New Breed of Gay Online Travel Guide

PRESS RELEASE
QGuide.com

Friday, February 29, 2008

QGuide.com Launches New Breed of Gay Online Travel Guide

- 1,000+ listings and 7,000+ photos with contributions from passionate Gay travellers
- Timely authenticated content with community creates new Gay travel online category
- Awarding TWELVE, week-long stays at Spartacvs Hotel on the tropical island of Bali
- QGuide Americas to launch in April 2008 and Europe to follow soon after

QGuide.com has announced the launch of the world's first truly comprehensive Gay Travel Guide – as seen through the eyes (and cameras) of Gay Travellers. Launching with an initial focus on Australia and including contributions from over a dozen gay travellers, QGuide.com features a travel directory with more than 1,000 bar, club, entertainment, accommodation, tour, food, fitness, outdoor, culture, shopping, community, and media listings accompanied by over 7,000 photos and more than 100 videos.

With its online community focus, QGuide.com offers the advantage of real time updates and current information as relayed by its members. "Bars, clubs, nightclubs, cafes and restaurants can change with the wind. Just in the last three months several long-established Gay bars in Sydney ceased trading, but QGuide.com was able to update its online listings immediately after being told by our network of members and locals," said co-founder Jack Gonzalez. "A printed travel guide landing on a bookstore's shelf six months from now won't reflect any of these closures as they had to send their guide to print six months ago based on research and advertising sales six to twelve months before that," he continued.

"Friends and members have overwhelmingly supported our efforts as they've all experienced reading about a fun-looking overseas bar, club or cafe in a travel book, only to find it's now a hair salon or worse, a big chain coffee shop," added co-founder Scollay Petry. "Indeed, these people are actively helping to build QGuide.com."

With the upcoming release of member-generated suggestions, reviews, travel blogging and travellers' profiles, QGuide.com will not be like other "pink pages" or other Gay guides. Mr. Gonzalez said "It is creating a new online travel category that combines authenticated travel information, member-generated content, a social space for meeting and sharing with like-minded travellers, and travel services. It's as if Lonely Planet joined forces with Spartacus Guide, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger and Orbitz."

Through arrangements with a number of globally-recognized online travel companies, the site provides Gay and mainstream hotel reservations, bookings for air, car, camper and trains, and hundreds of tours and adventures.

As part of its launch, QGuide.com is giving away twelve week-long (6 night) stays at Spartacvs Hotel, a Men's-only exclusive Hotel on the tropical island of Bali, Indonesia. (www.spartacvsbali.com) A week's stay will be given away to two QGuide members every month between March and August 2008. Mr. Petry explained, "We're thrilled to have Spartacvs Hotel in Bali as our first launch giveaway partner! As we launch new features and expand globally we'll use these week-long holidays as incentives to participate and tell others about QGuide.com." A member registration/entry form and full terms and Conditions can be found at www.QGuide.com/join

An Australian company based in Brisbane, Queensland, QGuide Pty Ltd was started by Jack Gonzalez and Scollay Petry, two long-lost mates from a Brisbane high school, reunited after 22 years thanks to a Google search. Mr. Gonzalez has 20 years of publishing, marketing and IT experience at Time Warner, International Masters Publishers and Lend-Lease and has worked in Australia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Petry has 20 years of experience in technology consulting, systems development and marketing for Booz Allen & Hamilton and America Online/AOL in the United States. The pair funded the start-up of QGuide.com themselves.

ENDS

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