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OTA’s to set pricing based on country of origin

October 04, 2007 | Online Travel

Some of the best travel deals on the Web these days don’t end in .com but can be found on a travel company’s foreign offshoot, which usually ends with the country’s domain name. Though the travel companies don’t advertise it, they often charge different prices based on the country of origin.

In an effort to expand their global reach, online travel agencies based in the United States like Expedia and Travelocity, as well as individual airlines and car rental agencies, are creating Web sites geared to foreign counties. Travelocity, for example, just started Travelocity.com.mx for customers in Mexico. It also has Travelocity.co.uk for Britain; Travelocity.de for Germany; and Travelocity.ca for Canada. Expedia has 13 foreign sites including Expedia.dk (Denmark), Expedia.it (Italy) and Expedia.fr (France).

The savings can be considerable. An Expedia.com search for a round-trip flight from Melbourne to Sydney in August yielded a $350 airfare on Qantas as the lowest available, including taxes and fees. The same flight was listed on Expedia’s Australian Web site, Expedia.com.au, for 224.34 Australian dollars, or about $187 at 1.20 Australian dollars to the U.S. dollar. Expedia.com.au also listed a lower fare (about 200 Australian dollars) on Virgin Blue, an Australian low-cost carrier; the United States site did not search that airline.

Get the full story at The New York Times

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