Canadian Women Amongst Booking.com’s 2019 Technology Playmaker Awards Finalists

TORONTO – January 29, 2019 - Today Booking.com, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, announced the finalists for the second edition of the Booking.com Technology Playmaker Awards, which include two Canadian women. Introduced in September 2017, the awards are dedicated to recognizing and celebrating women working across the world who are disrupting and transforming businesses, industries, communities and society using technology.

The full list and information about the shortlisted finalists can be found here: http://staging.techplaymakerawards.com/finalists

This year’s finalists come from more than 20 countries, including Canada, U.S., UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, Ukraine, South Africa, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Ghana, highlighting that women in nearly every corner of the world are using technology in novel and impactful ways. The six individual winners and one corporate winner selected will be announced at a gala dinner in London, UK, on March 13^th along with the overall Technology Playmaker of the Year 2019.

“The shortlist highlights the impressive breadth of achievements and contributions that women across varying stages of their tech careers are making every day. From young entrepreneurs who developed a unique device which, coupled with smart data processing, allows women to test for cervical cancer at home, to a digital leader who has designed a platform that detects a person’s location following an earthquake, we’ve been absolutely astonished by the incredible contributions to society, community and business being made by women in tech globally”, said Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com.

The winners will be selected by an esteemed judging panel of executives spanning global tech companies and successful start-ups including Skyscanner, Happn, Booking.com, WeTransfer, Amazon Web Services, Wormhole and All Turtles, as well as representatives from academia, the European arliament and a leading global business media title. Each category winner will receive a monetary prize of €5,000 (more than $7,500 CAD). The overall Technology Playmaker of the Year, who will be selected from among the individual category winners, will receive an additional €10,000 prize (more than $15,000 CAD).

“Recent Booking.com research, which we undertook to better understand the continuing gender diversity challenge in tech, tells us that 43% of women in tech around the world want to see and have access to more role models and mentors in the sector. Recognizing and celebrating the successes of the women who are transforming the tech industry is important to Booking.com as it helps champion their stories and encourage more women to enter the field and push the boundaries of what they can achieve. If we are to truly move the needle towards a more diverse and gender-balanced future, we need to encourage women on their journey within technology so they can continue to innovate and inspire future generations,” Tans concluded.

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BOOKING.COM CANADA PR CONTACT:

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About Booking.com

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com now employs more than 17,000 employees in 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide.

With a mission to empower people to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. At Booking.com, we connect travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses and even igloos. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in 43 languages, offer over 28.8 million total reported listings, including more than 5.7 million listings of homes, apartments and other unique places to stay, and covers more than 145,000 destinations in 228 countries and territories worldwide.

Each day, more than 1.5 million room nights are reserved on our platform. So, whether traveling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal place to stay quickly and easily with Booking.com, without booking fees and backed up by our promise to price match. Via our customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in over 43 languages, any time of the day or night.

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