BANGALORE, INDIA: Sprice.com, the Europe’s leading real-time travel search engine has announced that it has expanded its global footprint into India with the launch of a dedicated website for India.  Sprice.com offers consumers a new fresh and simple interface that allows them to navigate through the site easily.

Unlike other travel search sites around the world, Sprice.com displays not only fare information, but also taxes, surcharges, and all-inclusive prices, all on a single screen. After finding the most suitable travel offer, holiday-goers can access the relevant vendor website with a single click to make a booking. Through its ”Find Reviews” feature it allows travellers to virtually check their hotel before they set their foot in through reviews and photographs posted by fellow internet users and travellers. This efficient and convenient comparison-shopping service is offered to travellers free of charge.

“The Indian Online travel market which is expected to cross US $ 2 billion mark by 2008  has changed the old paradigm, providing customer a sophisticated online retail and shopping experience, and simultaneously enabling access to fragmented travel supply market,” said Vikas Gulati, Vice President of Marketing, Asia Pacific for Sprice.com.

“While the Internet has significantly reduced the cost of distribution for travel suppliers, finding the most suitable package including the best hotel to stay in at the best price has become more complex for the travellers. Sprice.com addresses these concerns by introducing a real-time deep search technology, which offers travellers up-to-date information from different travel suppliers on air fares, hotel rates and traveller reviewed hotels from India on a single interface,” he added further.

Sprice.com was first launched in the European market in 2006 and has since become the most popular travel search engine with two million unique visitors per month. Supported by Walden International Singaporean team, Sprice Pte. Ltd. also has plans underway to break into other key markets in Asia Pacific such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand

“We are currently growing at an impressive monthly rate of 20 to 30 percent a month. Our success stems from our commitment to Research & Development (R&D). Over 60 percent of our staff is dedicated to R&D to develop new-generation applications and consistently update Sprice.com with rich, localised and relevant content,” said Gulati.

A unique business model for travel suppliers

Online travel is one of the fastest-growing consumer applications on the Internet. As at January 2008, over 875 million consumers shop online  annually, out of which 24 percent of purchases are related to travel. These figures have grown significantly by 40 percent in the past two years.

Sprice.com presents travel suppliers with a cost-effective way to reach out to ready-to-buy travellers. When the traveller is redirected to the vendor website, all that remains is to confirm and pay for the reservation. No other travel marketing channel offers such a high level of efficiency, effectiveness, and return-on-investment. Sprice.com also adopts a simple and neutral business model with revenues stemming from sponsored links and actual click-outs, as opposed to monthly subscriptions.

Gulati added: “We are the no. 1 travel search engine site in Europe because of our unique business model and revenue proposition to our partners. With Sprice.com, online marketing for travel suppliers will enter a new level. We offer profitable marketing channel to travel companies and maximize returns on their marketing investment.”