Paris Tourist Board selects Optims Central Reservation System

With the implementation of Optims.CRS and the use of HotelSwitch's hotel database, the Espace du Tourisme d'Ile-de-France will be able to process real time on-line reservations in its call centre and various Tourism Offices.

Currently, the Espace du Tourisme d'Ile-de-France has three Tourism Offices based in Carrousel du Louvre, Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport and in the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie of Paris. Further openings of additional Tourism Offices are already planned in the main Parisian train stations.

«A complete Central Reservation tool is real added value for hoteliers, but also for visitors, explains Antoine Medawar, CEO of Optims. 23 out of the 71 million foreign visitors who came to France in 1999 visited greater Paris. We should also add to this, the 13 million French visitors who also came to this area in the same period».

«We expect Optims.CRS to generate over a hundred bookings a day for the Espace du Tourisme d'Ile-de-France, adds Denis-Marie Cintura, Director. To help achieve this, we are also working on two main business development channels. We are improving our communication with our partners such as the Paris'Office du Tourisme et des Congrès or the Tourism Departmental Committees and further developing new office locations in greater Paris. Finally, our web site () will become a powerful hotel reservations engine and benefits from the international distribution of hotel room stocks on the worldwide electronic channels such as the GDS systems».

Optims.CRS is composed of three modules :

• Optims.WebRes, the real time online booking engine.
• Optims.Switch, for an international distribution of hotel rooms over the Internet througha network of partners.
• Optims.Call Center, a complete electronic Central Reservation for call centres.

ABOUT OPTIMS

Optims develops and implements Information Technology solutions dedicated to optimising management methods and revenues. For the past decade, Optims has been serving the hospitality, tourism, catering, transport and travel industries with three complementary technologies. They include Property Management Systems (PMS) ; Yield Management Solutions known as Revenue Management Systems ; and a Central Reservation System (CRS). Optims is now the leading European developer of IT solutions for the hospitality market. The Company has over 3,500 customers in more than 55 countries. Among Optims' prestigious clientele are Accor, Forte, Fram, Thistle, Boscolo, Nouvelles Frontieres, Radisson and Savoy Group. Optims issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nouveau Marché in the Paris Stock Exchange in June 2000 (SICOVAM code: 7652).