New ebookers website launches in Belgium

Press release – 24 July 2008 – ebookers Ebookers, a leading full service online travel company in Europe, has re-launched its Belgian website (www.ebookers.be) on a new global technology platform that offers its customers greater functionality and a better user experience. Ebookers is a brand of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc, which operates in 13 countries across…

Press release – 24 July 2008 – ebookers

Ebookers, a leading full service online travel company in Europe, has re-launched its Belgian website (www.ebookers.be) on a new global technology platform that offers its customers greater functionality and a better user experience.

Ebookers is a brand of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc, which operates in 13 countries across Europe and Scandinavia, including the brand Mr. Jet (www.mrjet.se) in Denmark and Sweden.

The new Belgian website aims to make booking decisions for travelers easier through simpler navigation and more product choice. Like past platform migrations in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the re-launch of ebookers’ new Belgian website is expected to triple the number of hotels accessible to customers.

The Belgian site is the first on Orbitz Worldwide’s global platform where users can search for travel in a non-English language.  

Orbitz Worldwide’s global technology platform was built in 2007 and offers customers greater ease in searching and booking on the company’s numerous online travel brands.

Additionally, the new technology makes it easier for travelers to book any combination of flight & hotel choices when planning their own holiday.

The multi-language, multi-currency back-end information technology has the ability to power multiple websites that operate in different locations, increasing maintenance efficiencies, common inventory access and speed to market with new innovations.

The platform will eventually power all 13 ebookers websites in Europe and also Orbitz Worldwide’s properties in North America, including Orbitz.com (www.orbitz.com), CheapTickets.com (www.cheaptickets.com), Orbitz for Business (www.orbitzforbusiness.com) and the company’s Private Label business.  

Additionally, authentic hotel user reviews of thousands of properties and additional information about traveler destinations, including more hotel photos and maps, also have been added to the Belgian ebookers site.

“Core to our business plan, we continue to increase our operational efficiencies in Europe by integrating more of our ebookers country sites onto this technology platform,” said Steve Barnhart, president and chief executive of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.

“The platform continues to deliver key learnings that improve the overall technology with every ebookers country site migrated to our common architecture.”