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SEATTLE - Nov. 16, 1998--The principals of Virtual Adventures
Inc. and Reservation Technologies Inc. today announced the merger of their
two companies.
As a new company, Destinations.com will offer a full range of travel reservation products and services to Convention and Visitors Bureaus and other destination marketing organizations (DMOs) nationwide. Paul Pigott, Destinations.com founder and vice chairman, said that the company's integrated family of reservation solutions will bring an unprecedented range of services to DMOs and their member travel suppliers. Destinations.com products allow room reservations to be booked instantly at DMO-operated call centers and Web sites. DMOs may also choose to have the calls answered and reservations made at the Destinations.com call center, or take advantage of the company's web production and hosting services. According to president Todd Tarbert, Destinations.com technologies will allow small and mid-sized travel suppliers to experience the benefits of sophisticated electronic reservation systems that until now have ben available only to the large hotel chains and resorts. Each of the newly merged firms brings pioneering technology to the travel and tourism industry. Reservations Technologies Inc. was founded in Denver in 1992 to provide marketing and reservation processing services and enabling technology to resorts in the United States and Canada. Virtual Adventures Inc., a Seattle-based Internet travel company, was formed two years later, bringing Internet Travel content and web design expertise to the partnership. Destinations.com products include CenResMaster, a voice-based reservation software system for vacation processing currently being used in 16 DMO call centers in the U.S. Another product, NetResMaster, is an Internet booking engine for Web-generated travel information and reservations. Consumers have been using the company's other products, its acclaimed GTO and SkiTO Web sites, to research Golf and Ski travel options on-line for several years. Another Destinations.com product is a comprehensive Web support and Tele-services Bureau to fulfill and process reservations for destinations. According to Ralf Garrison, Vice President of Marketing, the company is unique in its ability to offer both voice and Web-based services. "Our customers say they want both call center and Internet reservations capability, which our competitors cannot deliver," he said. These proprietary products will be made available through licensing or outsourcing agreements. Destinations.com is based in Seattle, Washington. It employs more
than 60 staff members there and in four regional sales offices nationwide.
A reservation call center and sales office will open in Buffalo, New York
in early 1999.
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