Travel dot-com bucks downturn

NEWS US online hotel booking firm Hotels.com has got Martha Lane Fox squarely in its crosshairs as it bucks the worldwide crisis in the travel industry and the dot-com downturn to launching sites in the UK and across Europe. Triple digit growth figures for sales from the UK to the US website forced the company to begin investing heavily last year in the technology to build local sites across Europe. Bob Diener, president and founder of Hotels.com, told silicon.com that non-US sales are rising fast, and he predicted that this would account for 50 per cent of the business over the next three to six years. "Our second or third greatest source of business is coming from the UK to the US site. We see the UK as a significant area of growth for Hotels.com." The site layouts and technical infrastructure have been built from scratch in 14 countries across Europe. Diener said: "It is very costly but our strategy is if we are to penetrate the UK market we need a local site. It is a major expenditure and we are also just about to launch an Australian version." The UK site is backed by a £7m marketing campaign launched this week and Hotels.com will need it if it is to take on lastminute.com, which recorded record profits back in August. But Hotels.com is no slouch with $1bn revenues worldwide and pre-tax profits of $130m. The company is part of the Interactive Corporation group, which also owns travel site Expedia. Diener said: "We are taking advantage of synergies in terms of common selling practices and sharing technologies."