SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 5, 2005–Sabre Holdings
(NYSE: TSG) today announced that it acquired IgoUgo.com, a unique
travel community Web site. It also launched the industry’s first
travel keyword search engine on the newly acquired site. The
combination of keyword travel search capabilities with a large base of
passionate, first-hand traveler experiences provides consumers with a
unique one-stop research and planning guide specifically designed for
travel.
The site, however, does not produce pricing-based results.
IgoUgo is one of the world’s leading online travel communities.
Built entirely around the concept of real travelers sharing honest
opinions, IgoUgo has more than 350,000 members who communicate by
writing and posting travel journals and photos of their experiences.
To date, the site includes more than 300,000 of these journals and
200,000 photos, covering more than 4,100 destinations around the
globe. IgoUgo has licensed out its community to various travel
companies, including Resort Condominiums International; the Travel
Channel, a part of Discovery Communications; Rough Guides, a
travel-guidebook series owned by Penguin Group Ltd., a division of
Pearson Ltd.; and numerous European tourism boards.
Unlike existing travel price comparison search engines, IgoUgo’s
new search engine does not provide price-based results. Instead, it
improves the relevancy of keyword search results when the consumer is
conducting research and planning on the Web. The feature removes the
clutter of responses that are not travel-related associated with the
general search engines like Google and MSN. As an example, when a
consumer enters the keyword “java,” the search engine only returns
travel-related Web results for Java, Indonesia, and filters out the
thousands of results related to coffee or the computer operating
system. This enables the consumer to spend less time thinking about
what additional keyword qualifiers are necessary to gain only
travel-related results.
“Developing a keyword search engine specifically for travel is a
natural extension of Sabre’s 30-plus years of experience in travel
search technology,” said Eric J. Speck, executive vice president and
chief marketing officer for Sabre Holdings. “We have leveraged the
skills of a very talented group of mathematicians who have previously
established an expertise in solving complex travel-related algorithms
to create this new search engine. Sabre Holdings plans to enhance the
capabilities of the keyword search engine and then combine it with the
plethora of real-time information in the Sabre system to enhance
offerings from the company’s other businesses, including Travelocity
and Sabre Travel Network.”
The enhanced IgoUgo site will enable Sabre to participate in the
growth in paid search advertising. A recently published report from
market analyst Jupiter Research predicts significant growth in keyword
search. The report is based on findings that 79 percent of the $2.6
billion spent on paid search in the last year in the U.S. fits into
four categories – retail, financial services, media and entertainment,
and travel.
Sabre acquired IgoUgo in February. Developed as an online traveler
community, IgoUgo has more than 350,000 members who communicate by
posting personal travel journals about their experiences. With the new
keyword travel search capabilities, consumers can quickly gain
insights into travel possibilities from anywhere on the Web and access
IgoUgo’s rich and unbiased content regarding specific destinations and
other travel ideas.
“A ‘Travel Experts’ feature will soon be added to IgoUgo that will
allow consumers to gain additional travel insight from travel agents
with destination-specific qualifications,” said Speck. “Many Sabre
Connected travel agents are uniquely qualified to participate because
of their destination expertise. We hope to harness their knowledge by
incorporating it into the IgoUgo community to benefit travelers and
generate leads for the agents, as well.”
Additional enhancements will also be added that will make it
easier for travelers to navigate between the keyword search and member
content, and extensive usability tests will be conducted to
continuously improve travelers’ experiences with the site.
About Sabre Holdings
Sabre Holdings, an S&P 500 company, is a world leader in travel
commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and
technology solutions for the travel industry. Sabre Holdings supports
travelers, travel agents, corporations and travel suppliers through
its companies: Travelocity, Sabre Travel Network, and Sabre Airline
Solutions. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex, the company has approximately 6,800 employees in 45
countries. Full year 2004 revenues totaled $2.1 billion. Sabre
Holdings is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol
TSG. More information is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.
Statements in this news release which are not purely historical
facts, including statements about the growth of paid search
advertising, future enhancements to the travel search engine and
IgoUgo website, or other statements about anticipations, beliefs,
expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may be
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not
to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All
forward-looking statements are based upon information available to
Sabre Holdings Corporation on the date of this news release. Sabre
Holdings Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
events or results to differ materially from the events or results
described in the forward-looking statements, including risks or
uncertainties related to the implementation of new technology or
competition from online search engines. Sabre Holdings Corporation may
not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further information
regarding factors that could affect our financial and other results
can be found in the risk factors section of our most recent filing on
Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Sabre Holdings, Southlake
Nanci Williams, 682-605-2271
Email: nanci.williams@sabre-holdings.com
Website: www.sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Holdings