tripwolf.com, a new social travel guide, recently released publicly to the US market.

Published: 04 Jul 2008

tripwolf.com, a new social travel guide, recently released publicly to the US market.

"As trips to Europe become more costly due to the weakening dollar, the well-traveled tripwolf community offers useful tips and recommendations for US travelers who want to stretch their greenbacks while traveling through Europe," stated the company.

tripwolf was launched in Germany, Austria and Switzerland last month and is being launched in English-speaking markets (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand). A Spanish-language version for Spain and Latin America will follow in 2009. Further planned: versions in French, Italian, Portuguese and Mandarin.

The website was conceived in 2007 by Sebastian Heinzel (CEO) and Alexander Trieb (COO), with help from Internet incubator i5invest. It is backed by MairDumont, Europe's largest publisher of travel guides including Baedeker, Dumont and Marco Polo.

On tripwolf.com, professional travel content from MairDumont is combined with travel tips from knowledgeable travelers coined as "trip gurus". It combines professional editorial content with user-generated content from globetrotters worldwide.

tripwolf aggregates third party content from sites like Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube. Users can build and print a personalised free 10-to-20-page travel guide to take along on their trips.

"70 percent of travelers ask friends and relatives for travel recommendations," said Sebastian Heinzel, co-founder and CEO of tripwolf. tripwolf reflects this by allowing user to easily import their Facebook profile as well as their Facebook friends.

"Travelers want to get the best out of their trips, so they ask trustworthy sources," said Heinzel.

"An intelligent combination of our expert knowledge with the experiences of thousands of travelers is the future for us," said publisher Stephanie Mair-Huydts. "With tripwolf we use all the benefits and advantages of the Internet and web 2.0."