Leisureplanet.com, a leading international leisure travel e-commerce company, today announced further expansion of its fulfilment partner network into Belgium, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands and Sweden. Leisureplanet.com’s fulfilment partners are leading local travel suppliers that are contracted to provide travel services to Leisureplanet.com’s customers.

Leisureplanet.com’s fulfilment partner network provides negotiated airfares, air fulfilment, ticketing and post-sales local language customer service to Leisureplanet.com’s customers in the national markets they service.

“As our fulfilment partnerships expand into new markets, Leisureplanet.com is drawing closer to its objective of establishing leadership through global provision of localised travel services. This leadership will be buoyed by the faster rate of growth in Internet usage in developing markets.” said Pierre Kleinhans, Chief Executive Officer of Leisureplanet.com. “Leisureplanet.com’s growing network of local travel partners benefit Leisureplanet’s travellers by providing local travel products and customer service, which is an important part of our objective to provide the ultimate leisure travel experience to our customers.”

Expansion of the company’s network of national fulfilment partners advances Leisureplanet.com’s localisation strategy and customer service network, which calls for a rollout of websites in all of its target markets throughout 2000. Now covering 19 countries, Leisureplanet.com’s network currently includes the following partners:

New partnerships
Belgium Joker Toerisme
Finland Next Travel Ltd.
Israel Amsalem Tours & Travel Ltd.
The Netherlands Airtrade Holland C.V.
Sweden Check in Travel

Pre-existing partnerships
Australia Concorde Travel
Austria TLR Tours
Denmark Billettkontoret
France Reductour
Germany Aeroworld GmBH
Ireland Club Travel Ltd
Italy Travel United
Norway Voyager Travel Group
Portugal Geotur Tait
South Africa Experts in Travel
Spain Tele-Avion
Switzerland Mondomania AG
The United Kingdom Major Travel
The United States Uniglobe Travel Online

Summary profiles of new travel fulfilment partners
Airtrade Holland C.V. is one of the Netherlands’ major purchasers of airline tickets for leisure travel. More than 200,000 passengers a year book their flights with the company. Airtrade also markets its own tour operating products, under the names Australia Express and Cityhopper tours. The company is part of BCD Holdings NV.

Check in Travel is a multilingual travel business providing air and hotel fulfilment and package tours. The company offers special deals with hotels and rental services all over the world. Check in Travel specialises in packages and long intercontinental journeys.

Amsalem Tours & Travel is one of the leading travel companies in Israel. The company provides services ranging from family vacation packages, to complex business trips to qualitative geographical tours worldwide. In order to assist travellers all over the world, Amsalem Tours & Travel operates a large reservations centre and a 24-hour customer service desk.

Next Travel Ltd. is an independent, full-service travel agency based in Helsinki. Established in 1991, the company is the preferred Finnish agent for Festival Cruises and Star Cruises. As the general sales agent for British Travel Centre in Finland, Next Travel Ltd. is particularly knowledgeable about British destinations.

Joker Toerisme was founded in 1981 by a few adventurers with a passion for travel. Based in Brussels, the company is the general sales agent for seven foreign tour operators, who specialise in conscientious adventure travel packages to exotic locations. Throughout the year, Joker Toerisme offers budget flights with the world’s top airlines.

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