Visit London, TripAdvisor Team Up
DECEMBER 14, 2007. Visit London has teamed up with TripAdvisor to be the first tourist board in the world to provide user-generated reviews on its website.
The partnership is the first of its kind for both organisations. From January 2008, visitors to London will be able to read and post reviews based on 2000 hotels and attractions via TripAdvisor on www.visitlondon.com
Visit London Chief Executive James Bidwell said: "Visit London is a global leader in destination marketing and our partnership with TripAdvisor ensures that we continue to provide visitors with the best possible information and content about London.
"TripAdvisor is a trusted brand which provides consumers with the most up-to-date and unbiased reviews based on personal experience. User reviews guide consumer decision making and we are pleased to be the first official visitor organisation to respond to the requirements of visitors by teaming up with TripAdvisor.
"Visit London plans to continue this momentum in the lead up to and beyond the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure that visitors and Londoners are offered a world-class online experience."
TripAdvisor Brand Distribution Director, Nathan Clapton said: "We are delighted that Visit London believes that TripAdvisor's real traveller reviews will help their users have the best possible experiences when they come to London. London is the most talked about city in TripAdvisor's forums and we are looking forward to distilling our recommendations and opinions into TripAdvisor Top 10s for Visit London each month."
The Visit London and TripAdvisor collaboration will also allow for the development of features on visitlondon.com such as 'top 10 rated hotels' and 'top 10 rated visitor attractions' based on user reviews. Reviews posted on the Visit London website will be the five most recent reviews, in their entirety, from the TripAdvisor site and as with current features on TripAdvisor, businesses have the right of reply.
Today's announcement follows the relaunch of visitlondon.com earlier this year. The new, fresh-look site was redesigned to allow London's visitors to navigate information quicker and easier, run more powerful searches and book a range of products and services including hotel rooms, theatre tickets and restaurants. Since relaunching in July, the number of unique visitors to the Visit London websites each month has grown from 750,000 to over 1million.
Visit London Digital Director Jose Adams said: "User reviews enhance the recommendations our editorial team make to ensure visitors to London get the best possible insight into all that the city offers before they travel. We want to encourage interaction with visitors and will continue to develop social media applications and more personalised content on both the web and mobile phones in future."
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