NEWTON, Mass., March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor®, the world's largest travel site*, today announced that it is also the world's largest social travel site.  To date, more than 100 million travelers have received a personalized experience, allowing them to engage first with their own Facebook friends' reviews and opinions when planning a trip on TripAdvisor. (1) 

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With more than 60 million reviews and opinions on the site, TripAdvisor has a wealth of travel planning insights from its community.  With the additional insights from friends, impacting over 100 million travelers to date, TripAdvisor has made travel planning easier, more social, and more trusted.  A Nielsen study(2) stated that 76% of respondents trust recommendations from people they know the most.

"We are excited that 100 million travelers have had a personalized experienced on TripAdvisor, making TripAdvisor the world's best site to plan a trip using the wisdom of your friends," said Adam Medros, vice president of global product for TripAdvisor. "Providing travelers with a social trip planning experience will continue to be a strategic focus at TripAdvisor, and we look forward to having even more travelers see their friends' travel recommendations on TripAdvisor."

In June 2010, TripAdvisor launched its Trip Friends product, highlighting where friends had been as shown on the Cities I've Visited Facebook app, allowing users to get travel insights from their friends. Then, in December 2010, TripAdvisor enhanced Trip Friends with instant personalization as part of its ongoing integration with Facebook. Today when a traveler visits TripAdvisor, they will see hotels reviewed and experienced by their friends listed first in TripAdvisor's hotel rankings. This extends the personalized experience that TripAdvisor had previously announced highlighting friend activity across hotels, restaurants, and attractions.  This personalization is made possible through the ongoing integration with Facebook.

Trip Friends functionality is available on all TripAdvisor sites. Instant Personalization is available on TripAdvisor sites in the Americas (US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina), Europe (UK, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Turkey) and Asia Pacific (Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand). More information on TripAdvisor's integration with Facebook and the personalized travel-planning experience can be found by visiting: www.tripadvisor.com/instantpersonalization.

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, with more than 50 million unique monthly visitors*, and over 60 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor's millions of monthly visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 18 other travel media brands, and together the sites attract more than 69 million unique monthly visitors**.  TripAdvisor's travel media brands include: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com, www.whereivebeen.com and www.kuxun.cn.

(1) Source: Facebook Insights, February 2012

(2) Source: Nielsen Study — "Trends in Advertising Spend and Effectiveness" June 2011

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, January 2012

**Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Inc. and its subsidiaries, Worldwide, January 2012

©2012 TripAdvisor, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE TripAdvisor