Travel Weekly Announces Launch of OfficialCruiseGuide.com

    SECAUCUS, NJ, May 04, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Travel Weekly, the national newspaper of the travel industry, has announced the launch of OfficialCruiseGuide.com, a free online service that delivers comprehensive cruise information to the professional travel-agent community.

Positioned as "The Official Cruise Guide of the Travel Industry," the new site offers continually updated cruise schedule details on more than 15,000 individual sailing itineraries, 361 cruise ships and 93 cruise lines, resulting in unparalleled comprehensiveness designed to meet the specific needs of travel agents.

In addition to offering continually updated information on cruises by major lines as well as smaller specialty lines not found at typical online cruise sites, OfficialCruiseGuide.com provides real-time cruise ship schedules, rate, and availability information on most of the 15,000-plus cruise itineraries it tracks.

OfficialCruiseGuide.com also is designed to serve as a planning and selling tool to help travel agents sell cruises more efficiently and effectively.

"The industry has never seen anything like OCG," said Bob Sullivan, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Travel Weekly. "OfficialCruiseGuide.com has significantly more information, better functionality and more useful tools specifically designed for travel agents than any other service in the marketplace."

Travel agents can quickly search the site by sailing date, cruise destination, departure port, and cruise ship or line. Other features include access to deck plans, cabin details and onboard ship amenities. OCG also allows travel agents to leave reviews for fellow travel agents about specific cruise ships and to create customized cruise summaries that can be printed or emailed to clients.

In addition, OfficialCruiseGuide.com provides seamless integration with STAR Service Online and Weissmann Reports, sister services offered by Northstar Travel Media. Visitors to OfficialCruiseGuide.com who subscribe to STAR and Weissmann can get instant access to thousands of professional cruise ship reviews, embarkation hotel reviews and port-of-call guides related to their cruise searches.

About Northstar Travel Media, LLC:

Northstar Travel Media is the leading provider of news, information and data for the travel, meetings and hospitality industries and parent of brands including Travel Weekly, HotelandTravelindex.com, Meetings & Conventions and TravelAge West.

NTM's electronic directories -- Travel Weekly's Hotel & Travel Index and M&C Facilities Search -- provide in-depth data on hotels, meeting and convention properties, and business travel in the United States and internationally.

In addition to its directories and periodicals, NTM publishes a number of online subscription information resources, including Weissmann Reports, STAR Service Online, Intelliguide Corporate and BTP24.

Northstar also is an industry leader in marketing services, custom communications, content licensing and database management serving the travel and meetings industries.

Based in Secaucus, New Jersey, the company also has offices in Glen Ellyn, Illinois; Los Angeles; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Northstar Travel Media, LLC is a portfolio company of Boston Ventures, a leading private equity investor in the media and communications sector.

http://www.northstartravelmedia.com

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