Travel site Away.com Inc. yesterday said it has bought GORP.com, a seven-year-old rival site focused on outdoor recreation and adventure travel.
The consolidation makes GORP.com a part of the Away.com Network, which includes Away.com, AdventurousTraveler.com and Outside magazine's outsidemag.com.
“Online travel is one of the success stories of the Internet and active travel, with high margins and affluent consumers, it is one of the most attractive segments of the travel industry,” said Sean Greene, CEO of Away.com, in a statement.
“This is especially true post-Sept. 11, as both online travel and active travel have rebounded much faster than the travel industry as a whole,” he said.
Statistics from the Travel Industry Association show that the active travel market is expanding, with more than 98 million U. S. consumers booking active vacations.
GORP.com's addition will add for consumers resources like researching, planning and booking high adventure travel vacations. The Away.com Network will now have more than 500,000 pages of online travel articles and tips, a full-service call center and access to specialty travel marketers.
Combined with GORP.com, the Away.com Network will have a database of 2 million registered users, 12 million monthly page views and more than 2 million unique monthly visitors.
Away.com, Washington, DC, is part owned by Gannett Co. Inc., Circle-T Partners, New World Ventures, Potomac Ventures and Outside magazine owner Mariah Media, which holds a 7 percent interest.
With the GORP.com acquisition, Away.com hopes to reach profitability by June.
