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TripAdvisor Serves up Restaurant Reviews and Cooks up New Products to Help Consumers get More for Their Dough in '09

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 05:00 CST

Features Nearly 500,000 Restaurants in 24,000 Cities Around the World

and 2+ Million Ratings and Reviews

Relationships with OpenTable and Toptable Take Consumers from "Look to Book" in Seconds, Whether You're Home or Away

NEWTON, Mass., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor(R), the world's largest travel community, today announced its new and improved restaurant product featuring reviews, maps, filters and easy links to reservations. With 71 percent of more than 1,000 U.S. respondents to a recent TripAdvisor survey indicating they search for eateries online, TripAdvisor's new restaurant tools offer another way travelers can easily find, book and locate outstanding dining options.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080902/TRIPADVISORLOGO )

This enhanced restaurant functionality is part of a series of new features being rolled out on tripadvisor.com in the coming weeks to help people find the best product at the best price.

"Whether your vacation is thousands of miles away or just around the corner, TripAdvisor has everything you need to find a great meal," said Christine Petersen, chief marketing officer of TripAdvisor. "In 2009, we're committed to offering our customers, both travelers and advertising clients, the best ways to find value. Stay tuned for more."

Since the beginning of the year, more than five million travelers have already accessed restaurant information on TripAdvisor.

Restaurant Reviews on TripAdvisor

Featuring more than two million reviews and ratings on nearly 500,000 restaurants, TripAdvisor is providing travelers with yet another tool to help them plan the perfect trip. Trying to find a restaurant that serves a juicy burger, is child-friendly and won't cost an arm and a leg? TripAdvisor's new restaurant filters allow travelers to do that and see what thousands of their best friends are recommending. These filters allow travelers to sort by:

• Price - Search restaurants by four different price levels ranging from $10 and less per person to $40 and above
• Cuisine - From Chinese to vegetarian, and everything in between, sort by type of cuisine
• Recommended for - For specific interests, such as looking for a great breakfast or an eatery with outdoor seating, take advantage of the "recommended for" filter

According to TripAdvisor's dining out survey, 75 percent of epicurean adventurers typically indulge at eateries that are $25 and less per person. When it comes to restaurant cuisine, 31 percent said their favorite is Italian, 18 percent American and 14 percent Mexican.

Making Reservations with Ease

With a few simple clicks, travelers can easily make a reservation in the U.S. by directly linking to www.OpenTable.com, a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners, or to toptable.co.uk, a leading online reservation site in the U.K. More than 10,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Europe will be bookable on TripAdvisor this month.

Get the Map, then Go

To make finding the location of an upcoming gastronomic adventure easy, TripAdvisor offers dynamic maps showing where restaurants are located and links to get directions.

iPhone Restaurant Application

To make locating the perfect restaurant easy while on the go, iPhone users can download TripAdvisor's Local Picks(TM) restaurant finder. Taking advantage of the iPhone's location-based capabilities, the Local Picks application helps travelers find the best restaurants, as rated by locals, based on their current location. For budget travelers, the application allows restaurants to be sorted by price.

Local Picks is available free at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

Facebook App Led to Rapid Restaurant Growth

Seeking to capture and provide more robust and relevant restaurant information, TripAdvisor tapped into the knowledge and wisdom of millions of people that love to share and exchange information on Facebook by launching its Local Picks restaurant reviews and ratings application on Facebook in fall of 2007. Launching this viral application that easily enables the sharing of culinary opinions among friends, TripAdvisor grew its restaurant offering from less than 100,000 establishments to nearly 500,000 in approximately 15 months. These insights, now also available on tripadvisor.com, are helping millions of travelers plan and have the perfect trip.

About TripAdvisor Media Network

TripAdvisor(R) Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC, attracts more than 32 million monthly visitors* across 14 popular travel brands: TripAdvisor(R), www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.frequentflier.com, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com and www.virtualtourist.com. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors*, 10 million registered members and 20 million reviews and opinions. Featuring real advice from real travelers, TripAdvisor-branded sites cover 300,000+ hotels and attractions and operate in the U.S. (http://www.tripadvisor.com), the U.K. (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk), Ireland (http://www.tripadvisor.ie), France (http://www.tripadvisor.fr), Germany (http://www.tripadvisor.de), Italy (http://www.tripadvisor.it), Spain (http://www.tripadvisor.es), India (http://www.tripadvisor.in) and Japan (http://www.tripadvisor.jp). TripAdvisor(R) Media Network provides travel suppliers with graphical advertising opportunities and a cost-per-click marketing platform. Collectively, the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network have won hundreds of awards and accolades from press and industry worldwide. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE).

TripAdvisor is a registered trademark of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

(C)2009 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, July 2008

SOURCE TripAdvisor

Source: PR Newswire

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