AirAsia, Expedia seek to lift PHL online travel booking rate beyond 10%

Only one in ten travelers in the Philippines books airline flights and hotel accommodations while in Singapore the online booking rate is three times higher at 30 percent, AirAsiaExpedia chief executive office Dan Lynn said Tuesday at the Clark freeport zone, where he launched his company's third full service site. “With our full service sites in Singapore and Thailand, we are already helping more people explore more destinations, and the investments we are now planning in the Philippines and Malaysia will bring travel for all to even more people,” he said. The Singapore and Thailand portals were launched last year. The site for the Philippines is online and fully operational. Expedia has hotel-only sites for its clientele in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and India. Lynn said they see explosive growth averaging 20 to 30 percent in the number of travelers using online services in Southeast Asia. The AirAsiaExpedia CEO Expedia added that the Philippines has immense potential of domestic and international travel. To tap into this market, Lynn said the Expedia site for the Philippines was localized to meet the needs of Filipino travelers and would offer the best holiday deals in the market. — with Marc Jayson Cayabyab/ELR, GMA News