TravelGram Web Site Gives Lowdown on Vacation Deals

Orange County is one of the most wired places on the planet, so it’s not surprising that local travel and tourism entrepreneurs are finding new business opportunities on the Web.

TravelGram (www.travelgram.com), an Internet newsletter of vacation discounts published by Tustin businesswoman Charlotte Chadwick, has been garnering readership and awards since she took over the online business last summer.

The search engine Yahoo! recently named TravelGram one its “Cool Sites,” while LookSmart, another search tool part-owned by Reader’s Digest, just gave the newsletter a thumbs-up with its “Editor’s Choice Award.”

Chadwick said the site is averaging about 3,000 hits a day--close to 10 times the traffic it received just nine months ago. She has taken on advertisers and also has signed up about 1,000 subscribers, who pay $25 a year to receive almost daily e-mail updates on travel specials, which are later posted on the Web site.

A number of print publications already are devoted to travel discounts and vacation bargains. But Chadwick says the Web is a quicker way to get the word out about fare sales, cut-rate cruises and the like.

“There are only so many sale seats available at any time,” Chadwick says. “The sooner people find out about them, the sooner they can take advantage of them.”

Still, Chadwick says some armchair travelers subscribe just to take a virtual vacation.

“My e-mail provides a little break in their day,” she said. “They can fantasize about cruising the Danube before getting back to work.”

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Marla Dickerson covers tourism for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at marla.dickerson@latimes.com