Priceline.com And Lowestfare.com Pick GOGO Worldwide Vacations As Supplier For New Line Of Discount Vacation Products
Vacation Packages Cover Over 200 Popular Destinations, Including:Hawaii, Mexico, Las Vegas, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Europe,the South Pacific and More
NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2002-- Priceline.com® (Nasdaq: PCLN), the Name Your Own Price(sm) Internet service and its published-price discount travel affiliate, Lowestfare.com®, announced today that they have chosen GOGO Worldwide Vacations as the supplier for a new line of vacation packages that the two Web sites will integrate into their own product offerings beginning later this year.GOGO Worldwide Vacations is one of oldest - and biggest - leisure travel wholesalers to the travel agent market. GOGO is widely credited with advancing the concept of "package travel". Today, it offers the largest vacation package lineup in the travel industry - over 200 destinations on four continents, including popular spots like the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, Central America, the South Pacific, the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Florida, U.S. ski destinations and more. Over 1 million travelers take GOGO-packaged vacations annually.
Priceline.com launched a Name Your Own Price(sm) vacation service
in May 2002, using its own inventories of airline tickets and hotel
rooms. Priceline.com said it chose to expand its vacation lineup
through the integration of GOGO's extensive and unique inventory of
vacation package options. GOGO's longstanding relationships with many
resorts and travel suppliers will significantly increase the vacation
options available to priceline.com customers.
"Priceline.com's vacation service allows customers to pick their exact hotel for vacation packages to nearly 30 U.S. cities and beach resorts, plus great deals to Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean," said Andrew Cooper, Vice President and head of priceline.com's vacation service. "Flexible travelers using priceline.com can achieve savings of up to 50 percent versus buying their air and hotel separately. Now, by supplementing our own offerings with those from GOGO, we can provide our customers with the best prices for even more vacation options."
"Priceline.com is an excellent partner for GOGO Worldwide Vacations, because both of our names are synonymous with great deals and real consumer value," said Jacques DiCroce, Sr. Vice President of GOGO's Outsource Division. "We look forward to bringing our extensive inventories and attractive pricing to priceline.com and Lowestfare.com customers."
Under the terms of the agreement, GOGO will furnish priceline.com and Lowestfare.com with its full range of vacation packages. In addition, priceline.com and Lowestfare customers will have access to GOGO's unique online search capabilities and customer support expertise.
About Priceline.com
Priceline.com offers products for sale in four categories: a travel service that offers leisure airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises; a personal finance service that offers home mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans through an independent licensee; an automotive service that offers new cars; and a telecommunications service that offers long distance calling services. Priceline.com also owns the Internet domain names and trademarks of LowestFare.com, another Web-based travel site. Priceline.com licenses its business model to independent licensees, including pricelinemortgage and certain international licensees.
About GOGO Worldwide Vacations
GOGO Worldwide Vacations is the leading wholesaler of vacation packages in the United States. With 50 offices, GOGO Worldwide Vacations services over 20,000 travel agencies nationwide, offering agents the largest variety of package vacations in the world, including products on four continents encompassing over 3,500 hotels, more than a dozen airlines, and a multitude of transportation, sightseeing, and rental car companies. With unquestioned financial stability, GOGO enjoys a 51-year reputation as an industry leader in product, service and reliability.
Information About Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that
are difficult to predict; therefore, actual results may differ
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expressions including, without limitation, "may," "will," "should,"
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"anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential,"
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following factors, among others, could cause the Company's actual
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements: adverse changes in general market
conditions for leisure and other travel products as the result of,
among other things, terrorist attacks or hostilities; adverse changes
in the Company's relationships with airlines and other product and
service providers including, without limitation, the withdrawal of
suppliers from the priceline.com system; the effects of increased
competition; systems-related failures and/or security breaches; the
Company's ability to protect its intellectual property rights; losses
by the Company and its licensees; final adjustments made in closing
the quarter; legal and regulatory risks and the ability to attract and
retain qualified personnel. For a detailed discussion of these and
other factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ
materially from those described in the forward-looking statements,
please refer to the Company's most recent Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and
Form 8-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless
required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update
publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT:
Priceline.com
Brian Ek, 203/299-8167
brian.ek@priceline.com