News Release

Vacation.com Partners with Passport Online to Launch VacationPORT E-mail Marketing Tool for AgentNet

ALEXANDRIA, VA- (Feb. 26, 2003) — Vacation.com is partnering with Passport Online to introduce VacationPORT, a valuable e-mail marketing tool designed to provide Vacation.com members with a fast and efficient way to search through a comprehensive list of supplier inventory, including CruiseCentre space and exclusive Vacation.com offers, and e-mail any of these offers to their customers.

"VacationPORT represents a huge step for Vacation.com as it puts the technology and marketing maneuverability directly into the agent's hands, allowing members the freedom of deciding what offers to promote and the ability to hand-select the recipients of the offer," said Dick Knodt, CTC, president and CEO of Vacation.com.

Clients of Vacation.com agencies, upon receipt of an e-mail offer, will be prompted to click a more info button, which will link them to a private-label Web page containing details of the offer and listing the agent's contact information as the call-to-action.

"All of our agencies have different strengths and varied customer bases," said Knodt, adding: "The addition of VacationPORT will allow our cruise-only agencies to focus on cruises, while other agencies can concentrate primarily on the markets where they have found success."

"Our agencies know what sparks their clients' interests," said Knodt. "With VacationPORT, our members can be proactive in their markets and create profitable opportunities with a few simple clicks of the mouse," he added.

"Vacation.com not only represents a large group of travel agencies, they have impressed us with their focus on the marketing power of our e-commerce tools," notes Randy Goodrich, chairman and co-founder of Passport Online, adding: "The tools we provide to retailers really do work to increase leisure travel sales. They are simple to use, very inexpensive compared to traditional marketing programs and enable immediate target marketing opportunities to both suppliers and retailers. We are very excited to be working with Vacation.com."

VacationPORT is a single program combining the most advanced methods of research and marketing in an easy-to-use technological platform, now available through AgentNet.

VacationPORT differs from the recently innovated e-Engagement marketing program as it places the decision of who and what to e-mail in the hands of the agent and enables Vacation.com members to be more proactive in their marketing attempts and hand-tailor specific e-mail offers to individual customers.

"The e-Engagement marketing program, while extremely effective and advanced in its ability to target specific prospective customers through highly evolved demographic information, is handled entirely by Vacation.com, and is no replacement for the agents personal knowledge of their clients," said Bobby Heiser, CTC, executive vice president of sales and marketing of Vacation.com, adding: "E-Engagement and VacationPORT, used in conjunction with each other, will revolutionize marketing for the travel industry."

With VacationPORT, agents will be able to follow up with clients by e-mailing options and recommendations to customers who need time to mull things over or consult their spouse after leaving the agency.

"VacationPORT will also allow agents to personalize and forward e-mail offers from Vacation.com and report back to the agent with figures on how many consumers are reading and clicking on the e-mails," said Heiser.

"I am very impressed with VacationPORT. My sales are up by 30%," said Roger Miller of Minnetonka Travel, Wayzata, Minnesota.

"My staff is enjoying this site as well as I am," said Marion Trummer, CTC, of Highlands Ranch Travel, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, adding: "This is a real plus for those of us that market extensively. We also feel that we can use this site to e-mail clients that are thinking of booking a product ... especially a cruise, so they can pull up the particulars on their ship and sailing. About 95% of our clients are Internet savvy and over 50% talk to us via e-mail at some point in their booking."

"This certainly ratchets-up Vacation.com's importance in being first and foremost with powerful marketing tools for the membership," said Paul Whitnah of M & M World Travel Service, Arlington, Texas.

"I just sent one of these to myself and I am totally impressed with it and the 'contact agent' area is fabulous! Thanks for helping to make my job so much easier and hopefully profitable by reaching more people," said Lisa Philpott of Ambassador Travel, Lee's Summit, Missouri.

"It saves us countless hours in posting specials to our web site and is a great e-mail marketing tool," said Greg Burgess of Beach Hut Vacations, Shelton, Washington, adding: "The content is clean, professional and easy to understand. Without Passport Online we could not have the web presence that we do and surely could not consistently send our clients great e-mail specials. The staff and products from Passport Online are top notch."

Passport Online "Powers Leisure Travel E-Commerce" with their VacationPORT system. Travel suppliers can easily promote their products through the single portal into Passport's online database, while retailers can instantly select which suppliers to promote on their web sites and e-mail promotions, including adding their own negotiated offers. VacationPORT includes both a consumer view and an agent view where the agents can use the search tools to enhance their response to client inquiries and also email market any offer(s) to anyone. Suppliers also have an online interface where they can view live activity reports, input and edit offers, and use the email and web site promotional tools within VacationPORT. Passport has agreements with many major retailers. Retailers and leisure travel suppliers can contact Passport (www.passportonlineinc.com) about adding VacationPORT to their e-commerce marketing program.

Vacation.com's AgentNet contains comprehensive information for initiating and increasing sales. From marketing tools to assistance in web site development, Vacation.com's AgentNet is completely tailored to the needs of Vacation.com member agents. Over 20,000 travel agents within the Vacation.com network regularly access www.AgentNet.com.

Booking tools, exclusive specials, on-line training and educational opportunities, important company news, community chat session, preferred supplier override information, and comprehensive information for initiating and increasing sales are all at the fingertips of Vacation.com Member Agents when they take advantage of AgentNet.

About Vacation.com
Vacation.com is a travel services marketing company currently serving a network of more than 8,000 travel agency locations across the U.S. and Canada. Its membership network is focused on leisure travel distribution, accounting for approximately 33 percent of all travel agencies in North America. With more than $25 billion in annual sales, Vacation.com - "Powered By Real Travel Agents" - is North America's largest vacation selling network.

Not already a Vacation.com member? Log onto www.joinvacation.com to learn why Vacation.com is the right choice for your agency.

Vacation.com is a subsidiary of Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A. and maintains its headquarters in Alexandria, VA and a Toronto office serving its member agents in Canada.

For further information, contact Vacation.com at 1650 King Street, Suite 450, Alexandria, VA 22314; tel: 800-843-0733.

About Passport Online
Passport Online connects travel industry suppliers and retailers to a broad range of travel buyers. VacationPORT is a sophisticated marketing system to actively promote and influence the flow of travel offers throughout the sales cycle in a highly customizable manner. VacationPORT has been selected by top U.S. travel companies as a comprehensive web marketing program to build leisure travel sales, as well as many of the top cruise, tour, and hotel companies in the world to distribute and market their latest product and pricing information. For more information about Passport Online, see the web site at www.passportonlineinc.com.