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New travel deals site backed by Channel 10 & News Corporation set to turn up the heat on travel deals this summer

Australian group buying retailer, OurDeal, has announced the launch of OurDeal Escape, www.ourdeal.com.au/escape, a dedicated travel site for domestic and international holiday deals.

OurDeal is jointly owned by News Limited & Network Ten and has been successfully running travel deals since it launched back in mid 2010. However the new OurDeal Escape will now be providing members with a dedicated travel deals section, updated each week with new and exclusive international and domestic deals. The site goes live from today and will allow travel merchants, hospitality groups and hoteliers to offer new and exciting packages to travel hungry members.

The launch is being spearheaded by Sam Linder who recently joined OurDeal as Head of Travel. Lindner was previously the Australian Marketing Manager for Wego.com, one of Asia’s largest travel search engines, where he was responsible for launching Wego into the Australian market three years ago.

“We have a very exciting roadmap ahead for OurDeal Escape. First will be a new & distinctly travel look and feel, which will be very different to the rest of the OurDeal site. Soon after launch we will be introducing a variety of unique travel planning tools & features that we believe will set us apart from all other Australian travel deal sites.” Lindner explains.

“Included in these are in fact features that will help to build more long term partner relationships through branding opportunities and member engagement directly with the brands themselves. Our approach is different than most, we will be working closely with our partners to establish a more regular strategic approach to the deals.” Lindner said

With the backing of Channel 10 and News Corporation OurDeal’s competitive advantage also lies in their extra potential reach for some of their specially chosen deals that will be supported by TV & Print coverage to help promote both the partner’s brand and the deal itself.

OurDeal Escape launches with a $20,000 travel giveaway

As part of the launch, OurDeal are giving away $20,000 in travel, providing 12 lucky winners with a great start to the New Year. Four major winners will each receive a $3,000 OurDeal Escape travel voucher plus $1,000 spending money and eight winners who will also receive a $500 Escape voucher. The campaign will be supported on TV, Print & Radio, helping to drive what is expected to be a large influx of hungry travellers to OurDeal Escape just in time for the holiday season and to help with their 2012 travel plans.

Inspiration matched to what Aussie travellers want

The OurDeal Escape service is designed to inspire people and help remove the traditional headaches associated with booking a holiday. Whether it’s an impulse-buy weekend away or somewhere further afield, deals will be structured to match the holiday needs and desires of Australian consumers.

The launch of OurDeal Escape comes at a time when the Australian tourism industry is showing strong signs of growth with recent findings from Tourism Research Australia showing that there were more than 68.9 million overnight trips taken in Australia by Australian residents, year ending June 30, an increase of 4 per cent on the same period in 2010.

“With the instability of the global economy still hanging over our heads and with the AUD slipping back below parity with the USD last week we do expect to see strong demand in our domestic deal offering over the next few months as Aussie travellers may opt for a holiday closer to home. So although destinations such as Asia and the Pacific are still going to be very popular, we see a great opportunity to work with the local providers to help push their Australian domestic opportunities” Lindner said.

Although initially the focus will be on packaged accommodation deals, OurDeal Escape will be moving into supplying deals across a vast range of travel categories.

About OurDeal:

OurDeal is a new online shopping experience that offers its members daily Deals at unbeatable prices, through the power of group or ‘collective’ buying. Collective buying is when a group of consumers come together and leverage the power of numbers to secure big discounts. The discount coupon book for the digital age, OurDeal is free to join and offers members daily discounts of up to 90% on things to see, eat and do. With unheard of Deals on restaurants, day spas, hair salons, concerts, fitness sessions as well as adventures from paint ball, scuba diving to wine tours, even those on a strict budget can experience the best their city has to offer thanks to OurDeal.