South African Tourism Signs Multi Market Creative Partnership With Tripadvisor

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Feb 10, 2010, 03:00 ET

LONDON, February 10 /PRNewswire/ -- South African Tourism has signed a creative partnership deal with TripAdvisor(R), taking advantage of the world's largest and most popular travel community's content to promote South Africa as a diverse and exciting tourist destination for 2010.

The fully integrated campaign - the Ultimate Experience hub - offers South African Tourism a unique opportunity to engage with the TripAdvisor community, providing travellers with a dynamic blend of SA Tourism and TripAdvisor content giving the user comprehensive travel information to help plan their perfect trip.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/SouthAfricaExperience-c1-AdventureWildlife

As the country prepares itself to be the focus of this year's World Cup, SA Tourism is keen to promote itself as a destination with far more on offer than just football. The TripAdvisor campaign, a six figure deal, has been developed to educate all types of travellers about the range of experiences on offer. The markets targeted by the campaign are UK, US, AU, FR, IT, DE, NL on TripAdvisor's English sites.

The Ultimate Experience hub focuses on three key themes; Adventure and Wildlife, Culture and Nature and Entertainment and Leisure. Each tab will feature TripAdvisor's top rated attractions, as reviewed by real travellers, photos, videos and exciting content about South Africa.

Helena Egan, Destination Marketing Sales Manager for TripAdvisor comments, "We're thrilled South African Tourism recognises the value of TripAdvisor's user generated content. This integrated campaign will allow travellers considering a trip to South Africa to benefit from user reviews and ratings from the world's largest and most popular travel community."

Roshene Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at SA Tourism comments, "We know that the majority of our target segments use the online environment for researching and gathering information about holiday destinations, so we believe that this partnership with TripAdvisor will further complement our strategy to market South Africa globally."

The campaign includes targeted co-branded banners throughout the TripAdvisor site driving travellers directly to the tabs and experiences most relevant to them, as well as to South Africa's WOM and travel agent booking sites. The partnership also includes the integration of a TripAdvisor review widget on the accommodation pages of the South African Tourism site.

Roshene Singh continues, "The TripAdvisor partnership offers travellers the opportunity to engage with our destination in an interactive manner and to place South Africa at the forefront of conversations that are taking place online."

Notes to Editors

Register at SA Tourism media extranet to browse the latest news releases (from SA Tourism as well as the tourism industry in general), access the news archive and get details of all upcoming tourism industry events (both locally and internationally).

http://mediaextranet.southafrica.net

South African Tourism is the national tourism agency responsible for the marketing of South Africa as a preferred tourist destination. It is headed up by Chief Executive Officer, Ms Thandiwe Sylvia January-Mclean and Chief Operating Officer, Ms Didi Moyle.

About TripAdvisor Media Network

TripAdvisor(R) Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC, attracts more than 36 million monthly visitors* across 15 popular travel brands: TripAdvisor(R), http://www.airfarewatchdog.com, http://www.bookingbuddy.com, http://www.cruisecritic.com, http://www.familyvacationcritic.com, http://www.flipkey.com, http://www.frequentflier.com, http://www.holidaywatchdog.com, http://www.independenttraveler.com, http://www.onetime.com, http://www.seatguru.com, http://www.smartertravel.com , http://www.travel-library.com, http://www.travelpod.com and http://www.virtualtourist.com. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors*, 15 million registered members and 30 million reviews and opinions. Featuring real advice from real travelers, TripAdvisor-branded sites cover more than one million destinations, hotels, restaurants 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), Japan (http://www.tripadvisor.jp), Portugal and Brazil ( http://www.tripadvisor.com.br), Sweden (http://www.tripadvisor.se), The Netherlands (http://nl.tripadvisor.com) and Canada (http://www.tripadvisor.ca ). TripAdvisor also operates in China under the brand daodao.com (http://www.daodao.com) and Kuxun.cn (http://www.kuxun.cn). 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 and the TripAdvisor logo are registered trademarks 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)2010 TripAdvisor LLC. All rights reserved.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, July 2009

SOURCE TripAdvisor