eDIRP.com (that’s pride spelled backward), launched earlier this year to offer members of the GLBT community an online travel company solely dedicated to their needs. The company also pledges to raise awareness of the inequalities faced by the community and donate 10% of profits to organizations focused on GLBT equal rights issues.
“I refuse to believe the majority of Americans agree it should be legal to fire an employee solely because they are gay or lesbian,” said Kemp, president and founder of eDIRP.com Travel, Inc. “Yet that is still the case in 34 states in our nation.” The lack of state and federal laws protecting workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation is one of the main reasons Kemp went into business. “After years of hiding who I was for fear of losing my job, I decided it was time to start my own business and call attention to these issues.”
The company’s website features online booking systems for gay-friendly hotels, last minute deals, flights, cars and cruises, as well as a searchable database of travel options and destination information geared for the gay travel market. Agreements with major travel suppliers enable eDIRP.com to compete directly with other online travel agencies. In addition to its self-serve online booking options, the company offers traditional travel services by phone through its reservation center in Dallas, Texas. It is an authorized agency for the community’s leading gay and lesbian cruise and tour operators and all other major travel suppliers.
More: prweb.com
Related Travel Information
Online travel agency revenue in 2005 will reach $27.7 billion in the U.S., for a year-over-year growth of 19 percent, according to MediaPost, which cites a Merrill Lynch estimate - one more optimistic than its previous estimate of 15 percent growth. Although consumers can purchase directly from airlines, hotels, and other direct suppliers, bookings from online agency sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz were up 20 percent in the second quarter, according to Merrill Lynch, which also forecast that revenues at direct suppliers online would grow 27 percent this year, to $32.5 billion.
Overall, online travel sales will account
Police have arrested a travel agency employee on suspicion of using tourists as smugglers of 13 kilograms of stimulants through Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, the largest amount seized at the airport ever, the police and customs office said Friday.
Akira Miyano, 47, who organized a bargain group tour to Thailand, and five people who joined the tour, were arrested. Two others who were to receive the stimulants in Japan — Masao Fujii, 61, a business operator, and Hideki Ao, 37, a business executive — were also arrested, they said.
More: japantoday.com
Remember when booking a vacation meant visiting a travel agency that overflowed with brochures of exotic places?
Please. That's so 1990.
Deserted by Internet-savvy shoppers and starved by the loss of airline commissions in the last decade, many bricks-and-mortar travel sellers have closed up shop.
But more than 100,000 people in the U.S. still work as travel agents, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A growing number have left the office and gone home—often to cyberspace.
Working in their houses, hotel rooms or even coffee shops, they've shed overhead and now serve customers from personal computers or laptops or by phone.
Some book
Executive Fliteways, a leader in private jet charter service, today announced a joint venture with Malmberg Travel, a full-service luxury travel agency based in Boston, and is offering the opportunity to win a two-hour flight in a Learjet 35.
The Learjet 35, an executive jet known for its comfort, speed and safety, has a crew of two and seats up to eight passengers. At speeds in excess of 500 mph, the twin-engine executive jet can travel over 2,000 miles without re-fueling and can reach an altitude of 43,000 feet. The jet boasts excellent range, short runway capacity and best-in-class performance.
For the first time, holidaymakers will be able to buy an overseas home by walking into a high street travel agency.
Thomson, the UK's biggest tour company, is starting the scheme at its 750 high street stores in partnership with the Parador Properties company in response to a growth in overseas home ownership.
From Tuesday, Thomson will be offering properties for purchase in Spain (including Majorca), Portugal and Cyprus.
According to Thomson research more than half a million British households now own a property overseas and this figure is expected to rise significantly over the next few years.
The research also revealed that owning
