Expedia's Brand Do-Overs Include Orbitz Putting Greater Focus on LGBTQ Market
Skift Take
Six years after uniting the Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia brands within Expedia Group, the company is now undertaking the grand experiment to differentiate their value propositions and target markets. If it doesn't work, brand consultants never get tired of offering their advice.
With 10 or so online travel agency brands in the fold, Expedia Group is busy redefining and distinguishing them to focus on key customers, and to avoid too much unproductive overlap.
That's one reason Expedia Group recently relaunched Orbitz with a focus on the LGBTQIA+ market. It's part of Expedia's larger effort to retool its patchwork of online travel agency brands, all of which came its way through acquisitions over a couple of decades.
Whether it's online travel agencies or hotel brands, differentiating content and target audiences is a challenge for businesses across the spectrum, whether it be in travel or other industries.
"We've relaunched our Orbitz brand with a focus on LGBTQIA+," Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern told investors last month. "And that's sort of, again, a push as we try to differentiate brands and really focus each brand on who their market is."
Orbitz, which has a history of LGBTQ advocacy and claims to be the first online travel agency to mention "gay travel" on its pages in 2002, got a revamped pride microsite in April, just in time for Pride Month in June. Travelers
