To: Mazama who wrote (6818 ) 1/11/1999 10:43:00 AM From: Jules Respond to of 90042
Company Press Release SOURCE: Affinity International Travel Systems, Inc. Affinity International Signs Agreement to Supply Vacation Packages to Travel Navigator.Com ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Affinity International Travel Systems, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TRIP - news) announced today that is has reached an agreement to supply specific vacation packages to Travel Navigator.comâ„¢. Travel Navigator, whose internet site presently receives over 4 million hits per month, was recently selected as one of the vacation providers for Yahoo! Travel (http://travel.yahoo.com; Nasdaq: YHOO - news). Travel Navigator is an established travel company in Dallas, Texas and provides customers on the Internet with a database of 50,000 leisure package possibilities on the Travel Navigator Web site (www.travelnavigator.com.). Travel Navigator continues to expand its visibility to a broader market audience and is currently receiving more than 300 e-mail requests daily for vacation packages. In addition to providing thousands of leisure travel packages to customers, Travel Navigator offers a training program for anyone interested in joining the travel industry. The program is available to existing travel agents and agencies, as well as new comers to the travel industry who wish to start their own home-based business. The program currently has approximately 8500 participants. Affinity will supply vacation packages to Travel Navigator for destinations in Hawaii, Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean. Affinity will also provide Travel Navigator with product from its international car rental division; Affinity International Rent A Car. Jupiter Communications has predicted that online travel is expected to grow from $911 million in 1997 to $8.3 billion by the year 2001. In recent polls 75% of consumers, say they are comfortable purchasing travel online. By forging the agreement with Travel Navigator, Affinity's products will not only be viewed by Travel Navigator's 8500 travel agent users, but also by Yahoo's millions of users daily. Daniel G. Brandano, CEO of Affinity International Travel Systems, stated that ''our goal is to achieve rapid growth by acquisitions and at the same time to become the premier internet travel provider by signing partnership agreements with high profile internet sites such as Travel Navigator.'' 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. 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. SOURCE: Affinity International Travel Systems, Inc.