Agreement Will Allow Amazon.com Customers to Search Over 100 Travel Sites for Great Travel Deal
Thursday, 10 November 2005
SideStep, Inc., the traveler's search engine, announced an agreement
with Amazon Services, an Amazon.com company, that will help Amazon's customers find and discover the best travel values on the Web.
SideStep will provide its acclaimed travel search engine to www.amazon.com's travel store customers beginning in early 2006.
SideStep searches more than 100 travel sites -- airlines, hoteliers, and rental car companies, plus online agencies and consolidators -- to deliver the most comprehensive selection of travel choices at the best prices. The search engine connects consumers to travel providers' sites to purchase from respected brands like JetBlue Airlines, American Airlines, Hyatt Corporation and Thrifty Car Rental.
"We are pleased to announce that SideStep will be partnering with Amazon Services to promote SideStep's travel search engine to Amazon.com customers in our travel store," said Jeff Blackburn, Amazon.com's Vice President Business Development. "Starting in early 2006, our customers will be able to find and discover the best deals on airline, hotel, and rental car offerings using this
unique approach to travel search."
"With millions of customer accounts, Amazon is one of the world's largest and most influential ecommerce companies, and this partnership reaffirms SideStep's leadership in travel search," said Russ Lemelin, SideStep's Interim CEO.
"Amazon's mission is to help its customers to find anything they might want to buy -- at the best price. Our approach to online travel is well-aligned with Amazon's consumer-centric world view, and we're excited to introduce the benefits of the travel search model to Amazon's huge audience of
active online shoppers."
Market research firm PhoCusWright forecasts that U.S. online
leisure/unmanaged business travel bookings will grow from $65 billion in 2005 to $94 billion in 2007. PhoCusWright also projects that 42% of all U.S. travel purchases will be made online in 2005, increasing to 55% by 2007.