Wcities, a location-based information service, and TripWiser, a family trip planning site, have entered into a strategic partnership to create the most affluent user experience for families planning trips to or within the US and Canada.

Published: 10 Jul 2007

Wcities, a location-based information service, and TripWiser, a family trip planning site, have entered into a strategic partnership to create the most affluent user experience for families planning trips to or within the US and Canada.

The two companies are focusing on creating a “social trip-planning site that moves beyond the blogging or destination’s-guide operation. The partnership shaped into a truly modern Web 2.0 site - wcities.tripwiser.com.”

Following few features were marked by users as favourites:

· Ability to clone someone else’s trips and modify them on the fly

· Ability to get Editors Choice recommendations for attractions, hotels and restaurants in all major cities in the United States and Canada

· Ability to customise itineraries by adjusting parameters on the social personalisation “scale”, i.e. adventure vs. relaxing; family vs. couples; and move around items inside the trip scheduler via a convenient drag-and-drop functionality.

David Reichman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of TripWiser, said, “People spend more time planning their trips than actually traveling, shuffling through hundreds of user reviews trying to dig relevant content is tiresome. We are committed to change this experience. Together with Wcities, we have created a unique service that allows travelers to enjoy the best from both worlds, expert-approved trips and great content from people like you. We also help travelers to weave in their own preferences on the fly. By partnering with Wcities, we were able to open a “Golden Path” for our users, combining travelers’ recommendations with expert advice. Simply take someone else’s trip, clone it and add or delete particular attractions, restaurants, museums, theme parks, anything you like.”

“The fact that we provide travel expert recommendations for cities, restaurants, hotels and popular attractions puts our service ahead of many other travel sites offering just user-generated content. It is a known problem in the online travel industry that a large percentage of such content is not reliable," said Fraser Campbell, VP of Wcities. “By contrast, Wcities prides itself by offering expert-approved travel material. Add to this the fantastic trip planning capabilities delivered by TripWiser and you get unmatched value in terms of user experience, and it did not take long for users to notice the difference.”