Expedia Corporate Travel (ECT) is to expand to a further six more European countries by the end of 2007.
Christophe Peymirat, UK managing director, said the online agency was just “finalising” plans to launch in Italy.
This would be followed by launches in Spain, The Netherlands, two Scandinavian countries and Ireland.
It follows ECT's acquisition of the Munich-based MTM Reisen last year.
With offices already in France, Belgium and the UK, the new expansion will give ECT a presence in ten European countries.
Mr Peymirat said the company, which first arrived in Europe seven years ago when it took over the French agency Egencia, was now "growing quickly."
He said that growth in the UK alone in 2006 had been 50%. "We have grown here organically. It is important to know the market.
"Our existing customers grew a bit but mainly it was new customers. I believe there is more growth to come in the UK," he said.
He said the company approach to expansion was to look for agencies with a good level of service, bring in Expedia's own online technology and then grow the agency organically.
He said while Expedia worked very closely with its American colleagues, the aim was also to bring in European companies.
This was what was happening in the UK, France and Germany – and these companies liked to be serviced by agencies in their own countries.
Mr Peymirat said that as part of this key local service to their clients, it had integrated thetrainline.com rail booking platform into its technology last November in the UK.
It also offered booking on the French SNCF in France and was working with the Deutsche Bahn network in Germany.
While it was Expedia policy to encourage online booking, it still retained an offline service in the UK.
"It is important not to say that it is online or offline because at the end of the day, the booking is checked by us. What we say is that we have this ability online and we can help you grow that way,” he said.
"But quite a lot of companies want to be part of the online business and we can get from 40% to 90% adoption. It depends on the mix of travel.
"But we really try to move part of a customer's business online. After three months, we can grow that."
It is online that Mr Peymirat says the savings start to kick in, on the agencies fees and the ticket prices. These depend on the type of trips made, but he says that savings on ticket prices can average at 20-25%.
He is convinced, partly because of these savings that online will continue to grow.
"But for me before being online or offline, we are a service company. So if you have a traveller who needs assistance, we will support you. For me that is the real importance.”
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