Partnership part of transition to hybrid search / OTA business model.
BERLIN, GERMANY – Rome2rio, the multimodal search specialist, has announced a partnership with Distribusion, the global distributor for bus products simplifying global bus travel. The partnership allows Rome2rio users to search its site for available bus tickets from 165 operators worldwide.
The content has been implemented through the Distribution API.
The partnership marks the 1st step towards integrating intercity and shuttle bus bookings into Rome2rio and forms part of an ongoing strategy of the company to offer more onsite bookings; including integrations with SilverRail and Travelport who offer rail and flight bookings respectively. The company is driving these key partnership across Europe to address the needs of their predominate user base; over 65% of Rome2rio’s traffic originates in Europe.
Discussing the partnership, Rome2rio CEO Rod Cuthbert said: "This partnership is one of several deals that mark our intention to be a major player in consumer flight, rail, bus and ferry bookings worldwide, with the distinct advantage over rivals of a powerful search engine capability that allows users to perform the discovery phase of their booking process on the same site as the booking itself."
Explaining the company's strategy in more detail, Cuthbert said "That search advantage delivers consistent, high-volume and rapidly growing traffic to Rome2rio. Our users are asking questions like ‘How do I get from Split to Ancona?’ and ‘How do I get from Dublin to Birmingham?’ which other sites can only answer in part. Because so many journeys can be done in multiple ways, and because so many have multiple components, savvy users are nowadays looking for a site which gives them all the transport options and all the journey components. That's a job we do uniquely well," he said.
Distribusion founder Julian Hauck explains the benefits for both sides: “In many parts of the world buses are the main mode of long-distance transportation. With the recent market liberalisations in Europe, buses also became more and more popular over here to travel around. That’s why we are very happy to provide Rome2rio with the best bus portfolio possible to make international bus rides available to their users.
Providing content of more than 165 bus operators, makes us already the largest distribution system for bus products worldwide.”
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
