Carnival Cruise Lines and Genesis Travel Set Sail with Unique Payroll Deduction Vacation Benefit; Employers' Voluntary Benefit Plans Offer New Way to Reach Millions of Customers.

Business Editors

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2003

Carnival Cruise Lines, the most popular cruise line in the world, and Genesis Travel, a payroll deduction company specializing in travel and leisure, have created the first payroll deduction cruise vacation benefit for employers' voluntary benefits programs.

"Carnival is excited to be the first cruise line to participate in a program of this kind," said Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. "It provides employers an easy means for offering their employees a payroll deduction program that enables them to conveniently and cost effectively purchase a cruise vacation. At the same time, by accessing employees at the workplace with the employer's endorsement, the program provides Carnival with a unique new avenue for selling 'Fun Ship' vacations," he added.

According to Simon Reynolds, President and CEO of Genesis Travel, payroll deduction and seamless administration are keys to the success of these programs. "The quality of the product - the Carnival cruise vacation - is unquestioned. To make the benefit even more attractive to employees is to offer it through interest-free payroll deduction. Payroll deduction is convenient and well-understood by employees. It also makes it easier to budget for a vacation," said Mr. Reynolds.

To ensure that there is also smooth sailing on the administrative side for the employer and the employee, Carnival and Genesis have chosen Consolidated Billing Company as the exclusive national third party administrator of the program. CBC is recognized as an industry leader in providing simple one-source billing solutions for voluntary benefit programs with multiple products and vendors.

"CBC has the experience and proven track record to ensure that the billing and reconciliation is accurate and easy for the employer's human resources and benefits staff with only one bill and one deduction. They can also match any payroll schedule and work with any payroll system at no additional cost or administrative burden to the employer," commented Mr. Reynolds.

Worksite "employee pay" voluntary benefits plans are growing in popularity as employers seek new benefits to offer employees while keeping costs low. Traditionally, voluntary benefits meant insurance products such as life, accident, disability or auto and home insurance that can be purchased by payroll deduction at the workplace. Today, many new types of employee-pay benefits are emerging which allow employers to enhance their benefit plans and offer vendors a way to expand distribution of products and services to millions of new customers at the workplace.

In addition, a recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com, the free executive career site of The Wall Street Journal, reported that HR professionals and employees expect heavy turnover when the job market improves. As a result, employers are looking at new programs and policies to help retain employees. Competitive vacation and holiday benefits are ranked as one of the top three most common retention programs.