Wonder if the Australian market is big enough for more players....

Wonder if the Australian market is big enough for more players. These people complement online travel but will no doubt take their cut.

Wonder if companies like tvl and web will sign on.

Bezurk - Asia’s new travel search engine
June 17, 2005

Senior executives from top internet travel and lifestyle companies - Expedia, priceline.com, chinadotcom, Fairfax Digital and Yahoo South East Asia have banded together to launch Bezurk in the Asia Pacific Region. Bezurk is a travel “Search Engine” which is the next generation application for the online travel industry.

Bezurk gathers travel data from the broadest range of internet sources and delivers side-by-side comparative search results showing price, details and ratings, and then allows users to book directly with suppliers. The search engine is designed to complement online travel agents’ and suppliers’ websites by delivering incremental pre-qualified customers directly to the suppliers’ websites, allowing suppliers to interact directly with their customers. Bezurk allows suppliers to readily identify brand messages so that they can differentiate their services.

Chairman of Bezurk, former Vice President of Expedia Asia Pacific, James Vaile comes on board with over 15 years of expertise in the travel business including eight at Expedia where he was responsible for setting up and running Expedia’s offices in Europe and the Asia Pacific. Chief Technology Officer, Luke McNiece, a former Principal Engineer at priceline.com was instrumental in the design and implementation of priceline’s patented reverse-auction system.

Other key members of the Bezurk team include:

- Nicholas Assef , Non-Executive Director and Senior Financial Advisor: Nicholas is currently the Managing Director of investment bank, Lincoln Crowne & Company. He contributes a deep understanding of Asia’s financial framework in addition to having responsibility for driving the business and corporate governance disciplines required for success. processes

- Keith Timimi, Commercial Advisor: Keith brings onboard vast experience as a senior executive with companies such as chinadotcom and the WPP Group. More recently Keith has developed internet strategies for leading travel industry players in Asia Pacific.

- Brett Jackson, Advisor on Brand, User Interface and Creative Design: Brett, former Creative Services Director for Fairfax Digital, the largest portal network in Australia, brings 10 years of internet experience in the Asia Pacific, and was instrumental in developing the Bezurk brand character. He is ensuring that using Bezurk is a fast, easy and satisfying experience.

- Ross Veitch. Advisor on Product Development: Ross served as former Head of Production at Yahoo! South East Asia and will leverage on his experience to make Bezurk user-friendly and appealing to visitors.

“Bezurk is positioned to become the travellers’ guiding light for making informed decisions during their travel planning,” said James Vaile, Chairman of Bezurk. “We created the site to meet the needs of today’s consumers who are frustrated by the baffling array of irrelevant results from general search engines and the ‘hit and miss’ approach of having to search multiple sites to find the best deal. With just one click, Bezurk’s visitors will be able to see and compare prices and services in real-time from multiple websites. Bezurk also allows travellers to post and view ratings and reviews and access information from other respected travel sources,” he added.

In addition, users are given the Bezurk ‘book with assurance’ guarantee where all searchable websites must adhere to universally accepted reservation guarantees, privacy and security standards.

Headquartered in Singapore, Bezurk will unveil its beta site in July and shortly after, will fully localise its offering to its key markets - Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, China, Japan and Korea. Localised sites will incorporate local language, interface and usability preferences plus optimization for local merchants, currency and content.