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Expedia CEO Declares Company's Global Land Grab Is Nearly Over

Dennis Schaal photo
Dennis Schaal

Photo Credit: Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom told nearly 5,000 attendees at the Expedia Partner Conference at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas that Expedia would no longer focus on adding new countries to its operations roster. Skift

Skift Take

Expedia isn't done trying to grow; that would be suicide for any public company. Instead, Expedia argues it can best spur growth by digging in deeper in countries where it already operates rather than expanding its map. The new strategy boils down to a question of priorities, and could change again in coming years.

Conquering the world? According to Expedia Inc. CEO Mark Okerstrom, the company's been there, and is nearly finished doing that. Specifically, Okerstrom argues that the effort that has consumed his company over the last nearly two decades — opening offices and operating points of sale in an-ever-increasing number of global locations — is just about finished. "The land grab for being present across the world, we have almost completed it,” Okerstrom told nearly 5,000 attendees Wednesday at the Expedia Partner Conference in the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. After all, Expedia Inc. companies, including Expedia.com, Hotels.com and HomeAway, for example, offered 350,000 hotels and more than 1.2 million vacation rentals that can be booked online in 200 countries as of the end of 2016. Okerstrom said there are a few more countries where Expedia wants to

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