NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TripAdvisor^®, the world's largest travel site*, today announced the launch of its inaugural Exceptional Service Awards, a program to recognize remarkable hospitality professionals at hotels, restaurants, and attractions across the globe.

Beginning October 6 through October 24, 2014, travelers are encouraged to share their experiences and nominate a hospitality employee—such as a concierge, waiter or tour operator—who has helped improve their trip experience by delivering service they felt went above and beyond.

TripAdvisor surveyed its traveler community and found that half of U.S. respondents say that they have received exceptional service several times over the past year. Despite that fact, 67 percent of those surveyed don't think hospitality professionals receive sufficient recognition for their efforts.

"Hospitality professionals can be the difference-maker between what makes a trip simply good or absolutely amazing, and TripAdvisor wants to help shine a spotlight on those who do it best," said Barbara Messing, chief marketing officer for TripAdvisor. "The Exceptional Service Awards are a way for our travelers to publicly recognize and celebrate hospitality professionals who went the extra mile to make guests feel special."

The Exceptional Service Awards program is running in the U.S. and U.K. Travelers from those markets are eligible to participate and can nominate hospitality professionals by submitting their exceptional service story at: http://bit.ly/ExceptionalServiceAwards. Experiences must be from within the past 12 months and entries must include the hospitality professional's name, job title, and should be at least three sentences long, but no longer than 1,000 characters. Winning hospitality professionals will receive a certificate, employers will be informed of the recognition, and winners will be highlighted on the TripAdvisor site. The winners will be announced later this year.

Travelers can find out more about the Exceptional Service Awards by visiting: http://bit.ly/ExceptionalServiceAwards.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor^® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching nearly 280 million unique monthly visitors**, and more than 170 million reviews and opinions covering more than 4 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 45 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq:TRIP) manages and operates websites under 24 other travel media brands: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.gateguru.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.jetsetter.com, www.lafourchette.com, www.niumba.com, www.onetime.com, www.oyster.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com, www.travelpod.com, www.tripbod.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, www.viator.com, www.virtualtourist.com, and www.kuxun.cn.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, Q1 2014

**Source: Google Analytics, average monthly unique users, Q2 2014; does not include traffic to daodao.com

CONTACT: Julie Cassetina

         (617) 670-6529

         jcassetina@tripadvisor.com