LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - May 30, 2012) - Soon, school will be out for the summer and parents will be packing up luggage and kids to venture beyond the daily grind. For the tourism industry, that means an increase in business. eFax^®, a provider of online fax services since 1995 and a brand of technology leader j2 Global, Inc.™ (NASDAQ: [ JCOM ]), understands that properly managing bookings is critical to capturing this welcome increase in demand. Rather than investing in traditional reservation software, eFax encourages small hospitality companies to consider cloud-based technologies to ramp up more quickly and efficiently.

For a small tourism business, investing in an expensive reservation system may not make financial sense. Instead, these companies now have the ability to move much of their operations from a physical office into the virtual cloud. Not only can this be less expensive, but it can also be more scalable and more mobile. New online services can do almost anything that used to require office equipment or software. An example is eFax, which allows a travel business to conveniently send and receive faxes -- and the important reservations, contracts and billing information they contain -- by email.

"Travel businesses are document-heavy, but they are often mobile as well. That's a tough combination," said Mike Pugh, vice president, marketing for j2 Global. "Cloud solutions like eFax are the answer. Being able to receive, view, sign, file, and send faxes -- from a smartphone, tablet or notebook rather than a fax machine -- makes it easy to manage bookings whether you're at home, on the road or on site."

eFax provides several features and tips that make the summer travel season sunnier for the proprietor of a travel-related business:

1. Go Global and Look Local - eFax offers toll-free fax numbers for no extra charge and has local fax numbers in 49 countries around the world. A toll-free number can make a small tourism business look larger and can save the customer the cost of a long-distance call. A local area code, on the other hand, can be beneficial in promoting local attractions and regional destinations.

2. Pack Light with Cloud Storage - eFax offers unlimited online storage for paid accounts, eliminating the clutter of hard copies and bulky filing systems. Faxed documents are securely stored digitally and accessible anytime from anywhere. This allows a travel agent to retrieve an itinerary for a client even when out of the office or helps the cook at a bed and breakfast determine how many people are checking in during the week to purchase enough food while in the grocery store.

3. Five Star Service with Search and Tag - Similar to what Google does for the web, eFax can do for digital faxes. Rather than spending time manually shuffling through file folders stuffed with contracts, forms and signed papers, the contents of online faxes can be easily searched by using names, topics or other keywords to find a specific document or group of documents. This is useful, for instance, for a returning guest. A quick search could reveal pertinent information that makes the customer feel special and loyal.

4. Make Room for One More - eFax's Large File Sharing feature is extremely helpful with managing documentation such as rental contracts or sharing details for a destination wedding. An added benefit for paid accounts is the capability to reliably and securely upload and share files well over 5MB (up to 1 G) to any email address without bounce-backs or failed send attempts. For a video on sharing large files with eFax, visit [ this page ].

5. Digitally Sign on the Bottom Line - eFax offers a big advantage for tour operators that are always on the move. Using only their smartphone, tablet or notebook, these mobile businesses can drop a digitized signature into an online fax to close a deal. There is no scrambling to print, sign and scan documents such as tour contracts, reservation confirmations or even travel insurance forms. Once signed online, the "paperless" documents can then returned or forwarded via email or fax. For more information about using a digitized signature with eFax, watch [ this video ] tutorial.

The eFax branded service is a pioneer in the fax business, with a string of technology and business firsts dating back to 1995. Individuals and small businesses can learn more about sending and receiving faxes online at [ www.efax.com ]. For medium to large businesses with 10 to 10,000 employees or high volume faxing needs, more information is available at [ www.efaxcorporate.com ].

About eFax

eFax is a brand and registered trademark of j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ JCOM ]) and is online at [ www.efax.com ]. Please visit the eFax blog at [ http://blog.efax.com/ ] for more information.

About j2 Global

j2 Global (NASDAQ: [ JCOM ]) provides cloud services for business, offering Internet fax, virtual phone, hosted email, email marketing, online backup, unified communications, and CRM solutions. Founded in 1995, the company's messaging network spans more than 49 countries on six continents. j2 Global markets its services principally under the brand names eFax, eVoice^®, FuseMail^®, Campaigner^®, KeepItSafe^®, and Onebox^®. As of December 31, 2011, j2 Global had achieved 16 consecutive fiscal years of revenue growth. For more information about j2 Global, please visit [ www.j2global.com ].