Priceline Europe has launched a new online marketing programme designed to encourage international tourists to visit select US, Canadian, Caribbean and Mexican destinations and patronise hotels that have partnered with Priceline Europe. (5/10/2006)

Through this promotion, Priceline Europe provides a powerful way for hotels to reach a broad cross-section of international tourists who book hotels through Priceline Europe and its global affiliates.

The new online initiative will include promoting participating hotels through priceline's own websites such as www.bookings.net, www.activehotels.com and www.priceline.co.uk and its affiliates around the world. Participating hotels can provide their own property descriptions, which are translated for free into different languages.

US cities being promoted through the programme include San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Miami.

As one of the largest online hotel reservation services, we serve a significant percentage of the international traveling population that books their holidays through the Internet, said Stef Norden, president and chief executive officer, Priceline Europe. This is a large, attractive and incremental base of future visitors for US, Canadian, Caribbean and Mexican hotels. Priceline Europe is pleased to help our hotel partners reach out to this largely untapped market.

Priceline says there is no charge for a hotel to participate in this marketing programme. However, participation will be limited to a select number of hotels. Participating hotels will connect to Priceline Europe through an extranet or through hotel-developed XML connections.

In the first quarter 2006, Priceline Europe's hotel reservation service had US$272.8 million in gross bookings, an organic growth rate of more than 100 percent over the same period last year.