Los Angeles, CA; Sao Paulo, Brazil – The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and the Associação Brasileira de Gestores de Viagens Corporativas (ABGEV, the Brazilian Business Travel Association) today announced a formal relationship whereby ABGEV will become an official regional affiliate of NBTA and NBTA will be the official global association partner of ABGEV. The announcement was made during the NBTA International Convention & Exposition being held this week in Los Angeles, where nearly 90 Brazilians are in attendance with the ABGEV delegation.

The two organizations have partnered to create and co-host the Latin American Corporate Travel & Technology Exchange (LACTTE), the largest business event industry in Latin America, now in its third year. Today's announcement formalizes that relationship and establishes broader and closer ties between the two organizations into the future.

Under the agreement, ABGEV will be NBTA's Latin American regional affiliate -- joining NBTA regional affiliates in Asia Pacific, Canada, and Mexico -- while remaining an independent organization. NBTA will make a significant investment in ABGEV to ensure continued growth and expansion of its membership, educational programs and industry events.

ABGEV and NBTA will continue co-hosting LACTTE, develop networking opportunities for members of the two groups, and jointly pursue new opportunities to provide industry-leading education and networking to advance travel management in the Latin American market. Additionally, members of each organization will be able to join the other association and attend the other group's events at member rates.

NBTA President & CEO, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, GLP, said, "ABGEV and NBTA together have developed the leading business travel event in Latin America. I am thrilled that we will now build on that success to better serve members of both groups and to advance the industry even further. The Latin American market is a key component of the global economy, and this partnership will better position NBTA to meet the needs of our global members."

ABGEV President Viviânne Martins, remarked, "There are strong synergies in the missions of NBTA and ABGEV, and we have already shown that together we can create significant value. The first LACTTE in 2006 had just over 400 attendees; two years later we had more than 800. With our newly-formalized relationship, we will expand on that history of success to give companies operating in Latin America the best possible opportunities to advance their travel management expertise."

About ABGEV
ABGEV, the Brazilian Business Travel Association was founded in 2003 and has more than 230 associated companies, among buyers (travel managers), hotel chains, airlines, TMCs (Travel Management Companies), travel and incentive agencies, events organizers, technology and distribution companies. It is the only association of corporate travel managers in Brazil and the first in Latin America.

Its mission is to represent and defend the interests of corporate travel managers, developing of strong relationships between all players in the corporate travel industry. ABGEV is a partner of NBTA (National Business Travel Association, USA) organizing the LACTTE (Latin American Corporate Travel and Technology Exchange) since 2006. For more information, visit www.abgev.org.br.

About NBTA
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world's premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 4,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$200 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.

About the NBTA Convention
Widely recognized as the must-attend event for business travel buyers, suppliers, industry leaders and business travel journalists, the 2008 NBTA International Convention & Exposition will be held in Los Angeles from July 27-30. More than 6,000 travel professionals are expected to take advantage of the convention's programming, designed to empower attendees to maximize value for their companies, including more than 40 seminars on the most important topics in business travel, more than 460 companies exhibiting in the Expo and countless opportunities for networking with peers. For details, visit www.nbtaconvention.org.