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Des Moines, Iowa (July 26, 2004)

Fighting "Travel Click - o - phobia"

Call it "travel click- o - phobia"--the fear that if you press the wrong button on your computer, instead of your dream Caribbean cruise you'll get 18 non-refundable tickets on a garbage scow to Kazakhstan. While more and more people are booking travel through the Internet every day, many consumers are leery of the idea of booking with a computer instead of human being--even when that's not really what's going on.

"It's easy to see just by looking at the online chat boards," says Bob Levinstein, CEO of CruiseCompete.com, a web sites that offers travelers competing price quotes on cruise vacations.. "Questions like: 'Should I book with a travel agency or book online?' show that people don't understand that all of these online booking sites--Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.--are just travel agencies that you can communicate with via the web as well as over the phone. If you have any problems, you can always just call."

Travel agents that can be reached online are generally no different than other travel agents--they simply offer additional tools to let you self-guide your travel planning. These agents have the same knowledge and experience you find at the agency around the corner. As an increasing number of independent agencies are setting up their own web sites, they might even be the agency the around the corner.

One example is CruiseBrothers.com, a family-owned travel agency located in Providence, Rhode Island, that has been providing old-fashioned customer service for more than 30 years. "It always amuses me when someone refers to us as an 'Internet agency' just because we have a high-quality web site", says CruiseBrothers.com' President Steve Gelfuso. "We have phones, too--does that make us a telephone agency?"

CruiseCompete.com is somewhat different than other travel web sites as it connects cruise travelers to multiple travel agencies through a single web site. CruiseCompete is an online marketplace that allows cruisers to select their ship and sail date, and then have cruise travel agencies to compete against other to offer the best deal.

"When they're ready to book, though, our users always have the option to talk to a live agent and book over the phone--just as they do on 99% of the travel sites out there," says Levinstein.

What kind of travel agents will they talk to? "Well, the other question I see a lot online is: 'Should I use a regular travel agent or an Internet travel agent.' You won't know the difference when you call a CruiseCompete member-agent." says Levinstein. "That's because--even though they're “Internet agents”--when you talk to them on the phone, you can't see the modem cable sticking out of the back of their heads."

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CruiseCompete.com is operated by CruiseCompete, LLC, an independent company with offices in Des Moines, IA and Farmington, MI. CruiseCompete is not owned by or affiliated with any travel agency.

For more information or visit www.cruisecompete.com