Making travel guides available online and on mobiles

October 13th 2009. Today renowned travel guide publisher Footprint (www.footprintbooks.com) and tripwolf (www.tripwolf.com), one of the world’s leading online travel guides, announce a far-reaching cooperation at the Frankfurt Book Fair. tripwolf will digitise over 60 Footprint guidebooks extracting extensive destination insight and over 150,000 points of interest (incl attractions, sights, hotels and restaurants). This information will be made available to users on both Footprint and tripwolf websites, as well as via mobile applications created by both companies.

Following a trial partnership, Footprint Managing Director Andy Riddle says “We’ve been really impressed with the way in which tripwolf have adapted content from our Peru Handbook into a well considered iPhone application which is intuitive to the way in which people travel. We are very excited about developing other digital products across all of the destinations we cover. Combining Footprint’s depth and breadth of content with tripwolfs innovative digital approach is a real win-win for travellers.”

“Footprint has long been recognised for the quality of our authors and content and we are delighted that through our partnership with tripwolf we’ll be able to offer travellers up to date and quality content in their preferred format, whether that is conventional guidebook, pdf or one of many digital platforms including iPhone applications,” says Footprint Marketing Manager Liz Harper.

tripwolf founder and CEO Sebastian Heinzel is proud of the cooperation with Footprint: “Footprint travel guides are my personal favourites and it is great that we can offer this information to our community. For Footprint this opens up a lot of opportunities beyond the book business.”

Spring 2010 will see the launch of a new content rich website for Footprint as well as availability of individual chapter PDF’s and iPhone applications with content covering dozens of destinations, through both the tripwolf and Footprint websites.

About Footprint Books

Footprint, has been at the forefront of travel literature for over 85 years. Their flagship title, The South American handbook, was first published in 1924 and is in its 86th annual edition.  The quality of their authors and content make them one of the most respected travel guide publishers in the world.

www.footprintbooks.com

About tripwolf
tripwolf.com is a social travel guide available in five languages - English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. What makes tripwolf special is the content mix: professional editorial from print travel guides like “Marco Polo” and “Footprint” paired with user generated content by travelers from all over the world. Users can add personal blog posts, ratings and photos to about 500.000 different locations worldwide and can download and print personalized travel guides. With the tripwolf iPhone application they can also access the travel information on the road - online or offline. The tripwolf company is based in Vienna, Austria.

Contact:

Liz Harper at Footprint Travel Guides lharper[at]footprintbooks.com

Sebastian Heinzel at tripwolf s.heinzel[at]tripwolf.com

Vienna, September 14th. The online travel guide tripwolf is introducing the future of online travel: tripwolf 2.0 offers tools for individual trip planning and booking, communicating within a fast growing community and accessing inside information on about 500.000 points of interest like sights, restaurants or hotels throughout the entire world.

tripwolf, the one stop shop for independent travelers - one important focus when designing the new tripwolf was the integration of premium content and optimizing the layout for advertisers such as DMO’s and touristic enterprises on the platform. The Vienna-based team paid significant amount of attention to premium partners and affiliates. The new layout and technical architecture allow for seamless integration of content in 5 languages, backlink integration, and the creation of special landing pages for each partner to enhance their Google rankings. tripwolf also created space for new partners within their own strong communication channels. Partners have the choice of adding editorial content in the tripwolf newsletters, get covered by the excellent tripwolf travel bloggers in blogs available in 5 languages and most importantly, tripwolf offers the ability to precisely target and track the performance of advertising campaigns based on a variety of options. .

„The web has dramatically changed the way travels are organized - today, it is vital to be found online and support them in finding the best offers and information for their travel needs “, explains Alexander Trieb, CEO of tripwolf. „Currently over 1.7 Million Unique Visitors per month and around 45,000 members are using tripwolf to plan their trips - a great platform promoting destinations and events for the independent traveler. tripwolf users are on average 30 years old, about 80 percent have high school and/or university degrees and over 65 percent plan between 2 to 4 trips per year”, adds Mr. Trieb.

The new tripwolf 2.0 offers users an innovative new tool, enabling them to easily create and plan their personalized trips. A weekend in New York, the best restaurants in Piedmont, two weeks in Southeast Asia? Over 2,000 trips have been created within the first week by tripwolf visitors and that is just the beginning.

