Expedia Group, one of the world’s largest online travel agencies, announced that they are dedicating $275 million to help their partners recover from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
It is the company’s initiatives to support global tourism industry recovery and property-level relief which is designed to help independent partners and small chains rebuild their business.
According to the Expedia Group, the lodging partners requires supports from OTA’s mainly in four priority areas during the recovery process. They are:
– Demand trend insights on leisure and domestic travel
– Investments in marketing and demand generation for travel and destinations
– Increased visibility on Expedia Group’s sites
– Financial relief
In the recovery plan, Expedia Group is committing $250 million in marketing and financial relief for partner properties around the globe. For each property that participates in the program the company will reinvest 25% of the compensation earned in 2019 from the property into marketing credits for use with Expedia Group. They are also reducing its compensation on all new bookings made within the three-month program period, regardless of the actual stay dates. Moreover, the company is extending payment terms for Hotel Collect bookings to 90 days to provide additional financial relief.
In order to re-ignite tourism demand through market awareness, Expedia group is dedicating a $25 million fund for tourism destinations. This is to help destinations to organize destination marketing campaigns and supply partners to manage their advertising spend while maximizing their conversions.
Furthermore, Expedia group has created a complimentary training and educational programs for employees working in hotel industry. This program offers skill development through online learning modules and live content led by Expedia Group subject matter experts and travel industry leaders.
