TI Gay & Lesbian Travel Program Introduces Agent Tools: Private Labeling, Gay & Lesbian Connect Booking Engine

FARMINGDALE, NY (Dec. 10, 2008) - The TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program has introduced two new valuable tools for travel agents -- Private Brand Labeling and GL Connect. Both tools have been designed to help the travel agent better market and sell the gay-friendly properties in the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program portfolio.

Through Private Brand Labeling, travel agents/agencies can create a customized website showcasing all properties in the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program. This website would be completely branded with the agency's name and contact information as the call to action. The website features the same destination information as well as promotions that are offered on the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program website. Agencies are provided with their own URL which can be e-mailed to customers or linked to their company's website.

The GL Connect function enables agencies to load the booking engine onto their own websites and can be customized to feature any of the gay-friendly properties that are part of the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program. Customers visiting their agent's website can book their complete vacation package themselves while the travel agency receives the complete credit for the booking and the normal commission.

Further, agencies are offered the option of combining the Private Labeling and GL Connect tools to offer clients websites that are completely branded by the agencies and that also provide the functionality of a booking engine.

In order for an agency to use the GL Connect tool, it must be a registered TI Connect agency. To register with TI Connect, visit http://www.travimp.com/ticonnect.

Through the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program, agents can book their clients at over 1,000 verified gay-friendly properties in more than 150 destinations located in the continental United States and Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Tahiti and South Africa, with more destinations to come.

Travel agents can opt in to the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program via the http://www.travelimpressions.com/gaytravel homepage, in the "Book Gay-Friendly Hotels" section. Registration allows agents to book on the site and authorizes Travel Impressions to send agents e-mails and promotions that are specific to the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program.

The TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program offers the same services already available through Travel Impressions: Cancel for Any Reason Travel Protection Plan, 24/7 customer care, upgraded documents, highly skilled reservations staff and sales support, and much more. The added benefit is the confidence that travel agents are selling a "gay-friendly" property while receiving all the benefits of booking with a major U.S. tour operator. The TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program website was the recipient of a 2008 Travel Weekly Magellan Award.

For more information about the TI Gay & Lesbian Travel program, visit http://www.travelimpressions.com/gaytravel or contact Travel Impressions at 1-800-284-0044.

Travel Impressions

Headquartered in Farmingdale, NY, with an additional office in Bethlehem, PA, Travel Impressions is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express. Travel Impressions has been the recipient of Travel Weekly's Readers Choice award for "Best Tour Operator, Sales & Service" for three consecutive years (2005, 2006 and 2007), and has won the publication's award for "Best Tour Operator, Domestic" for 2006 and 2007. The company has also been recognized three times as an "Editor's Pick" by TravelAge West - first in 2006 as "Best Tour Operator Website, designed specifically for travel agents" and in both 2007 and 2008 as "Best Tour Operator Mexico."

Since its founding in 1974, Travel Impressions has taken approximately six million travelers on vacations to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Islands of Tahiti, Canada, Hawaii and the Continental U.S. And, its newest destinations are Croatia, Dubai, South Africa, Belize, Chile and Peru. Today, Travel Impressions provides leisure vacation packages to 150 destinations and more than 1,800 resorts and hotels worldwide, departing from cities nationwide.