Interactive TV Now Through Tours.com and Comcast Cable Television

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - January 20, 2011) - Interactive TV is here and consumers seeking travel advice and information on their next destination may be among the first to experience this exciting emerging platform.

Tours.com and the Cable Comcast television audiences can interact with a travel destination or supplier message by choosing to see a longer informational program about it simply by clicking a button on the TV remote control. Long form video programming loads and launches within seconds.

For television audiences accustomed to the tailored choices brought by Video on Demand technology, the service puts Information on Demand in the palm of their hand, all within a context of engagement and interest.

For travel companies groping for new ways to reach wide bands of consumers in increasingly cost-efficient and targetable ways, the offer of Tours.com and Comcast could not be more appropriate.

"Just as the travel industry is getting back on its feet we are seeing new technologies coming on line that will make the marketing more wide-reaching and precise than ever before," said Maria Polk, President and CEO of Tours.com. "There is not a lot of room for error in these tight times. The Interactive TV option we have created as offered through Comcast provides the right solution for targeted marketing. It's all about choice, and isn't that what travel is really supposed to be about?"

How Interactive TV works is: Television audiences are accustomed to the traditional 15-, 30- and 60-second commercial seen on national broadcast networks. Advertisers that might have signed on to certain programming on Comcast get an overlay band on their commercial allowing watchers to click a button and watch more -- perhaps a 15-minute video prepared by the advertiser on the destination or the product. Consumers benefit by obtaining the information they seek while advertisers gain by being invited to provide in-depth, emotionally engaging content to self-selected individuals.

"It's as simple as that," says Polk. "The customer wants to know more about the advertiser and the advertiser wants to know more about the customer so we put the two together with the power of the TV remote control to give them ways to contact each other while remaining entertaining, engaging and extremely cost-efficient." For a short presentation just go to www.tours.com and click on Interactive Television -- iTV.

About Tours.com Tours.com & Sightseeing.com were founded in 1995 by three veterans of the travel directory publishing industry. Leveraging the experience & travel industry contacts they've garnered over two decades of publishing hard-copy directories for the travel community, they created the Web's first online directory of tours & vacations. Since then, the site has expanded to include tens of thousands of tour and vacation companies searchable by activity and/or destination, plus the most comprehensive travel resource section on the web today.

Contact:
Maria Polk
CEO
Tours.com
415-332-7916

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