is a comprehensive destination for all travel needs, offering thousands of flight, hotel, car rental and cruise options, unique discount travel deals, vacation planning and travel advice.
Expedia is the premier travel service and the booking engine for the Amazon.com Travel store. To help satisfy the needs of travelers affected by changes in the current travel environment, Amazon.com visitors can access Expedia's comprehensive Travel Disruption Resource Center, where customers can obtain frequent airport and airline updates, information on check-in procedures, advisories, flight status, updates on visitor attractions nationwide and relevant articles. Additionally, Expedia offers a one-stop shopping environment where travelers will find the best combination of choice and control in airfare, hotels, vacation packages, cruises and rental cars, along with timely customer service information.
Through the Amazon Travel store and its partner Expedia, customers can find a wide variety of unsurpassed travel deals and discounts, including the guaranteed lowest rates on hotels with Expedia Special Rates, savings on custom-built vacation packages and up to 60 percent off published airfares with Expedia Bargain Fares.
In addition, the Amazon.com Travel store offers discounted travel to flexible consumers through Hotwire's specially negotiated Hot-FaresSM and Hot-Rates(SM). By asking customers to be flexible on certain details like exact flight time or airline, Hotwire can save a significant amount of money off published fares and rates without the hassle of bidding. Hotwire currently offers specially negotiated Hot-Fares(SM) and Hot-Rates(SM) on flights, hotels and rental cars.
The Travel store also features thousands of travel-related products from stores across the Amazon.com site, including products for people traveling with kids and infants, consumer electronic equipment that is essential to travel, travel books and audiobooks, language and travel software, and all the essentials for a road trip. The Travel store includes top sellers in numerous product categories and knowledgeable Search functionality across all product lines.
Contemporary, premium and luxury cruise vacations are also available to shoppers in the Amazon.com Travel store through National Leisure Group's The Vacation Store. The Vacation Store has a preferred relationship with the World's Leading Cruise Lines, offering cruise vacations to 458 destinations in 87 countries across six continents. Amazon.com customers can find terrific selections and best-price guarantees through The Vacation Store.
"We've taken the hassle out of searching for travel-related products by building the Travel store, where customers can find, discover and buy any travel-related product they need," said David Risher, senior vice president of marketing and merchandising at Amazon.com. "We're pleased to offer Expedia, Hotwire and National Leisure Group's The Vacation Store's services, as well as our own travel-related merchandise, in one easy-to-shop Travel store."
"Expedia is a natural fit to provide the core online travel services of air, car, hotel and vacation packages and cruises along with the best customer service and timely travel information within the Amazon.com Travel store," said Erik Blachford, senior vice president of marketing and programming for Expedia. "This relationship brings together the two leaders in e-commerce and customer service and provides Amazon.com customers with an industry-leading set of travel-related products."
"Amazon.com clearly sees a need for a quality discount travel site where customers can always find a great deal," said Karl Peterson, Hotwire president and CEO. "We're proud to fill that need, working only with major, quality airlines and extending the top-notch service Amazon.com's customers have come to expect."
"The Vacation Store shares Amazon.com's commitment to quality and value and has teamed up with the World's Leading Cruise Lines to offer a highly diversified global cruise product at exceptional values," said Brad Gerstner, executive vice president of National Leisure Group and The Vacation Store. "We look forward to providing the discerning Amazon.com customer with world-class vacation experiences."
Later this year, Amazon.com's U.K. subsidiary, Amazon.co.uk, will be launching its own Travel store, featuring thousands of travel-related products from stores across the Amazon.co.uk site. Leading online European travel agent Expedia.co.uk will be the featured partner and booking engine for the store.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection, along with online auctions and free electronic greeting cards. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com and sellers list millions of unique new and used items in categories such as electronics, computers, kitchen and housewares, books, music, DVDs, videos, camera and photo items, toys, baby and baby registry, software, computer and video games, cell phones and service, tools and hardware, and outdoor living products. Through Amazon Marketplace, zShops and Auctions, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's more than 35 million customers (cumulative customer accounts), and with Amazon.com Payments, sellers can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments.
Amazon.com operates four international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr and www.amazon.co.jp. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 275,000 movies and entertainment titles and 1 million cast and crew members dating from the birth of film through 2005.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's anticipated losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, strategic alliances, strategic partnerships and business combinations, seasonality, potential fluctuations in operating results and rate of growth, management of potential growth, risks of system interruption, international expansion, consumer trends, risk of fulfillment center optimization, inventory risks, limited operating history, risks related to fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and risks of new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000, and all subsequent filings, including Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq:EXPE) operates Expedia.com, an independent leading online travel service in the United States with localized versions in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. To help customers travel right, Expedia.com provides the best combination of air, car and hotel booking, vacation package and cruise offers, destination information and mapping. Industry experts agree. Expedia's quality and leadership was recognized through several awards, including both PC Magazine's "Readers' Choice" and "Editors' Choice" awards, Forbes' "Favorite General Travel Site," Smart Business's MVP Award, PC World's "Best Bet" and IFITT's "Best Web Site in the Travel Agency, Tour Operator and Cruise Category." Expedia is ranked the seventh largest travel agency in the U.S. according to Travel Weekly magazine.
Expedia.com customers are supported by a credit card guarantee (U.S. site only), an industry-leading privacy policy and live agents via e-mail and an 800 number available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Expedia.com is also available under Travel on the MSN(R) network of Internet services.
About Hotwire
Hotwire launched in October 2000, offering an affordable and easy way for the leisure traveler to purchase travel online with trusted brands. Hotwire currently offers Hot-FaresSM and Hot-Rates(SM) on airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars with 31 airlines, including founding partners American, America West, Continental, Northwest, United and USAirways. In addition, Hotwire is partnered with nearly 2,000 top hotels nationwide and top rental car companies. Awarded a Gold Star for "Best Bargain Booker" by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine (June 2001), Hotwire maintains a consumer focus on low prices, major travel brands and a simple user experience. Hotwire was established in 1999 in San Francisco, with an initial $75 million investment from Texas Pacific Group and founding airline partners.
About National Leisure Group
National Leisure Group, Inc. (NLG) is the leading provider of high-quality, high-value vacations and cruises sold directly to consumers through world-class affiliate partners. NLG provides technology, operations support and private-label fulfillment solutions to many of the major online and offline retailers of vacation packages and cruises, and offers consumers a vast array of affordable vacation choices from the finest vendor brands in the world. Based in Woburn, Massachusetts, National Leisure Group has been delivering cruise and vacation solutions to its affiliate partners for nearly 15 years.