TripAdvisor acquires cruise and independent travel websites

Saturday, 24 May, 2007 0

TripAdvisor acquired The Independent Traveler, the publisher of Cruise Critic, the cruise community (www.cruisecritic.com) and IndependentTraveler.com.

“This acquisition is a great addition to our portfolio of leading travel communities and content sites and gives us a strong foothold in the $32 billion cruise market,” said Stephen Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor an operating company of Expedia.

Kathleen Tucker, founder and president of The Independent
Traveler, will continue to lead the team.

She said: “By joining the TripAdvisor family, we will have more
resources to continue to build our business, expand internationally and strengthen our lead in the cruise space.”

The Independent Traveler, based in Pennington, New Jersey, generates the majority of its revenue through online advertising and content licensing.

Terms of the acquisition are undisclosed but TripAdvisor said the company operates profitably.

There are no immediate plans for extensive integration of the business or the Web domains and no staffing changes are expected.

TripAdvisor also recently announced the acquisition of smartertravel.com, bookingbuddy.com; SeatGuru.com; TravelPod.com; and Travel-Library.com.

By Bev Fearis

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Bev

Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.

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