About tripwolf
tripwolf.com is a social travel guide available in five languages - English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. What makes tripwolf unique is the content mix: professional editorial content from print travel guides like “Marco Polo” and “Footprint” enhanced with user generated content by travelers from all over the world. Users can add personal blog posts, rate and add photos to over 500.000 different locations worldwide and can download and print personalized travel guides. With the tripwolf iPhone application they can also access the travel information on the road - online or offline. The tripwolf company is based in Vienna, Austria.

Contact Sales:

Alexander Trieb | Co-Founder & COO

Feldgasse 1/36

1080 Vienna

Austria

c.berg@tripwolf.com

For Media Inquiries:

Adena Harford

a.harford@tripwolf.com

Vienna, September 8, 2009. The online travel guide tripwolf (http://www.tripwolf.com) celebrates a total makeover and presents a convenient new trip planner. With just a few clicks, users can create the trips of their dreams. For the launch or tripwolf 2.0, the tripwolf team has put together the summer itineraries of prominent politicians - with a little twist. Find out where Silvio Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy or The Obamas spent their time off in summer 2009 (http://www.devel.tripwolf.com/en/trips/location/1)!

With over 2 million monthly visits, the tripwolf community is already one of the biggest and most comprehensive travel sites in the online world - and it’s just celebrating its first birthday. With the new trip planner every user can now put together a unique trip and immediately print a personalized travel guide - for free and without registration!

When creating a trip, users can choose from more than 500,000 destinations, points of interests, and hotels worldwide. The information about these locations comes from renowned travel guide publishers and from the community of more than 40,000 well-traveled tripwolf members worldwide. The tripwolf team has built hundreds of ready-made trips - find everything from walking trips through Paris’ artist district, Montmartre (http://www.devel.tripwolf.com/en/trips/location/1077), to trekking tours in the Peruvian Andes (http://www.devel.tripwolf.com/en/trips/location/616).

„With the new trip planner tripwolf has become an incredibly useful travel tool,” Sebastian Heinzel, CEO of tripwolf, states proudly. „On top of that, we have improved tripwolf in every aspect - the site is now faster and more informative and looks better, ” he adds. „We have fulfilled many wishes of our community. The cub has turned into a grown wolf!”

About tripwolf
tripwolf.com is a social travel guide available in five languages - English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. What makes tripwolf special is the content mix: professional editorial from print travel guides like “Marco Polo” and “Footprint” paired with user generated content by travelers from all over the world. Users can add personal blog posts, ratings and photos to about 500.000 different locations worldwide and can download and print personalized travel guides. With the tripwolf iPhone application they can also access the travel information on the road - online or offline. The tripwolf company is based in Vienna, Austria.

Contact:

Adena Harford

tel: +1 207 332 7338

a.harford@tripwolf.com

http://www.tripwolf.com

www.twitter.com/tripwolf

Vienna, June 9, 2009: The online social travel guide tripwolf [http://www.tripwolf.com] launches the first iPhone application.

The tripwolf iPhone application [http://www.tripwolf.com/en/page/iphone] allows users to search and download over 400,000 destinations worldwide and combines travel information from professional travel guides such as “Marco Polo” and “Footprint” with the cumulative knowledge of over 18,000 tripwolf members. The tripwolf iPhone application is available for free and can be used by anyone. Users can search the globe, download city guides to use online or offline, flip through thousands of sights, restaurants, hotels and much more. tripwolf members however receive additional benefits such as automatic synchronization of their scrapbook, easy access to their favorite places, uploading pictures and a quick add to favorites feature. The application is currently available in five languages – English, German, Spanish, French and Italian – in any part of the world.

With the tripwolf iPhone application, users can gather all the professional travel information currently available on the iPhone without the need to be constantly connected to the Internet. Travelers can research all their travel information on tripwolf.com, add it to their scrapbook and automatically synchronize it with their iPhone by simply logging onto their tripwolf account. Users can now simply search relevant travel information on their iPhone or use the easy “Locate Me” feature – by shaking the iPhone, the application offers recommendations close by.

The tripwolf iPhone application also allows users to choose how much information they want to use offline and also takes different network connection speeds into consideration. Users have the choice of downloading either text only or the whole package that includes pictures. All the functions within the application can also be performed offline and seamlessly synchronize with the tripwolf platform once an Internet connection is found.

