Local Travel Guru Asked to Speak at Student Tourism Conference in Philadelphia

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. (SANEPR.com) October 11, 2006 -- On Friday and Saturday, September 28 & 29, 2006 the East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, Lufthansa, and The International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators hosted the First Annual East Coast Travel and Tourism Student Conference at the Holiday Inn City Line Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event marked the coming together of some of the foremost industry experts with the leaders of tomorrow to network on a wide variety of travel and tourism topics.

Students from throughout the state gathered at the conference to listen to presentations from more than a dozen tourism industry professionals whose breakout sessions ranged widely in subject matter from Meeting Planning and Heritage & Agri-tourism to Transportation and Internet Technology.

One of the speakers summoned to bring his knowledge and experience to the benefit of this group of enthusiastic college students was a name synonymous with travel and tourism in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania, Rick Golden. As Owner and CEO of GoldenTravelGuides, a national travel company headquartered locally in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylavnia, and its subsidiary “Best of” City Guides, which now represent more than 80 of the world’s top travel destinations, Golden was chosen because of his dedication to being at the forefront of the travel and tourism industry.

When asked about being requested to make a presentation at this year’s event, Mr. Golden stated, “I am honored to have been asked to speak in front of this group of talented aspiring tourism professionals and only hope that they will take something away from each of the speakers’ presentations that they can apply to their future careers.”

Golden spoke about Internet technology, citing specific examples from his company’s technology division, Hotel Connections Corporation (http://www.HotelConnectionsCorporation.com). He discussed the innovative reservations systems they’ve developed and how they directly compete with Travelocity, Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotwire, and Priceline with their deluxe class room reservations, golf tee time reservations, restaurant reservations, and tour packaging.

GoldenTravelGuides.com, headquartered at 366 North Courtland Street, Suite B in East Stroudsburg, in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, is a subsidiary of Golden Interests, Inc. The largest leisure travel agency in Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the Northeastern United States, GoldenTravelGuides is a member of the Pocono Mountains (PA) Chamber of Commerce, the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau (PMVB), the Naples and Key West (FL) Chambers of Commerce, the Sullivan County (NY) Chamber of Commerce, and the Pike and Wayne County (PA) Chambers of Commerce.

GoldenTravelGuides publishes more than 80 Internet-based guides to the “Best of” cities like the Poconos, Atlantic City, Naples, Hershey, Tunica, Niagara Falls, and Punta Cana. They arrange for groups, leisure, and business travelers at more than 40,000 hotels across the world. They can be reached toll free at: 1.877.465.3368 or online at: http://www.GoldenTravelGuides.com.