SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 22, 2003 - TravelHero.com,
a full-service Internet travel agency, recently launched a new component
to its online reservation service called TravelHero Vacations, featuring
complete travel packages that include airfare, hotel accommodations, ground
service, car rentals and optional sightseeing tours.
 According
to David Pearsall, TravelHero.com's Director of Vacation Products, the
first destinations that will be available for booking with TravelHero Vacations
are Hawaii and Mexico. That includes all Hawaiian islands as well
as popular beach destinations in Mexico such as Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta,
Cancun and Mazatlan. TravelHero.com will expand its list of destinations
in the near future to include the Caribbean, the domestic United States
and Europe.
"We launched this new product offering because we saw that our customers wanted it and because we have the resources and the service capabilities to offer what we feel is a top quality vacation travel package," Pearsall said. "We've done our homework and we're seeing that there is tremendous potential for growth in online vacation packages. We want to be at the forefront of that growth." Pearsall said that travelers using TravelHero Vacations will save money because of the reduced rates they'll receive on airfares and hotel accommodations that are offered through these packages. Instead of booking each of these travel items separately, TravelHero Vacations combines all elements into a single package where it can obtain economies of scale, and offer travelers the special discounted rates it has negotiated with airlines, hotels, and ground service operators. Travelers can plan and book their entire vacation in one step with one quick visit to the TravelHero.com web site. The company has taken measures to design a web site that is easy to use, and is highly informative about destinations and hotel accommodations, including photographs and detailed property descriptions. "TravelHero.com is an accommodating site in terms of its functionality," Pearsall said. "We keep steps to a minimum in the booking process, and try to give travelers as much information as possible so they can make the travel decisions that best fit their needs and desires." As the latest travel package launched by TravelHero, TravelHero Vacations is an easy way for vacation travelers to find exactly what they are looking for. It provides them with scores of destination ideas, helps them locate the right hotels, facilitates the booking process, and saves them money. "Few competitors can offer the same complete packages at the cost and level of service that TravelHero Vacations can," Pearsall said, "because they don't have the technological sophistication and the comprehensive data base that we do." Pearsall explained that many of TravelHero's competitors operate on a request basis, where they first must inquire about airline and hotel availability. They often have to wait for another company to book the reservations for them and then confirm that with the customer. With TravelHero, it's all done online in real time, with no waiting and instant confirmations. "We've tried to make it easy as possible for our web site visitors to find what they're looking for and book it," Pearsall said, "so that you don't have to have a college degree to navigate the site. With this new product, we've put complete vacation packages right at the traveler's fingertips and taken a lot of the anxiety and frustration out of the vacation planning process." An eight year-old company, TravelHero offers customers traditional online reservation services for the travel industry and has built an extensive database that offers the largest selection of hotels throughout the world. It also offers its unique technology platform as an integrated solution to organizations such as convention and visitor's bureaus, which incorporate some of TravelHero's tools into their own web sites, further enhancing the system's data base and related services. In addition to the new TravelHero Vacations, the company offers additional products such as EventHero, which allows customers to build packages around organized events, and GroupHero, which serves group functions like athletic events, wedding and reunions. It also recently launched amusementpark.com, which provides online ticket sales to amusement parks around the country. For more information about TravelHero Vacations or any of TravelHero's other product offerings, visit online at http://www.TravelHero.com. TravelHero.com is a full-service travel agency, offering lodging, airline, rental car, cruise and tour reservations worldwide. It has built the largest database of hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, inns and other lodging properties found on the Internet today. TravelHero lists more than 125,000 properties in 23,000 cities in 216 countries. For additional information, visit http://www.TravelHero.com. |