5 October 1998: Gomez Advisors, known for its rating of financial sites -- online brokerages and banks -- has announced its selection of the best travel sites.

In its survey of sites that offer travel reservation services, Gomez picked The Trip.com to top the list, saying that the site, "boasts an impressive array of features for business and leisure travelers alike. This well-rounded offering was in the Top 5 in every category. It won the Relationship Services category outright and tied Expedia in Ease of Use on the strength of consistent navigation, efficient integration of reservation capabilities, and sophisticated online travel profiles. If you want to do travel research, TheTrip.com offers city guides, maps, and travel newsletters. This is a robust Internet Travel Agent with all the bells and whistles in an easy-to-use package."

Here are the top ten sites chosen:

1. TheTrip.com
2. Biztravel.com
3. 1travel.com
4. Atevo
5. Preview Travel
6. Travelocity
7. Uniglobe
8. Expedia
9. Yahoo! Travel
10. Global Travel Network

A current eList pick, 1travel.com, was listed third: "Outstanding site for the Leisure Traveler. Your head will spin as soon as you hit the home page, where the vacation world is organized into folders that you can imagine losing yourself in for hours. 1travel.com offers useful information on cruises and vacation packages, and the "Fare Beater" feature automatically searches lower-cost alternative flights."

While generally positive, the survey found that 75% of travel sites do not allow unregistered users to search their airline flight databases. "Part of the challenge of the business is to get people comfortable on the web," warned analyst Julio Gomez. "If you shut people out, you're just turning potential customers away at the door."

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