FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Joan Meagher of Omega World Travel
703-359-0200, ext. 331

OMEGA WORLD TRAVEL PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER RECEIVES ENTREPRENEURIAL VISIONARY AWARD

Gloria Bohan, President, CEO and Founder of Omega World Travel, Based in Fairfax, VA, was recently honored with The 2003 Entrepreneurial Visionary Award by the Women’s Business Center for being an “outstanding woman with extraordinary accomplishments”.

The Women’s Business Center (WBC) is the only organization in Washington, DC dedicated to offering women business owners high-quality, low cost business training and support …a place where businesses come to grow. WBC’s mission is to be the premier provider of training in the national capital area for women who want to start or expand their own business.

Bohan was conferred with an Honorary Degree Citation from Marymount Manhattan College in New York in 2003 for her vision of service for the public, her skill in organizing a successful enterprise, her commitment to the advancement of women, and fidelity to the values and ideals of her liberal education, resulting in a degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.

Omega World Travel is a travel agency with sales revenues of $1 billion a year, 200 offices and 1,100 employees. This empire grew out of a one-person office Bohan opened in Fredericksburg, VA in 1972.

In 2001, Omega was ranked the largest woman-owned business in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, according the Washington Business Journal and in 2002 was ranked the 7th largest travel agency in the United States, according to Business Travel News. Bohan was recently honored by Div2000 for having the Top Diversity Owned Business in the U.S. Omega World Travel is considered an innovative, trend-setting company by its peers.

In the late seventies, Omega was an early user of computer reservations systems and a pioneer in 24-hour emergency service. By the mid-eighties, Omega had become one of the largest agencies in the greater Washington area by pioneering the concept of on-site locations, business travel management and the growth of private industry in servicing official government travel. Over the last decade, Omega has expanded globally with more than 200 locations, including fulfillment centers, overseas offices, and Internet services. Business mix is varied enabling Omega to have a broad base of expertise including groups, meetings, incentives, leisure products and travel technology products. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia since 1984, Omega now ranks as the top privately held travel agency in the Washington, DC area; and is the largest woman-owned Travel Company in the United States.

Ms. Bohan has been credited with opening the door for many in the government travel market by establishing the Society of Travel Agents in Government (now known as SGTP). She is also a co-founder of Space Adventures, which was instrumental in sending the first tourist into space. Under her direction, Omega has become a large Internet seller of travel through such sites as Cruise.com, TourDeals.com, and AirDeals.com.