PRESS RELEASE Of interest to editors and journalists covering: Travel/Tourism, Hotel/Restaurant, Internet/DotCom, Tenn. News Former Choice Hotels International & Trip.com VP Joins CoachQuote.com Team Pigeon Forge, TN - April 1, 2004 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- CoachQuote.com(R), the travel industry's leading online group-booking engine for the past four years, is pleased to announce that Scott Pearson has joined the company as Vice-President of Internet Distribution and Development. Pearson, who was Vice-President of Sales and Travel Industry Marketing for Choice Hotels International's North American Region in the nineties, was also Vice President Travel Industry Relations and B2B Marketing for Trip.com and assisted the company in their sale to Galileo International. Pearson joins a rapidly growing company poised to launch its 2nd generation Web site technology in early Spring 2004. "The combination of an established company, with a proven record, and the latest technology available in the group market made it a straightforward decision for me to join CoachQuote.com," said Pearson. "The small group market is the fastest growing segment in the hotel industry. CoachQuote.com has recognized this and has developed powerful online products to capitalize on the growth -- for both the hoteliers and the group planners. It is an organization I knew I wanted to join, especially with all of the new and exciting things that the company is planning to roll-out in the coming weeks." Pearson directed Travel Industry, Association, and Group Sales and Marketing for The Hertz Corporation for 12 years as Vice President and has developed key distribution partnerships over the years through his network of industry colleagues. Along with his experience in the area of Group travel, Pearson has also worked with such travel industry giants as Budget Rent A Car and as Vice President Sales and Internet Marketing for Dollar Rent A Car. "We are very excited about having Scott Pearson on board with our company," said Scott Harness, President and CEO, CoachQuote.com. "Not only will he play an important role in the next stage of our company's growth, but he is a true testament to our desire to expand the reach of our technology and the services we provide to groups around the world." CoachQuote.com(R), which is celebrating its 4th anniversary this Spring with the launch of its second generation Web site technology, is a popular and powerful online group-booking engine that enables professional tour operators and group leaders to plan every aspect of their group trip online, faster and easier. The company currently has 2,700-plus professional tour operator and over 22,000 group leader members. In addition, the company boasts over 11,000 supplier members, with 9,200 being hotels throughout North America that provide inventory and net rates through its robust extranet. The company also has agreements with several travel Web sites to provide group inventory as well as power those Web sites with its "buy-now" group-booking engine. Last year, the company recorded online bookings of $38 million. More information: http://www.CoachQuote.com MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Blackwell of CoachQuote.com +1-865-428-8878 jennifer@coachquote.com /Note to editors: CoachQuote.com is a (R) reg. trademark./ (* Logo: http://coachquote.com/cqlogosmall.gif ) # # # [ source of news = CoachQuote.com ] ref: http://www.send2press.com/2archive/2004/pr_04_0401-coachquote.txt http://www.send2press.com/2archivePDF/pr_04_0401-coachquote.pdf ----------------------------------------------------------------- *IMPORTANT NOTE TO MEDIA: to reach the organization releasing this news, please contact: jennifer@coachquote.com (media only) If used for publication, please send specimen copy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- S2P-NS/0c/ TN / Pigeon Forge, Tennessee / Copr. (c) 2004 Send2Press. This release was issued on behalf of the above organization, who is solely responsible for accuracy of content, by Send2Press(tm), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com