MERANG LAUNCHES NEXT-GENERATION SOLUTION CONNECTING TRAVEL AGENTS WITH TRAVELLERS

Most consumers are price sensitive and are constantly shopping around for the best travel deals. Merang.com recently launched a new online Quotation system through which customers can submit a their trip information to all travel agents instantly. The agents responses are presented to consumers in a simple format, and the customer can then book directly with the live travel agent.

Toronto, ON, August 2, 2001 -- Merang Solutions, a travel technology and e-Business Solutions company based in Toronto recently launched a new online Quotation System that helps travel agencies interact with consumers in a virtual marketplace.

"Many of these travel agents are having a difficult time using the Internet to their benefit. Simply having a website or listing your travel agency in an online directory is not effective," says Sanjeev Chib, CEO of Merang Solutions. Unless you have a very large online brand image, the chance that a visitor will eventually find his or her way to your website and finally make a reservation is very slim. Also, many customers are still reluctant to book online without first speaking to an agent."

"Most consumers are price sensitive and are constantly shopping around for the best deals. They often spend a lot of time contacting various agencies to get the best price quotes while travel agents spend a lot of money advertising the same packages as their competitors in newspapers. This is not a very effective model," says Mr. Chib.

Through their consumer website (www.merang.com) or one of growing network of partner websites, consumers will be able to submit detailed trip quotation requests to all travel agents on the system 24 hours a day in a matter of minutes. An e-mail is sent directly to the travel agents alerting them of the request. As the consumer receives quotes back from these agents, these real-time quotes are presented to them in a simple format so that they can quickly compare, select and book the packages directly with the agent. A separate Agent Access Centre" for travel agents has been built at www.merang.net, through which the agents can view and manage customer leads and submit quotes very quickly.

"We believe that this system will have significant benefits to travel agents by helping them cut their advertising and operating costs and increase their revenues," says Mr. Chib. Agents have the flexibility to decide which requests to respond to and can respond to active requests at any time at their convenience. Merang is expecting a large volume of requests as consumers become more aware of the benefits of this system, and the network of partner websites continues to grow.

As an introductory offer, Merang is offering this service to travel agents free of charge during the month of August. We want travel agents to experience the benefits of this system and are offering it to them for free during our initial launch. All they need is an e-mail address and enter the referral code: 'FREE when signing up online."

For more details, visit www.merang.net, www.merang.com or call (416) 907-7013.