YTB International Inc., a provider of Internet-based travel booking services, anticipates that travel sales could exceed $1 billion in 2008, surpassing the total travel sold in the company's first seven years of business. The company says that among the projects expected for launch this year are the development of a next-generation booking engine that will enable YTB to increase its product inventory. Also planned is expansion of the YTB Outdoors, YTB Fly Free and YTB Cars sites, and growth in Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas, as those countries come online.
While YTB tracks the aggregate value of the travel services sold, only the commissions arising from such sales, not the amount of sales themselves, are reflected in YTB's financial statements. YTB is a publicly owned company.
YTB says that its RTAs, the people who offer the company's wide array of travel services, more than doubled in 2007, growing from just over 60,000 to more than 130,000. YTB operates three subsidiaries: YourTravelBiz.com, YTB Travel Network and REZconnect Technologies. Visit www.ytbi.com/investor. (GD)