Thomas Cook partners with Expedia for hotel sales

LONDON (Reuters) - British tour operator Thomas Cook (LSE:TCG.L - News) said on Thursday it had entered into a strategic alliance with Expedia (:EXPE.O) to make the online travel company its preferred provider of hotels for certain holiday sales.

Thomas Cook said that while it remained focused on its own-brand hotels, Expedia would be the preferred partner for its "complementary city and domestic holiday business", a wider range of hotels to give customers more choice.

Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser said the agreement would "transform Thomas Cook's city breaks and hotel-only offer for customers while helping the business take an important step forward in delivering our strategy for profitable growth."

"This will free us up to focus on holidays to our own-brand and selected partner hotels in sun & beach locations where we know we can really make a difference to customers," he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton)