Thomas Cook announces tie-up with Expedia

Thomas Cook has entered into a strategic alliance with Expedia, whereby the US company will become the preferred provider of hotels for Thomas Cook and provide its booking platform to support all city break and hotel-only sales in Europe.

The multi-year deal will give Thomas Cook customers over 60,000 more hotels to choose from in global city and European domestic locations and enable the group to "significantly" reduce the cost and complexity of its city breaks and hotel-only business. It will also give Thomas Cook the option to offer its core sun and beach package holidays on Expedia sites globally, broadening its distribution reach.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: "The combination of Expedia's portfolio of hotels and best-in-class online technology will transform Thomas Cook's city breaks and hotel-only offer for customers while helping the business take an important step forward in delivering our strategy for profitable growth.

"Joining forces with a company that has the global reach and expertise of Expedia will allow Thomas Cook to further simplify our systems and processes. At the same time, this will free us up to focus on holidays to our own-brand and selected partner hotels in sun & beach locations where we know we can really make a difference to customers. I am confident this marks the first step in a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with Expedia."