ON-LINE travel agent Expedia is preparing the technology to offer package holidays on-line.
UK manager James Vaile said this area was very important in the UK market but had not been addressed yet by any on-line travel shop. Expedia presently only has access to a database of 70,000 last-minute holidays which are fulfiled by Thomas Cook call centres.
“We hope to have a generic solution in the not-too-distant-future, but it is a difficult problem as you have to create a new computer reservation system. It can’t be done overnight.
“Globally, Expedia is getting more than 5m visitors a month with sales of $15m a week.”