Travel Alberta Partners with Expedia for Find Your Alberta Campaign

Launching a Collaborative Digital Campaign to Share Compelling Alberta Content

CALGARY, Aug. 1, 2013 /CNW/ - Travel Alberta has partnered with Expedia Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of Expedia, Inc. to launch an innovative digital campaign, Find Your Alberta. The latest iteration of Expedia's award-winning Find Yours™ campaign, Find Your Alberta promotes Alberta's vacation experiences and destinations and will run on Expedia, the world's largest full service online travel agency.

This summer and winter, Expedia's hand-selected globetrotting travel bloggers will visit Alberta to create original travel stories, photographs and videos of vacation experiences with the content profiled on Expedia.com alongside Expedia's online booking engine for purchasing flights, hotels and activities in Alberta. The stories will also be featured on Expedia's new travel blog, Expedia Viewfinder™, and will be shared on the social media channels of Expedia, Travel Alberta and the visiting travel bloggers, who themselves have dedicated online followings.

"The real-time video and social content created through the Find Your Alberta campaign helps potential travellers visualize the diverse vacation experiences Alberta offers in an authentic and engaging way," said Royce Chwin, Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications at Travel Alberta. "In addition, when the travel bloggers are in Alberta, both Expedia and Travel Alberta's social audiences will have the opportunity to follow along online and be part of their trip through the province -- whether it is visiting a festival in Edmonton, hiking in the Canadian Rockies or prospecting for fossils in Dinosaur Provincial Park."

"At Expedia Media Solutions we've found that our most successful online campaigns are driven not only by innovation, but also collaboration," said Noah Tratt, global vice president, Expedia Media Solutions. "Find Your Alberta is a great example of how partners can leverage Expedia's existing campaigns, such as Find Yours, to build an emotional connection with travel audiences, and grow visibility for their own brand."

In the year ahead, Travel Alberta will work with tourism industry partners throughout the province to host Expedia's travel bloggers in the creation of the content which will compliment Travel Alberta's summer and winter marketing campaigns. The first phase of the Find Your Alberta campaign on Expedia.com has launched and is live online.

For more information about the Find Your Alberta campaign visit:

Find Your Alberta Expedia.com Alberta microsite
Expedia Viewfinder Viewfinder.Expedia.com
Or watch for the #FindYourAlberta hasht ag on Twitter

About Alberta

Located in the heart of Western Canada, Alberta is a travel destination known for surprising even the most experienced travellers. The picturesque mountain towns of Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore and Jasper are revered by campers, hikers and nature lovers for their awe-inspiring terrain, jaw-dropping vistas and abundant Canadian wildlife. From exploring Calgary and Edmonton, lively cities brimming with music, culture and nightlife, to discovering dinosaur fossils in the mysterious Canadian Badlands, visiting Alberta promises an experience unlike any other. Travel Alberta is the tourism marketing organization for the province of Alberta in Western Canada. www.TravelAlberta.com  Twitter: http://twitter.com/travelalberta Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TravelAlbertaCanada YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TravelAlbertaCanada

About Expedia Media Solutions

Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia's network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world's leading online travel brands, including:

• Expedia.com®, the world's largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 31 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 13 countries on its 12 sites in North America, Europe and Asia
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLong™, the second largest online travel company in China 
• Venere.com™, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• trivago®, a leading online hotel search company with sites in 33 countries
• Expedia Local Expert®,  a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, one of North America's leading retail cruise vacation experts

The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network.  (NASDAQ: EXPE)  For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.  © 2013 Expedia, Inc.  All rights reserved.  CST: 2029030-50

SOURCE: Travel Alberta

Susan Darch, Director, Global Media, Travel Alberta
[phone]
[email protected]

Casey Ibbetson, Zeno Group for Expedia Media Solutions
310.566.2282
[email protected]