Irish consumers will shortly be able to buy last-minute travel and entertainment deals on an Irish version of the popular British-based website, lastminute.com.
The firm, which was founded by Ms Martha Lane Fox and quickly became a symbol of the dotcom era in Europe, is developing a localised Irish site and plans to launch it on July 1st.
The company will offer consumers in the Republic access to a range of last-minute deals that can be bought online using a credit card. It specialises in travel and entertainment deals by supplying airline tickets, hotel rooms, package holidays, entertainment tickets, restaurant reservations and home delivery speciality services, gifts and auctions.
Lastminute.com has already set localised sites in 11 countries including Italy, Germany, Australia, South Africa and Japan.
The firm hired an Irish general manager, Ms Tracy Brennan, and is recruiting eight staff for its Dublin offices, which will be based in Dún Laoghaire.
"We are currently working out the technical details for the website and signing up airlines, restaurants and merchants," said Ms Brennan.
"I think we will be one of the first online travels sites to offer a full range of travel and entertainment options here."
The localised site for Ireland will be available to all consumers living in the Republic who log onto either of the websites, lastminute.ie or lastminute.com.
Ms Brennan said the firm would retain the www.lastminute.com brand in the Republic because of its high awareness among the public. She added that 20,000 people with Irish addresses had registered with the British website.
Lastminute has already entered the Irish market by signing a deal to provide its hotels booking engine to online marketing firm pigsback.com. This "white-label deal" enables consumers who use pigsback.com to book hotels using lastminute.
Earlier this month Lastminute.com reported a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £1.5 million (€2.2 million) for the three months to March 31st. It reported its first full-year profit in 2003.
