TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - Sep 4, 2014) - Expedia.ca, Canada's leading online travel provider*, today released a significant update to its Expedia app for tablets. It is available today for free download from the App Store and Google Play.
Expedia's tablet app presents a fresh way for Canadians to shop destinations: the new search tools enable consumers to shop for both hotels and flights on one screen, simply by entering or selecting a destination. This is a stark contrast to the user interface seen across the industry and Expedia.ca made the leap to create an experience specifically for tablets. Third party research pointed to a large percentage of people using tablets when browsing travel destinations online. This data -- paired with internal findings -- marked the time to provide content geared towards tablet users.
"The challenge we noticed was that current apps in the market haven't necessarily been designed for optimal browsing on a tablet device. Travellers expect an easy, convenient way to explore potential travel destinations and browse flight and hotel details -- all in a way that feels natural when on their tablet device," said Sean Shannon, Managing Director, Expedia Canada. "They deserve this experience without sacrificing the in-depth industry knowledge and personalized insights our powerful Expedia.ca search engine provides."
Expedia.ca Unveils Significant New and Unique Features
To address travellers' evolving needs, the redesigned Expedia tablet app is specifically optimized for mobile exploration and introduces of the following unique features:
- Single Search Box: To eliminate hefty search interfaces, the updated tablet app offers a single search box to do the heavy lifting. When a traveller enters a city name, landmark or airport code, the app will surface hotels and flights relevant to that query -- no dates or specific details are required at the start of this exploration phase.
- First-Ever Combined Hotel & Flight Travel Search: For the first time in the industry, combined search has arrived for the travel market. Rather than searching for trips in a rigid, linear progression of flights then hotels, or hotels then flights, Expedia.ca is introducing one combined search that provides both hotel and flight results simultaneously, available all in one glance.
- Collections: Expedia.ca presents various themed travel destinations to spark interest in future journeys. Collections offer customers the opportunity to explore vacation destinations they may not have otherwise considered. Beautiful locations come to life in a particularly compelling way on tablet devices. Collections offer a rich combination of design, mobility and travel research. Content is catered to various regions and will be updated based on traveller feedback.
"The travel industry has largely thought about each trip as a single transaction and has poured energy into making individual transactions better. That's no longer enough for travellers who dream, plan, research and buy travel across multiple devices," notes John Kim, Chief Product Officer at Expedia Worldwide. "We're beyond the era of just desktop and mobile. Expedia is evolving how we think about that connected customer and how we invest to best serve them before, during and after they travel. Our new tablet app embraces Expedia.ca's core strengths by bringing together our marquis hotel and flight capabilities to create one beautiful and easy-to-use combined search experience. We encourage people to give it a try and share their feedback."
Download the improved Expedia app for tablets today for free from the App Store and Google Play. For more information on the Expedia app for tablet, including an overview of all product features, please visit www.expedia.ca/app.
And -- for people who try it today and are eager to book a trip, we have a 24-hour coupon code they can use to save $100 on their first-time tablet app hotel purchase! Visit this site to claim your code and for more info on the terms and conditions.
About Expedia Canada
Expedia.ca is the nation's most-visited full-service online travel provider. To help Canadians plan and purchase travel, Expedia.ca offers the best combination of scheduled and charter flights, car and hotel reservations, vacation packages, destination activities, cruises, and travel insurance. Expedia customers are supported by customer support agents available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via a toll-free number and email response.
Follow Expedia.ca on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and download the free Expedia Mobile App.
Expedia, Expedia.ca and the Airplane logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. © 2014 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST: 2029030-5030
*Source: comSource Media Metrix, Canada, Online Travel Agents category, Jan - Dec 2013
Contact Information:
Annie Martineau
514 947-4522
