NBTA Europe, the largest European buyer-led business travel and meetings network launched in January, today announced a strategic partnership agreement with Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, to support key NBTA Europe initiatives until the end of next year.

The agreement will see a series of NBTA Europe activities sponsored by Travelport including virtual forums, speaking platforms and round-table events at the European network’s inaugural conference, entitled Inicio (meaning ‘beginning’) between 6 - 8 September in Lisbon.

Referring to the agreement, Paul Tilstone, Managing Director of NBTA Europe, said, “To have the ongoing commitment of a quality business like Travelport means a great deal to NBTA Europe. Their participation at this strategic level means that we can work towards our long-term goals much faster”.

Speaking on behalf of Travelport, Sandra McLeod, Senior Vice President Global Accounts & Strategic Corporate Development, said, “We fully support what NBTA Europe are setting out to achieve and we recognise the need for a grass-roots, buyer-led initiative such as this in Europe. It is great to be able to contribute towards the network’s aims and activities as we feel this can add real value for buyers and suppliers throughout Europe.”

More details about the conference can be found at www.nbtaeurope-lisbon2010.org/

About NBTA Europe
NBTA Europe is the only buyer-led business travel and meetings industry network across Europe. The network is part of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), the world’s premier business travel and corporate meetings organisation, with a role to lead debate, networking, education, advocacy, events and innovation in the business travel and meetings sector. NBTA Europe represents more than 2,000 regional corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. Members of the network collectively manage and direct more than 100 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 3 million business travellers within their organisations.

NBTA Europe is powered by the Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM). For more information, visit www.nbtaeurope.org

About Travelport
Travelport is a broad-based business services company and a leading provider of critical transaction processing solutions to companies operating in the global travel industry.

Travelport is comprised of:

• the global distribution system (GDS) business that includes the Worldspan and Galileo brands;
• GTA, a leading global, multi-channel provider of hotel and ground services;
• Airline IT Solutions, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines.

Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company.

Travelport operates in 160 countries, reported 2009 revenues of $2.2 billion and has approximately 5,400 employees. Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures and Travelport management.