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Travel Companion Exchange (TCE) was a travel companion matching service established by Jens Jurgen in 1982. As the first general interest travel companion matching service in existence, it became the forerunner of many similar services and helped pioneer and legitimize the field of singles matching services in general. It was the largest and most successful of its type at the time. == History == While traveling alone through Europe Jurgen developed the idea for a companion matching service for travelers. He already was operating a similar program for members who shared a common interest in the arts, and he had written several short books on travel subjects. Using the mailing list of those who had contacted him with inquiries about the books, he sent a questionnaire to gauge their interest in finding a travel companion. Met with an overwhelming positive response, he commenced on the larger service. Initially, his goal was to provide a service that would help travelers save money by sharing expenses, particularly to avoid the single supplement levied by cruise ship operators. He did not at first think that the service would serve as a matchmaker. However, he found that more than 70 percent of his clients either requested companions of the opposite sex or were willing to accept them; fewer than 15 percent wanted private rooms. He developed a profile questionnaire that identified key personal habits and preferences that would impact on compatibility while traveling. After completing the questionnaire and mailing it to the TCE office, members were mailed a monthly summary of the profiles of all members with current travel plans or desires. They could then request the full profiles and contact information for those they were interested in. The novelty and utility of the service soon resulted in write-ups in major publications like the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''Prevention magazine'', which generated a flood of inquiries. As a result, the business grew quickly, and within a year it had 2,500 active members in 48 states, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Japan. By 1997 it had served over 70,000 members. No figures are available for the total number of members it had in the full 20 years it was in operation. The monthly mailings were accompanied by a newsletter in which Jurgen shared tips drawn from his wealth of experience in the travel sector, and from the contributions of members and other travel professionals. This newsletter was rated by Newsday as "one of the three best general travel newsletters." The profile was so successful in indicating potentially compatible partners that the service suffered an unusually high turn-over due to members finding a permanent partner and dropping their memberships.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.travelcompanionexchange.com/tce/about_us.php )〕 Jurgen operated the business out of his home in Amityville, NY, at first alone, then with staff made necessary by the increased workload. Competing services soon sprang up, and they began to use the Internet, reaching a larger audience at a lower cost. Jurgen, however, resisted transferring TCE to the Web due to his concern over the privacy and safety of his members, citing the difficulty of verifying the identity of online applicants. He did, however, put up home pages which directed visitors to the mailing address and phone numbers of the Amityville office. Jurgen closed the business in 2003 for personal reasons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Travel Companion Exchange」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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