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Many people itch to book a trip to their favorite summer getaway, but are unsure about Covid outbreaks or vaccination, test or quarantine requirements.
The online travel shopping company Expedia Group on Thursday launched COVID-19 Travel Advisor, an online tool that provides information on current travel restrictions to potential and existing customers in seven of the company’s brands.
“At the moment, many people are considering booking outings while the Covid-19 vaccine continues, but at the same time, they are inundated with conflicting information about where and how they can travel safely,” said Stacey Symonds, senior director of experience. insights at Expedia Group, in a statement.
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“It can be a challenge to find these details from a trusted source, so we’ve partnered with Sherpa to seamlessly integrate a solution into our applications, websites and customer communications,” she added. “Our goal is to reduce friction for travelers during a time when they need extra support and enable them to make responsible decisions.”
Expedia Group works with Sherpa, a global travel identification requirements provider for the travel industry, to offer the tool. Sherpa’s technology has also been used in similar joint ventures with American Airlines and Caribbean Airlines, the OneWorld airline alliance and the guided travel company The Travel Corp.
On April 8, 2021, Expedia Group launched the COVID-19 Travel Advisor, a technology tool that provides consumers with up-to-date information on travel restrictions worldwide.
Expedia Group
“Travel is critical to our world economy and an important part of the human commitment,” said Max Tremaine, co-founder and CEO of Sherpa, in a statement. “Since the pandemic began, our focus has remained on helping our travel partners restore consumer confidence and travel confidence.”
A pilot phase of COVID-19 Travel Advisor, which began in late November, attracted 1.6 million users, and in March alone, Expedia Group registered 1.8 million visits to the tool across its brands. This is a 97% jump from February, which means that ‘many repeated uses as travelers’ are planning various upcoming trips, “according to the company.
Online travel agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and other Expedia Group brands, such as the online holiday home rental website Vrbo, are seeing a jump in business, and consumer travel plans on such sites are almost 25% compared to the pre-pandemic period, according to a recent study by Expedia Group Media Solutions.
“At Vrbo, we have had a record shortage of holiday rentals over the past few months of the year, and we are encouraged to see co-brands from the Expedia Group on a path to strong recovery,” said Jeff Hurst, president of Vrbo and marketing leader at Expedia Group, told CNBC.com. “People are eager to reconnect with family, friends and colleagues, but it can be difficult to move on.
“With the COVID-19 travel advisor, we are breaking down the barrier so that travelers can easily access reliable information to unlock their next trip,” he adds. “So far, we have seen success with this tool, and we continue to advance our technology to support the needs of travelers, hosts and industry partners.”
The brands that include the new COVID-19 travel advisor from Expedia Group are Ebookers, Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Vrbo and Wotif.