Partnership Brings Over Thirty Years of Combined Experience to Service Growing Outdoor Recreation and Adventure Travel Niche
MIAMI BEACH, FL - November 3, 1999 - GORP (a.k.a. Great Outdoor Recreation Pages) the leading Internet site for outdoor enthusiasts and adventure travelers, today announced the acquisition of American Wilderness Experience (A.W.E.). A.W.E. is recognized in the travel industry for providing top-quality adventure trips. The agreement, unveiled to an audience of Internet travel executives at PhoCusWright LIVE99, is a first for GORP and underscores its continued commitment to helping individuals pursue active outdoor lifestyles.
GORP users will have access to A.W.E.'s network of trips from over 150 tour operators direct from the GORP site at www.gorp.com. The Company's extension into travel e-commerce is scheduled to launch in January of 2000 and will include full reservations and booking capabilities.
"GORP has a long standing history and experience in working with tour operators," said Jonathan Guttenberg, CEO of GORP. "Through our acquisition of A.W.E., we will now be able to offer GORP customers a complete travel solution from research and planning through purchase and offer tour operators a more powerful means to market their trips."
"A.W.E. is extremely pleased to become part of the GORP family," said Dave Wiggins, President, A.W.E. "We are excited about bringing our twenty-eight years of experience in the adventure travel business and our relationship with over 150 tour operators to GORP's customers."
"The outdoor recreation and adventure travel market is booming," added Guttenberg. According to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) one-half of U.S. adults, or 98 million people, have taken an adventure trip in the past five years. GORP said it plans to capitalize on this exponential growth through the addition of travel e-commerce on its site. Additional service rollouts planned for the coming months include GORP gear, books and maps.
Once launched, GORP's travel functionality will include a proprietary database, accessible from either GORP's homepage or through A.W.E. (www.awetrips.com), allowing customers to research and book trips with minimal effort. Customizable itinerary-based technology, developed by GORP, will offer consumers the capability to search by a variety of travel criteria, including cost, destination and desired activity (hiking, skiing, scuba diving, whitewater rafting, biking trips, etc).
"PhoCusWright has long recognized the growing trend toward adventure travel and outdoor recreation," said Philip C. Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright, Inc., an independent strategy and research company for the online Internet travel marketplace and the producers of PhoCusWright LIVE. "There is no other destination on the Internet today that has greater breadth and depth of expertise in this highly lucrative market niche than GORP. Adding travel e-commerce through their acquisition of A.W.E. is just icing on the cake."
About GORP
GORP (a.k.a. Great Outdoor Recreation Pages) was founded in 1995 by outdoor enthusiasts and world travelers Diane and Bill Greer. Tapping their own experiences, they created a web site (www.GORP.com) that offers the freshest and most unique travel destinations and inspires viewer participation in everything from an afternoon hike to a weeks-long biking adventure. GORP visitors recount their own experiences and share information through a sophisticated menu of online forums, contests, discussions and cross-marketing initiatives.
About A.W.E.
American Wilderness Experience (A.W.E.) is a travel wholesaler offering the widest variety and selection of top quality, carefully screened backcountry adventures and Old West Dude Ranch vacations. A.W.E.'s trip selection and reservation service allows for worry free adventure trip planning. For more information on A.W.E., please visit their Web site at www.awetrips.com or www.gorp.com/awe/
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