United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
TripAdvisor acquires cruise evaluation site
TripAdvisor has acquired The Independent Traveler, Inc., publisher of Cruise Critic.
“Kathleen Tucker and her team have done a phenomenal job building the most popular cruise community in the world,” said Stephen Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. He added:
“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.”
“TripAdvisor’s model of acquiring best-of-breed travel media companies and allowing them to continue to operate independently is ideal for us,” said Kathleen Tucker, founder and president of The Independent Traveler, Inc.
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 the company says it operates profitably.
There are no near-term plans for extensive integration of the business or the Web domains and no staffing changes are expected, according to company officials.
Tripadvisor.com has defended the integrity of its hotel reviews following suggestions at a recent conference that fraudulent reviews are still being published.
Senior executive Marc Charron claimed that the site is getting more sophisticated at detecting false reviews – and secondly that its readers are savvy enough to ignore bogus entries.
As the largest website for user hotel reviews, the site receives around 1,400 reviews a day, and in the past has been criticized for allowing reviews to be published that are not posted by genuine guests.
Report by David Wilkening
David
Walt Leger on New Orleans’ Resilience and Major Events Ahead
Cindy Mackin Shares Estes Park’s Winter Thrills
Mark Jaronski of Explore Georgia on FIFA World Cup 2026
Connecting Small Businesses to Global Tourism Markets: Nate Huff of Tourism Exchange
North Carolina’s Resilience: Wit Tuttell on Recovery and Tourism
Kittipong Prapattong’s Plan for Thailand’s Tourism Growth: Taxes, Visas, and Campaigns
James Jin: Didatravel’s Journey from China to Global Reach and the Impact of AI on Travel
Darien Schaefer on Pensacola’s Evolution: From Small Town to Global Destination
Florida Tourism’s Next Frontier: Dana Young on Expanding Beyond the Classics
Patrick Harrison on Tampa Bay Tourism’s Resilience and Marketing Strategy
Bubba O’Keefe on Clarksdale’s Vibrant Music Scene
Commemorating Elvis and Embracing Tupelo’s Culture with Jennie Bradford Curlee
BA suspending all Heathrow to Abu Dhabi flights
Unexpected wave rocks cruise ship
Woman dies after going overboard in English Channel
Report: Cruise guest died after ship lashed in heavy storm
British teen in serious condition after paraglider collision