For more information:
Shaun Johnston
845-658-8270, shaun@nycgetaways.com
For a head shot of Shaun Johnston, click here: http://www.shaunjohnstondesign.com/press.

August 15, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mini-Google travel directory
brings visitors to our region

WINDHAM--An online travel guide published in theHudson Valley by an ex-New Yorker has become one of the main ways visitors from NYC find lodgings in our region. Nycgetaways.com works like Google and the other major search engines by charging lodgings according to how many visitors it sends them.

“Getaway regions like ours depend on lodgings to attract visitors,” said Rick Rasmussen, owner of the 30-room Hotel Vienna in Windham. “Mainly we do that by getting people to visit our web site. That started out being almost free, but now it’s one of our biggest marketing expenses. NYC Getaways is sending us close to 200 visits a month. It's grown to become one of our best sources.”

All non-chain lodgings are entitled to a free listing on NYC Getaways. Enhancing those listings to bring in more traffic costs from 10-40 cents per visitor. However, lodgings can vary their level of enhancement month by month throughout the year so they end up paying for visitors only when they need them. Other travel guides send most inquiries in peak season when lodgings are full and too busy to answer the phone.

Publisher Shaun Johnston started the NYC Getaways family of guides in 1995 when he moved to Rosendale after many years as a writer and graphic designer in NYC. The guides now list around 200 lodgings in eight counties running from the Delaware River through the mid-Hudson Valley to the Berkshires. Each month the guides get 15,000 visitors and deliver 12,000 visits to lodgings’ web sites. Other guides in the family are getawaythehudson.com, getawaythecatskills.com and getawaytheberkshires.com.

Rick Rasmussen can be reached at (518) 734-5300

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