“The possibility of using the tripwolf iPhone application offline was extremely important to us. We wanted travelers not to worry about paying high roaming costs”, Sebastian Heinzel (http://www.tripwolf.com/en/traveler/user/10/sebastian), CEO of tripwolf explains, “while still being able to access their personalized tripwolf guides and benefit from location based interactivity.” Collaborating for several months with Salzburg Research, an Austrian research organization focused on innovative mobile solutions, the entire team is excited to finally offer the innovative iPhone tripwolf application.

Alexander Trieb (http://www.tripwolf.com/en/traveler/user/78/alex), the tripwolf co-founder responsible for the implementation of the iPhone application, says: “Thanks to Nicolas Göll and his research team in Salzburg we really pushed the boundaries of the iPhone platform. By offering the tripwolf iPhone application we are taking the logical next step in the evolution of travel guides: Beyond the book.”

The tripwolf iPhone application is the seamless connection between tripwolf.com and the iPhone – so if it’s shopping in Berlin, vodka-sipping in Moscow, a visit to Montevideo or crazy night-life in New York, tripwolf users can always find their way around.

About tripwolf.com
tripwolf.com is a social online travel guide available in five languages – English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. What makes it special is the content mix: professional editorial from print travel guides like “Marco Polo” and “Footprint” paired with user generated content by users from all over the world. Users can add personal blog posts, ratings and photos to about 400.000 different destinations worldwide. Users can use the entire data available of www.tripwolf.com on the iPhone application and have the choice between on- and offline access.

About Salzburg Research
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft is the non-profit research organisation of the State of Salzburg. It conducts applied research and development in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the fields of Digital Media, eCulture, eTourism and EduMedia. The department for “mobile and web-based information systems (MOWI)” under supervision of Nicolas Göll is in charge of the technical development of the application.

Media Contact
Adena Harford
a.harford@tripwolf.com
+1 207 332 7338

www.tripwolf.com

“Italy is a country that offers many amazing destinations and secret spots”, says Sebastian Heinzel, CEO of tripwolf. “We made an extra effort to launch tripwolf.com/it as fast as possible because we didn’t want to keep all that info on one of Europe’s most wanted travel-destinations from users and travelers.”

Tripwolf is an online travel guide of the next generation. It was first launched in June 2008 in English and German, in March 2009 the French version followed. The platform combines professionally edited content from traditional print travel guides with user-generated content, added by thousands of members from all over the world. Users can upload photos, write blogs and evaluate the info made available by the platform. At present, the tripwolf community holds around 15.000 members, of which 1000 are “Trip-Gurus”, designated to provide Users with in-depth info on certain cities, areas or countries.

About tripwolf
tripwolf (www.tripwolf.com) is a Social Travel Guide that combines editorial with user generated content by globetrotters from all over the world. So far, travelers can find about 400.000 destinations and points of interest, from which they can chose and build their personalized travel itinerary. The Online Community Tripwolf, whose headquarters are located in Vienna, Austria, was founded by travel-enthusiasts Sebastian Heinzel and Alexander Trieb. The portal was launched in June 2008 in Englisch and German, the French Version was introduced in March 2009.
http://www.tripwolf.com

Press Contact tripwolf
Alexandra von Quadt
tripwolf GmbH
Feldgasse 1/36
A-1080 Vienna
a.quadt@tripwolf.com

“I am really happy  that our friends from France and french-speaking countries can also enjoy tripwolf in their mother tongue”, says Sebastian Heinzel, CEO of tripwolf. “We already saw that rather many visitors were coming from France, which is why we spent a lot of time and sweat in the last months developing the french version, in order to show our gratitude to this interest by providing a native french version of tripwolf.”
tripwolf, a travel guide of the next generation, started in June 2008 in german and english language. The platform combines both professional editorial travel content from Print-travel guides and user generated content - Reviews, Tipps, Ratings - from thousands of enthusiast travelers all over the planet. Currently the tripwolf community consists of almost 15.000 registered users, whereas 1000 of them are so-called “trip gurus”, who provide travelers with local knowledge and help.

