Expedia.com Tee Up Your Next Golf Vacation With Expedia.com
BELLEVUE, WA, Feb. 23, 2000 – Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) has unveiled a new special interest travel section that will score a hole in one with golfers. Teaming up with TheGolfer.com, the leading online tee time booking service, Expedia.com™ travel service (http://expedia.com/) has introduced Golf Travel, a section that offers travelers an easy-to-use resource to research and book golf vacations and tee times.
The only full-service online travel site to offer a dedicated golf section (http://expedia.com/daily/golf/), Expedia.com makes booking your own golf vacation simple. Along with obtaining reservations at more than 11,000 courses, customers can also get golf destination information, golf news, and special deals on golf vacations.
“Our goal is to enable the 26 million U.S. golfers to quickly identify the inventory of available tee times at their preferred golf courses and to obtain a free golf reservation,” said Eric Campbell, President and CEO of TheGolfer.com. “By working with Expedia, one of the most popular online travel sites in the world, we will be able to provide our reservation service to Expedia's millions of monthly visitors and direct a significant number of traveling golfers to our member courses.”
“Whether they're on the road for business or pleasure, golf has always been a favorite activity for travelers,” said Simon Breakwell, Vice President of Sales for Expedia, Inc. “The addition of the Golf Travel section to the existing Expedia.com travel planning services is another great example of how Expedia.com is building out the Expedia.com Global Travel Marketplace, helping customers fully research and book all of their travel.”
Using the Expedia.com Golf Travel Section
Along with tee-time booking capabilities at courses ranging from Wailea Golf Club in Hawaii to Palm Coast Golf Resort in Florida, customers can utilize a wealth of information and services including:
The Course of the Week—highlights of a course that customers can book online with color photographs and detailed course descriptions. Expedia.com adds quick links for making travel plans to play the featured course.
Golf Travel Deals—a variety of suppliers providing complete golf getaways with rooms and rounds.
News—information about courses, golf schools, clinics, and amateur tournaments for the avid golfer always on the lookout for great places to play. Also in the Expedia.com Golf Travel Update: the latest on gear, points of interest at popular golf destinations, and conditions that may help decide when and where to play.
Community—an area that enables golfers to trade stories about the great golf vacations they've taken and share advice and tips about traveling in pursuit of the game. Message boards make it easy for golfers to find other golfers who can answer their questions about where to have the best times on and off the course.
Resources—tools such as custom maps, driving directions, weather forecasting, the acclaimed Expedia.com Airport Survival Guide, and Web site and book recommendations handpicked for travel-minded golfers.
The Expedia.com and TheGolfer.com Alliance
As a part of the strategic relationship between Expedia.com and the TheGolfer.com, TheGolfer.com is also the exclusive sponsor of the new Expedia Golf Travel section. As such, they will have a direct link to their site from the section.
The Golf Travel section joins the Expedia.com family of specialty travel planning sections specially designed to provide customers with a one-stop resource for individualized travel. The Web site presently features similar sections for business travel, adventure travel, cruise travel, and family travel.
“Expedia.com has introduced these targeted sections to provide customers superior resources for their individual interests and needs,” continued Breakwell. “In addition to providing customers with the best travel planning tools available, these special sections also give sponsors a great vehicle to introduce their product to qualified consumers.”
About TheGolfer.com
Founded in 1997, San Diego, California-based TheGolfer.com is the industry's largest golf reservation system that links golfers, golf courses, syndicated Web sites, management companies, hotels, airlines, and travel agents into a real-time Internet golf reservation network. TheGolfer.com provides leading-edge technology, marketing, and yield management expertise to member golf courses to help them increase revenues and utilization. Through its www.thegolfer.com Web site and toll-free call center at 1 (877) 486-GOLF, the company offers free golf reservation services to more than 50 million golfers worldwide.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) operates Expedia.com, a leading online Web site in the United States with localized versions for travelers in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. To help customers Travel Right, Expedia.com provides the best combination of air, car, and hotel booking, vacation package and cruise offers, destination information, and point-to-point mapping.
Expedia.com customers are supported by a credit card guarantee (U.S. site only), privacy policy, and live agents via e-mail and a toll-free number available 24 hours a day/seven days a week. Expedia.com is also available under Travel on the MSN™ network of Internet services.
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For more information, press only:
Expedia.com contact:
Wendy Abbott
Edelman Public Relations
(312) 240-2759
wendy_abbott@edelman.com
TheGolfer.com contact:
Al Hernandez
Murphy Brien, Inc.
(310) 453-2539
al@murphyobrien.com