Press enquiriesVillas for Travel becomes first travel company to win ITEC Inventor & Innovation Award 25th April 2007 Today Villas for Travel (ffat.villasfortravel.com) announces that it has won its first major industry award. It founder, Kathryn Bullock, is the Diamond Winner in the British Female Inventors and Innovators Award, ITEC Innovation Category 2007, for the creation of her innovative online villa rentals business. Villas for Travel connects property owners and agents worldwide to multiple travel industry sites via one easy-to-use web platform. This ITEC - Information Technology Electronics & Communication - award was presented at a Gala Dinner last night at the Café Royal, following a showcase and conference at the Department of Trade & Industry during the day. This is the first time a travel company has won the award and Kathryn is one of the very few women entrepreneurs in travel to have built a company from scratch, using the venture capital funded route. Kathryn’s proposer for the prestigious award stated “to my knowledge this approach – which enables properties to be loaded once and to reach many distributors - has not previously been used in this industry. Kathryn deserves this special award for having the courage, energy and application to transform an innovative idea into a viable and working business model”. Accepting the award Kathryn said “Naturally I am delighted that we have been recognised for the creation of a technology-based business which is innovative and is also proving very popular customers, suppliers and business clients.” Villas for Travel now has three industry partners carrying its villa services under a “white label” arrangement – www.go-nowvillas.com, www.lowcostvillarentals.com and www.villarentalsabroad.com, with the announcement of several more partners due shortly. Kathryn continued “As ever with a new business start-up we’ve had our fill of challenges during the past two years. But this award, and our growing sales to both the travel trade and other organisations demonstrate that innovation and persistence can make very successful bedfellows”. Notes for Editors1. Villas for Travel is an online-only villa reservation and booking service which can operate in B2C or B2B arenas. It has over 600 villas available all over Europe and the Americas all of which are at least 3 star in quality and many of which are highly unusual. A large proportion of the villas are easily reachable from airports served by low cost airlines. 2. Kathryn Bullock founded Villas for Travel in 2005 after an extensive career in both the travel industry and e-commerce. The company has offices in London and France. 3. Innovation in the platform underlying the web sites is key, in that the platform services not just the end user but also the villa owner or agent, who can upload their own details and availability. It is also a totally paperless B2B system. 4. Equalitec sponsors the award and is a partnership of employers, professional bodies and organisations working towards a more equal representation and involvement of women in science and engineering and technology. Equalitec is funded in part by the European Social Fund. 5. Interviews with Kathryn and photographs are available by calling 0844 770 4848 or email us |
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