More information and photos are available on the tripwolf social media release: http://www.tripwolf.com/en/press

About tripwolf
tripwolf (http://www.tripwolf.com) is an online social travel guide, that combines both professional editorial content with User generated content from globetrotters from all over the world. Travelers can pinpoint information from more than 400.000 travel destinations and points of interest, of which they can generate individually assembled and free PDF travel guides. tripwolf is based in Vienna, Austria, and has been launched by travel-enthusiasts Sebastian Heinzel and Alexander Trieb. The site launched in german and english in June 2008. Soon, french, italian and spanish versions of tripwolf will be available online.
http://www.tripwolf.com

PR & Media contact tripwolf

Bernhard Lehner
tripwolf GmbH
Piaristengasse 11/1-3
A-1080 Vienna
b.lehner [at] tripwolf.com
+43 664 4398609

“It is fantastic to see Peru content from our Footprint Handbooks on tripwolf.com and on the beta version of the tripwolf iPhone application”, says Footprint Marketing Manager, Liz Harper. “We looked at various potential partners to make Footprint content available through new channels and tripwolf has clearly convinced us with their innovative approach and unique offerings for users.”

With this partnership, tripwolf.com strengthens its strategy of combining professional editorial travel content with user-generated content from thousands of globetrotters worldwide. On tripwolf.com individual travellers can create their personalized travel guides, based on recommendations from expert “trip gurus,” friends and other travellers.

“Personally, Footprint Handbooks have been my favourite travel guides for years,” says tripwolf CEO Sebastian Heinzel. “On my trips to Peru, India and Vietnam I have been impressed by the breadth and depth of their coverage. I cannot imagine a better English language partner for tripwolf.”

For the German version of its platform, tripwolf entered into a partnership with the MairDumont Group, publishers of the German “Marco Polo” travel guides, last year. tripwolf versions in French, Italian and Spanish will be launched this spring.

New York–February 19, 2009–Spring break has college students booking airplane tickets to warm Caribbean beach destinations like Panama City, the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. As fun as relaxing on white sand is, the world offers too much to head to the same location year after year. So this year, plan an alternative spring break — and head over to Africa.

tripwolf, an online social travel guide, has compiled the top “not to miss” locations in Africa as voted by its users. The community spoke, and tripwolf listened.  Here is the best of Africa list they came up with:

tripwolf.com’s Top 15 Romantic Sunsets include:

5 in Florida: Key West, Longboat Key, Siesta Key, Sanibel Island, and South Walton Beach;

4 in Michigan: Petoskey, Ludington, Traverse City, and Oval Beach in Saugatuk;

3 in Hawaii: Papohaku Beach on Molokai, Front Street in Lahaina on Maui, and Mauna Kea Resort in Kamuela on the Big Island;

2 in Texas: Wildcatter Ranch and Resort in Graham and the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin;

1 in Tennessee: the rooftop view at the Madison Hotel in Memphis.

“Everyone appreciates the beauty of a sunset–be it on the beach or over a cityscape.” says Sebastian Heinzel, tripwolf CEO. “We want to break out of the usual ‘dinner and candy’ and provide ideas for an alternative romantic plan this Valentine’s Day.”

tripwolf users are encouraged to upload photos, share stories and add comments about their romantic Valentine’s Day plans to the site. Details on each of the 15 locations and more are located at http://www.tripwolf.com/en/page/valentine. For more information on tripwolf, visit www.tripwolf.com.

“Travel and mobility online are part of our core business,” says Stephanie Mair-Huydts, Publisher. “Despite the financial crisis, we want to expand our position in the online market. tripwolf is the perfect extension of our current offerings.”

Additionally, renowned German publisher Dieter von Holtzbrinck has signed on as a co-investor. Dieter is confident and enthusiastic about both the tripwolf concept as well as the competent and creative management team.

“We are proud to have the trust of such reputable companies and individuals,” says Sebastian Heinzel, CEO of tripwolf, who is excited by the willingness of investors from the print world to support innovative online business models. “We have big plans for 2009, including site launches in French, Spanish and Italian, and a tripwolf iPhone application.”

tripwolf, a next generation travel guide, launched in June 2008 in German and English. The platform combines professionally created content with user-generated content - reviews, tips, photos and travel blogs – from thousands of travelers all over the world. Currently, the tripwolf community has nearly 15,000 members, including one thousand “trip gurus“ who provide personal travel tips.