Cendant Travel Distribution Services
(Cendant TDS) today announced an agreement with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Thai
Airways International (THAI) to create and execute destination-marketing
campaigns that will promote Thailand internationally. The campaigns will
leverage the broad reach of Cendant to help raise awareness of Thailand, and
increase travel to the country, building on the TAT’s successful brand
positioning.

Cendant TDS brands supporting the campaigns will include: consumer websites
CheapTickets.com, Lodging.com, HotelClub.com and RatesToGo.com; the Galileo
GDS serving more than 44,000 travel agencies; Travel 2/Travel 4, a leading
UK-based long-haul consolidator; and Travelers Advantage, a premier travel
provider with a membership of 2 million people.

Cendant TDS already drives significant numbers of inbound visitors to
Thailand, transacting 1 in 5 air passengers to the country worldwide through
Galileo in 2003, and arranging 12,500 tailor-made programs through
Travel2/Travel4. Cendant TDS’s four consumer websites provide access to an
excellent selection of Thai accommodation and tour content. For example,
there are 314 Thai hotels in HotelClub.com and 58 in RatesToGo.com.

TAT Governor Juthamas Siriwan, said: “Thailand is already a major
destination but still has a wealth of untapped tourist potential. I’m
confident we will benefit from Cendant’s successful and highly varied
distribution channels - each with their integral marketing platforms such as
membership schemes, magazines and newsletters, electronic marketing, as well
as incentive programs and affiliate networks. Cendant can deliver highly
targeted marketing and, with their ability to measure and track campaigns,
enhance the effectiveness of our marketing spend.”

Kanok Abhiradee, President of THAI, said: “We are pleased to announce this
partnership with Cendant as an example of how two leading organizations in
travel can combine strengths to promote the wonderful destination that is
Thailand. Through this partnership, THAI and Royal Orchid Holidays will be
able to reach travelers in many parts of the world with exciting offers and
services that will help increase visitors to our country.  Only with a truly
global partner like Cendant could we have such a significant opportunity to
make this happen.”

Mark Rizzuto, Managing Director (Asia), Cendant TDS, said: “We are delighted
to have this opportunity to broaden the existing sales and marketing
activities of the TAT and THAI. We are achieving two firsts. This is the
first time that Cendant TDS has worked with both a national tourist
organization and national airline to promote travel to a country. This is
also the first time that TAT has worked with an international private sector
company to promote its country to international travelers.

“We touch many points along the travel distribution chain and are ideally
positioned to deliver multiple campaigns in response to the TAT’s brief. We
are more than a GDS distribution channel - the game has changed. It’s not
enough just to be a GDS and here’s a powerful example of what we can achieve
through our broader value proposition.”

Cendant Partner Marketing, an international team within Cendant TDS,
specializes in building integrated marketing programs for its partners
across multiple Cendant channels that reach consumers and travel agent
audiences alike. This group will work with TAT to develop and coordinate an
integrated strategy across the broad reach of all Cendant distribution
channels. This type of global marketing campaign, integrated across so many
leading travel brands, is unprecedented in the industry.

Bob Coggin, Vice Chairman of Cendant TDS, added: “This alliance is an
excellent example of the Cendant TDS ability to combine ‘Order Making’ and
‘Order Taking’ capabilities and provide the highest value to partners. The
Cendant TDS ‘Order Making’ operations - such as our consumer websites -
actively generate travel transactions, complementing the traditional ‘Order
Taker’ role of the Galileo Global Distribution System, a transaction
processor. It is the combination of our effective sales platforms coupled
with our proven transaction processing that will really stimulate and
facilitate the increased travel to Thailand. We are offering our partners a
powerful ‘one company, one vision’ proposition.”

The initial destination marketing campaigns will focus on encouraging
inbound visitors from six key source markets: the United States, Australia,
the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa,
with other geographic markets to be targeted in the future. Cendant TDS is
working with the TAT and THAI at every level including identifying targeted
segments of the tourist market, the best channel to reach a given market
segment, contracting additional content as required and jointly creating
advertising and promotion activity.
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