TripAdvisor launches new website with social features

TripAdvisor has introduced a new website and mobile experience providing a personalised travel feed and enabling subscription to friends, experts and brands.Powered by the world’s first “travel feed,” members of TripAdvisor will be able to discover more relevant information faster when planning travel. Assisted throughout the entire travel planning process, members can draw advice and inspiration from their friends, family and trusted experts.Members can also create posts, such as in-depth travel guides, itineraries or simple wish lists of things to do while traveling. Trips can be made private and saved for personal use or shared with the community.After logging onto the TripAdvisor app or website, members' homepage will transform into a personalised feed of information. When searching a particular destination, the feed automatically narrows the scope of the information displayed to that particular geographic location.“TripAdvisor is poised to disrupt the travel industry once again as we create a more personalised and connected community,” said Stephen Kaufer, CEO & co-founder of TripAdvisor. “The new TripAdvisor is the one travel site that brings together social-assistive tools, amazing content and our existing booking capabilities to merge the joy of planning and discovery together into a single experience. We are assisting our members at each step of their journey as we become a more personalised, inspirational and useful TripAdvisor.”The beta version, which will be launched later this year, includes more than 500 social media influencers, well-known consumer brands, publishers and travel partners, such as National Geographic, the Travel Channel, Business Insider, GoPro, PopSugar, The Knot, Giada De Laurentiis, and TravelBabbo, and Hong Kong influencers Emi Wong, Theresa Wu and Cara McIlroy.“National Geographic wants to reach our customers wherever it is they are consuming content. We want to be available on all platforms allowing people to engage with our brand and content wherever and whenever they choose,” said Chris Thorman, vice president community products & growth, National Geographic. “We’re excited to be among the first publishers to join the new TripAdvisor, further expanding our travel footprint. As a global media company, we’re always seeking new opportunities to share our awe-inspiring articles, photos and video content, and a partnership with TripAdvisor allows us to do just that.”