Wego, the leading travel metasearch site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East, opens a Middle East headquarters in Dubai

(TRAVPR.COM) SINGAPORE - February 7th, 2013 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wego opens Middle East and North Africa Headquarters in Dubai Internet City, appointing Mohamad Ibrahim Masri as regional Managing Director

DUBAI February 7th, 2013 – Wego, the leading travel metasearch engine in the Asia Pacific and Middle East is establishing a dedicated full-service operation in Dubai as part of its global expansion strategy following a year of record growth in the region, the company announced today.

Wego launched the world’s first comprehensive Arabic language travel metasearch site last April, http://www.wego.ae in recognition of the desire amongst travellers to compare their travel options and book online.   Internet users across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have since adopted the site in huge numbers, already equivalent to the total from the company’s mature European sites.

Wego operates over 50 websites in 30 languages around the world, managing many millions of flight and hotel searches each month.  Travellers in the Middle East and North Africa now account for one in every seven searches on the site.

Given the scale of the demand, Wego has established new regional headquarters in the prestigious Dubai Internet City, appointing travel industry veteran and entrepreneur Mohamad Ibrahim Masri to   further develop the strategy and lead the team as Managing Director - Middle East and North Africa. He brings 16 years of regional experience to the company, in sales, marketing and management roles with some of the industry’s leading brands, including Singapore Airlines and Tourism Malaysia. Masri also founded BizGate, the consulting firm that has represented Wego throughout the initial launch phase.

"Essential to the continued expansion and success of Wego in MENA is strong management, along with an established relationship with both the business and travelling communities which is why we’re very excited to have Mohamad join our executive team. We look forward to working in partnership with the Governments and suppliers in the region to broaden access to travel online,” explained Ross Veitch Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wego of Masri’s role.

“Arab travellers embrace Wego as a means to gain control of their travel plans and enjoy greater value for money. The travel comparison shopping concept has huge appeal among internet users in the region, who are almost universally regular travellers,” commented Masri.  “We are working with the flagship carriers, hotel brands and online travel agents across the Middle East, but the priority is going to be further integration and customisation to meet the burgeoning demand right into the longtail.”

Looking ahead, Masri refers to PhoCusWright’s prediction that the online travel sector in the Emirates alone will grow 24 per cent in 2013 and 22 per cent in 2014 to reach $9.5 billion, of which online travel agents will produce $3.2 billion. Wego is expected to be on an even higher trajectory driven also by direct bookings with its airline partners including Etihad Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways, integrated hotel sites and aggregators, such as Booking.com.

Collectively, MENA travellers using Wego today are exploring options at over 3,500 destinations. Their searches include the inventory of 600 full service and low cost airlines, 350,000 hotels and resorts, as well as 400,000 recently integrated vacation rentals.

Wego compares over 700 travel sites to present its comprehensive results.

Wego Dubai joins a network of offices across Asia Pacific as the company scales its operations in new premises in Singapore, Bangalore and Jakarta. The company currently employs 75 specialist staff speaking 35 languages.

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For more information, please contact:

Mohamad Ibrahim Masri

Managing Director - Wego Middle East

Tel: +971 4 298 1775 and Mobile: +971 506760033

Email: masri@wego.com

Caroline Bye

Press Office

Wego Pte Limited

Tel: +65 6692 0868

Email: press@wego.com

About Wego

Wego.com is the Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa's leading travel metasearch engine, operating in over 50 markets worldwide and used by millions of travellers to save time, pay less and travel more. The company provides powerful yet simple to use tools that help travellers research trips, compare prices and book travel online. Wego shows users an unbiased and channel neutral view of travel prices, providing a choice of booking direct with a hotel or airline, or via an OTA or aggregator site. In Q3-2012 Wego referred in excess of $1.2 Billion in potential bookings to the websites of its travel partners. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives of Yahoo!, InterContinental Hotels Group, Priceline and ZUJI. Shareholders include Tiger Global Management and the Crescent Point Group. For more information, please visit http://www.wego.com/about/

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