Active Hotels and Visit Cambridge delivering over £2.2m of hotel reservations into Cambridge per annum

Cambridge, 13 July 2004: Active Hotels, Europe’s leading online hotel reservations provider has signed an agreement with Visit Cambridge, a city council funded organisation whose role is to maximise the benefits of tourism in one of the UK’s leading destinations. This new partnership will provide an unrivalled accommodation booking service for anyone planning a trip to Cambridge and offer significant support to local enterprises that rely strongly on healthy tourism figures to sustain and enhance their business activities. Nick Bolton, Head of Economic Development and Tourism, responsible for Visit Cambridge said: “The agreement with Active Hotels means that we can provide an excellent accommodation booking tool for our visitors and encourage more people to make the most of what Cambridge has to offer. One of Visit Cambridge’s main objectives is to convert day-to-stay visitors. Out of 4.6 million visitors per year, only 900,000 currently stay for a minimum of one night. Our goal is to promote more overnight stays by working closely with Active Hotels to provide an effective, user-friendly on-line booking service.” Traditionally, tourism organisations have dealt with queries over the phone and provided an effective walk-in service. Today’s traveller is far more likely to look on the internet for an immediately accessible, convenient on-line service (preferable to holding on the phone or physically waiting in a queue). This new partnership focuses on improving the whole visitor experience, to bring it in line with customer expectations. Visitors planning to visit Cambridge from home or abroad can now search and book online a wide variety of Cambridge properties, ranging from B&B’s and guesthouses to luxury hotels on the www.visitcambridge.org website. Those already in Cambridge can simply walk into the Tourism Information Centre (TIC) where a member of staff can assist by making the reservation on their behalf. Dan Smith, Director of Sales, Active Hotels stated: “Visit Cambridge is a pioneering enterprise and it is a pleasure to work together on this initiative. The roots of Active Hotels’ business started in Cambridge and today we are delighted to be contributing to the economic development of this region. Each year Active Hotels and Visit Cambridge together deliver over £2.2m of bookings for Cambridge, and this exciting venture enables us to promote further local properties and ensure they continue to receive dedicated marketing exposure to fulfil their business needs.” Visit Cambridge and Active Hotels joined together and invited local accommodation providers to a presentation in order to highlight the benefits of this new initiative. Andrew Constantinides, General Manager of the Acorn Guest House in Cambridge said, “We have worked with Active Hotels for over 3 years now and have enjoyed a substantial level of business over this period. Active Hotels’ online reservation system is very simple to use and its flexibility allows us to vary our rates and availability on a daily basis. This means we can react to any downturns in the marketplace and set seasonal rates very easily. Active Hotels is certainly our number 1 online reservation provider.” Visit Cambridge and Active Hotels were very pleased at the response they received from local hoteliers. Future plans between Active Hotels and Visit Cambridge now include extending the service to allow visitors to book their onward accommodation requirements. Active Hotels has also recently started working with Poole Tourism, and has been approached by a number of other tourism organisations as a direct result of recommendations from their local hoteliers about the Active Hotels service. Building or buying an on-line booking process is an expensive procedure and the appeal of working with Active Hotels lies in receiving an effective, state-of-the-art on-line booking system free of charge, along with an extensive database of local hotels. Active Hotels currently represents 7,500 European properties, a figure that is rapidly increasing, and expected to reach over 10,000 by the end of 2004. See http://www.activehotels.com for more information. -End- ——————————————————————————————– About Visit Cambridge Visit Cambridge is the tourism service for the city run by Cambridge City Council on behalf of the local community and the tourism industry. The service aims to maximise the benefit visitors bring to the city and manage the impact they may have. Visit Cambridge works directly with over 170 local accommodation venues, and handles in excess of 500,000 face-to-face, email and telephone enquiries annually. Press contact Nick Bolton Head of Economic Development & Tourism Cambridge City Council Tel: 01223 457303 Email: [email protected] Web: www.visitcambridge.org About Active Hotels Active Hotels is Europe’s leading online reservations provider, offering the best choice of hotels and room prices available across Europe via its booking interface: http://www.activereservations.com. The company works with 7,500 leading European hotels, which it promotes across hundreds of distribution partner websites and electronic networks. Active Hotels is rapidly growing its hotel base to reach over 10,000 European properties by the end of 2004. The company is predicted to process over €200 million worth of bookings for hotels throughout Europe in 2004. For further information visit: http://www.activehotels.com Press contact Mandy Zakhour, European Media Relations & Communications, Active Hotels Tel: +44 (0)1223 578134 Email: [email protected]