Global online travel firm Expedia Group on Thursday said it will hire 300 people by the end of this year in India and is also setting up research and development centre in India.

"We are bullish on the long-term potential of the (Indian) market and are expecting to hire 300 resources before the end of the year," Expedia Inc Chief Technology Officer Edmond Mesrobian said in a statement.

The hirings will be for positions across different functions.

The company said its new R&D centre in India, which will be located at Gurgaon, will create travel applications for local as well as the global markets.

The group has R&D presence globally in 11 centres, including in Bellevue, London, Springfield, San Francisco, Geneva, Paris, Prague, Montreal.

Stressing on the significance of having the new R&D centre, he said: "India is of strategic importance to us and offers us access to a vast pool of bright technology talent."

The new R&D centre will significantly contribute innovations and new solutions across the group's full suite of brands both in India and globally, he added.

Expedia Group has an extensive brand portfolio, including some of the leading online travel brands such as Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Egencia among others.

The group delivers consumer travel demand from nearly every continent to nearly 1,55,000 hotels and hundreds of airlines, tour operators, car rental companies and destination services supply partners, the company said.