I'm in!™ Featured In The Today Show's "Mancation" Segment—Validates Market Trend For Gender-Based Travel

BOSTON, MA, December 14, 2006 – I’m in!, the best place to coordinate and create gender-specific group trips and events, was recently featured in The Today Show’s much-talked about “mancation” segment. The nearly ten minute piece, which included an interview with I’m in! co-Founder, Brian Harrington, highlighted an increasing trend in the travel industry toward guys’ getaway trips. The segment also profiled a trip that was planned using the I’m in! website, www.imin.com.

The Today Show’s mancation segment kicked off by profiling a group of guys who used imin.com to plan their annual trip to see a Notre Dame football game in South Bend, IN. Kevin Monaco, a father of three and a company treasurer, was filmed getting ready for the trip at his home in New Jersey.

“It’s an opportunity to tell some pretty bad jokes and really just rekindle the camaraderie of some old friends,” said Monaco, who’s wife, Adrienne, seemed to be in support of her husband’s mancation tradition. “I think it’s good for us…he goes away, he has fun. And when he comes home, he’s kind of relaxed,” she said.

In addition to showing several video clips of popular guys’ getaway activities, from white water river rafting to football games to race car driving, the segment included an interview with Travel + Leisure magazine editor Laura Begley, who discussed with Matt Lauer the increasing number of travel packages being tailored especially for men.

The segment appeared on the heels of a recent survey of 3,516 online users, which revealed that 34% of male respondents reported taking at least one guys’ trip each year, with more than half of them (67%) indicating that they take two or more of these types of trips per year. Additionally, 44% of the men surveyed expressed little concern over cost when they take one of these trips—a statistic sure to be of interest to the travel industry. Other interesting findings in the survey, which was commissioned by I’m in! and conducted by Compete, Inc., a Boston-based online market research firm, included the following:

  • Over 60% of respondents who go on guys’ or girls’ trips are married.
  • 41% of men—compared with 22% of women—said that they witnessed something on their guys’ trip that they preferred their spouse not know about.
  • Despite the expected bravado image, 80% of men indicated they miss their families when they go on these trips.
  • More then half of all respondents said they would rather take a trip with a bunch of friends versus attend a family reunion.

“This is the hottest space in travel today,” says Josh Lesnick, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of I’m in!. “Recent studies indicate that at least 20 million men go on some form of guys’ trip each year, with an estimated annual spend of $10-12 billion.”

Until the launch of I’m in!, men and women have not had an easy way to coordinate these types of gender-based vacations online. “The I’m in! website allows groups of girls and guys to accomplish all of the steps necessary to plan an unforgettable trip,” says Brian Harrington, co-Founder and President of I’m in!

For more information on I’m in! go to www.imin.com.

About I’m in!

I’m in! (www.imin.com) is the place to coordinate and create gender-specific group trips & events. As anyone who has attempted to plan one of these “mancursions” & “girlcations” knows, today it can be tremendously painful to get a group of people to convene on the decisions and details necessary to plan a great trip. By allowing people’s personalities to emerge, I’m in!’s irreverent approach and technology makes the pre & post trip experience as outrageously fun as the trip itself. I’m in! is a privately backed company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.imin.com.

Contact: Liz Bradley
Kel & Partners
857.891.5531 (cell)
liz@kelandpartners.com