Tuesday January 19, 9:32 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Affinity International Travel Systems to Acquire Top Rated Online Travel Agency, Design-A-Tour of Atlanta
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1999--Affinity International Travel Systems Inc. (OTC BB:TRIP - news) Tuesday announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Atlanta based Design-A-Tour Inc. and its retail operation Faraway Travel.
Design-A-Tour and its internet website Internet Travel Service (www.faraway.com) was recently rated as one of the top 15 online travel sites by the highly acclaimed e-commerce consulting firm Gomez Advisors (www.Gomez.com.)
Design-A-Tour was the beta and soft launch site for Web Ventures Inc. Internet booking engine and home based application Bookit!Pro, and now holds long term licensing agreements with Web Ventures for these products. WebAgents Bookit!Pro is a real time on-line service that allows agents to connect to a Computer Reservation System using a standard Internet connection with utmost ease and simplicity.
Design-A-Tour markets its products to consumers via its web site known as Internet Travel Services at www.faraway.com and markets its services to travel agents via its website at www.design-a-tour.com. Affinity's Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Brandano stated that, ''considering that there are thousands of sites with travel products offered for sale, the fact that Design-A-Tour was rated one of the top 15 online travel sites explains what we have accomplished with this acquisition.
''Design-A-Tours online expertise combined with our 1WorldTravelOnline (www.1worldtravel.com) and Travel Navigator's (www.travelnavigator.com) online presence puts Affinity in the forefront of Internet travel.''
Affinity International Travel Systems CEO, Daniel Brandano, commented further, ''Design-A-Tour's product line compliments the company's existing product lines. The Web Ventures software licensing agreement was a key factor in our decision to acquire Design-A-Tour since Design-A-Tour's booking engine compliments our Tourscape system, which is one of the most advanced tour-operator software systems available in the industry today.
''With these two systems in place, Affinity will be able to aggressively compete for both consumer and outside agent programs in traditional distribution channels but more importantly our reach on the Internet is now greatly expanded. In addition, we continue to seek, on a selective basis, acquisitions and licensing agreements that will add to us obtaining a full scope of on line travel services.
''Affinity is bundling complete travel packages to better compete against such as Preview Travel, (NASDAQ:PTVL - news) and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT - news) Expedia Travel. We are also considering to develop or purchase an auctioning booking service capable of competing with TravelBids.com, eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY - news), uBid (NASDAQ:UBID - news) and Onsale (NASDAQ:ONSL - news).
''Design-A-Tour services destinations in Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Latin destinations include Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Caribbean destinations include Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Margarita Island. In Europe, Design-A-Tour operates a program to Portugal.''
The company has wholesale air agreements with Aeropostal, Aerolineas Argentinas, TransBrazil, Varig, AeroPeru, Taca, Aviateca, Copa, Lacsa, Servivensa, TAM Brazilian Airlines, Lan Chile, Saeta, Nica, ALM, and TAP Air Portugal. Design-A-Tour also acts as the exclusive fulfillment source for all Internet ticketing in North America for Korean Airlines.
Design-A-Tour is the fifth acquisition by Affinity in the past six months. Affinity acquired SunStyle International Holidays in August and recently announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire New York's Inter Island Tours, TSI Travel of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Prestige Travel of Tampa, Fla.
Affinity International Travel Systems is a holding company that has, over the past two years, developed a technology platform in conjunction with The Sabre Group (NYSE: TSG - news), and Internet strategies designed to allow quick integration of acquisitions, dramatically cutting their operational costs while increasing their revenues and profitability.
The company plans to continue its dramatic growth by aggressively seeking out acquisition candidates while providing competitively priced, specialized services to travel agents and individual consumers.
Note to Editors: Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the ''safe harbor'' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Contact:
Affinity International Travel
Dan Brandano, 813/896-1513
ceo@sunstyle.com
www.affinityinternational.com
or
HKT Investor Relations, 602/446-8640
Fax 602/731-9565
hktir@aol.com
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