Expedia Claims ECT Surpasses Company Growth Rate

Expedia Corporate Travel's growth remained strong despite the economic slowdown as its growth rate exceeded parent company Expedia Inc.'s 25 percent revenue increase and 20 percent gross bookings sales increase in the first quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of 2007, the company today announced in its quarterly earnings call.

The company does not provide separate numbers for ECT, but other bookings and revenues, which primarily are derived from the travel management company and Asia/Pacific operations, increased 31 percent and 38 percent respectively.

"We continue to keep a close eye on corporate demand, particularly in the U.S., but as yet we've seen no signs of broad-based softness from corporate travelers," said Dara Khosrowshahi, president and CEO of Expedia.

During the quarter, which ended March 31, Expedia saw its strongest growth outside of North America, where gross bookings sales volume increased 15 percent over the first quarter of 2007. European booking sales volume increased 34 percent.

ECT during the quarter released its DataMinder e-mail reporting tool that shows such performance metrics as air spending, citypair market share and average nightly room rate by city.