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June 2007 Better Features For Vacation Planning Mammoth Lakes, CA, – High Tech vacation planning just got better. With the development of WEB 2.0 standards, City Concierge® improves the vacation planning experience. City Concierge has taken this new technology to develop better navigation for easy of use, along with the ability to tie together existing reservation companies, creating a more centralized approach for consumers eliminating the need to check multiple sites before making a reservation.  

City Concierge has used the new advances in technology, coupled with a new web design to create a larger travel portal for the Eastern Sierra area. Now encompassing the entire Highway 395 corridor, which reaches from Ridgecrest to Lake Tahoe, City Concierge has added to their Mammoth Lakes portal, the ability to book reservations in Yosemite, Bishop and Lake Tahoe.

The new web design features automated weather, one of the most popular areas from the National Weather Service on every portal page. The weather shows temperature, “what it feels like” which factors in the wind chill factor along with humidity, precipitation and cloud cover and it is time stamped.

While not a defined set of standards for the Internet, the nomenclature “WEB 2.0” is roughly defined as a more user friendly Internet experience. Sites empowering Web 2.0 philosophy are showing that they are concerned about their customer, and their ease of use when visiting the site.

Other features for City Concierge, Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe regions include the ability to book airlines, transportation from the airports via shuttle or private carriers, or rental cars. An area called “Community” has been added to help second homeowners have quick access to business information which might be considered out of the norm for a vacationer, such as business centers, home financing and the ability to read local news and have access to local news online. “These features are not necessarily money makers for the company” says Managing Director, Jefferson Lanz, “they help us to broaden our reach to the entire population traveling the Sierra Nevada regions.”

According to current travel industry studies, Internet vacation planning is the latest tourism rage with a large percentage of travelers, with a majority of the travel industry going to the web and providing self-service.

As reported in the April 2006 "Industry News from the California Travel Industry Association" (TIA) newsletter, a study released by Yahoo! Search Marketing found that "87% of consumers who go on high-end vacations use the Internet in making their travel arrangements." The research also found that 61% of the study participants used the Internet to purchase their most recent vacation.

Lanz and City Concierge present their vision as, "Our goal is to be the 'epicenter' of central resort reservations and concierge services for today's tech-savvy vacationer--all at the touch of a finger."

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ABOUT CITY CONCIERGE
As the only Internet-based full resort information and reservation service, City Concierge delivers a central collection of tourism-based services, businesses, and information partnerships that offers vacation information, central guest services, and reservation travel services for individuals, groups, and corporate travel. Developing powerful marketing solutions for the resort industry, City Concierge works with local businesses to help them reach larger audiences through strategic marketing programs and advertising. City Concierge® (www.cityconcierge.com) was founded in August 2002.