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Orbitz targets small businesses

Orbitz Worldwide’s Corporate Travel Solutions is further extending the Orbitz for Business managed
booking tool to small businesses everywhere, through the launch of a new
self-managed travel site.
  The site allows small businesses and their travelers to access and book
through Orbitz for Business with a simple self-registration process. The
new offering includes many of the same features and benefits of Orbitz’s
larger managed programs, including access to corporate travel rates, at no
cost beyond the transaction fees.
  “This gives small businesses a sense of having their own managed
program on Orbitz for Business and furthers our commitment to having an
array of travel products that are a great fit for any size business,” said
Dean Sivley, COO and general manager, Orbitz Worldwide’s Corporate Travel
Solutions. “We’re now catering not just to small businesses, but to any and
every small business that has travel requirements and wants greater
control.”
    In addition to the Orbitz for Business self-managed site launch, Orbitz
Worldwide’s commitment to serving small businesses also included its recent
sponsorship of the Small Business Administration’s
“Small Business Week” in April 2007.
  “We recognize and appreciate the importance of small business to our
industry and to our nation’s economy as a whole,” said Steve Barnhart,
president and CEO, Orbitz Worldwide. “We believe we’re better serving this
segment of the market, keeping small business travelers a step ahead with
offerings like OrbitzTLC.”
  Launched in 2002, Orbitz for Business continues to boast among the
highest corporate adoption rates in the industry at an average of 90
percent, as well as a near-perfect client retention rate of 99.4 percent.
The brand’s success, coupled with an investment to enable an automated
self-registration process and automated reporting, led to the development
of the self-managed product.
 
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