Rome2rio homes in on 100 million annual visitor milestone

Travel search engine Rome2rio claims to be powering towards a key milestone of 100 million annual visitors. The Australian company says this is number it needs to reach in a shift from pure search to a hybrid search and booking model. The shift comes as the firm positions itself as a dominant player in transportation … Continue reading Rome2rio homes in on 100 million annual visitor milestone

Travel search engine Rome2rio claims to be powering towards a key milestone of 100 million annual visitors.

The Australian company says this is number it needs to reach in a shift from pure search to a hybrid search and booking model.

The shift comes as the firm positions itself as a dominant player in transportation meta search.

The company covers route information from more than 4,800 transport providers in 158 countries and recently agreed partnership deals to expand its onsite booking capability.

A deal with Travelport will see the site offering direct flight bookings in selected markets by early 2017.

An established partnership with SilverRail, which saw the introduction of onsite bookings for UK rail in the summer has now expanded to include Amtrak.

A partnership with Trenitalia will see bookings for Italian rail travel available on site before the end of the year, while bookings for rail travel in Germany, France and other key European markets will follow in early 2017.

Agreements with Busbud and Distribusion bring booking capability for key European and North American coach operators including National Express, Greyhound, Eurolines, Alsa and Flixbus.

Chief executive, Rod Cuthbert said “Our multi-modal search capability attracts high-volume and rapidly growing traffic from users with questions like ‘How do I get from Zurich to Frankfurt?’

“Answering those queries properly requires a full complement of air, rail, bus, rideshare, ferry and self-drive options, which no other online player offers. We do, and we are seeing growing demand for this complete transportation coverage.”

He added: “We’re also seeing growing demand from users to find an online resource they can rely on for booking all of their trip components; that means air, ground, accommodation and activities.

“We currently enjoy a great relationship with Booking.com for hotel bookings, and we’re now looking to secure agreements for other forms of accommodation, tours and activities.

“By creating this well-rounded resource, we expect to see continued strong growth in both traffic and revenue, and we expect to become the global leader in the multi-modal bookings sector.