~ Pioneer publisher of tourism focused destination web sites since 1997 ~

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byronbay.com : History

1997 The byron-bay.com (byronbay.com) web site has been online since the end of 1997, attracting advertisers since early 1998. Back in those days, local businesses weren't too interested in the Internet - even our "Free till the end of the year" offer was turned down by many.

1998 Persistence, innovation, hard work and a clear focus paid off - by the end of 1998 we had over 50 advertisers with the site having been visited over 80,000 times.

1999 We had about 100 advertisers. We won the regional tourism award in the media category. Mid 1999, Rick Christian joined Rick Slater in byronbay.com & other online tourism websites.

2000 We had about 200 advertisers. With the ever increasing work load and family commitments, instead of entering the regional tourism awards - we sponsored one of the categories.

2001 We had about 300 advertisers. A focus of 2001 was to develop a range of new features for byronbay.com and a range of new advertising options to be implemented in 2002.

2002 We had almost 400 advertisers. New features introduced included www.bestofbyron.com for our Premium Package advertisers, streaming video clips, downloadable Byron Bay screen saver, a quality map of Byron Bay, and more...

2003 Our focus was to increase our support of local events and community groups. We provided; promotion, web design, hosting, office space & equipment, graphic design, advise, and financial support to a wide variety of local events and groups. In late 2003 we moved to larger, more central office space on Jonson St in the centre of Byron Bay.

2004 As of 1 May 2004, the byron-bay.com and associated web sites are managed, maintained and marketed by the company byronbay.com PTY LTD. Our network of Byron Bay web sites and services expanded to include; Byron Style Accommodation & the Byron Bay Real Estate Portal. We also partnered in launching Looking After Byron.

2005 We aquiried a few more well established 'Byron' websites & our association with Byron Style Accommodation has helped Style grow in leaps & bounds... confirming our theory that some people want to book direct and some want to use a booking service (in Byron we see 80% book direct, 20% use a booking service).

2006 On November 1 2006, roamfree.com became a partner - ensuring an exciting future where we can continue to attract and satisfy our visitors through increased distribution and better technology.

2007 Our group of 'Byron' websites recoreded their 10 millionth visit towards the end of May.

2008 The GFC hit late in the year and we began the process of seperating from our JV partners. A lot of the economic uncertainty flowed through to the 'travel' industry.

2009 In April we bought out our JV partners of Byron Bay Accommodation PTY LTD. In October we bought out our JV partners of byronbay.com PTY LTD. We look forward to finishing up 2009 as 100% owners of our 'Byron' websites.

2010 ...

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