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Start-up backed by Europe’s largest publisher of travel guides, MairDumont

New York City, July 1, 2008. Today tripwolf.com (http://www.tripwolf.com) is released publically to the US market. tripwolf is a new social travel guide that covers the whole world, focusing mainly on Europe. tripwolf combines professional editorial content with user-generated content from globetrotters worldwide.

tripwolf is backed by MairDumont, Europe’s largest publisher of travel guides including Baedeker, Dumont and Marco Polo.  Through collaboration with tripwolf,  MairDumont has taken the unprecedented step of putting all of its high-quality content - covering more than 200,000 destinations and points of interest - online for free.

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.

On tripwolf.com, professional travel content from MairDumont is combined with travel tips from knowledgeable travelers coined as “trip gurus”. The site is rich in content with personal and professional travel photos and videos that give users first-hand glances at their chosen destinations. tripwolf aggregates third party content from sites like Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube and offers another special service: with just a few clicks, users can build and print a personalized free 10-to-20-page travel guide to take along on their trips.

tripwolf also serves as a platform for exchanging and sharing experiences with other travel enthusiasts and friends from around the world.  “70 percent of travelers ask friends and relatives for travel recommendations” says 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” says Heinzel.

Especially in the current economic climate, travelers try to make smart decisions.  According to JupiterResearch, 42 percent of online travelers refer to user-generated content travel sites to review the opinions of fellow travelers. tripwolf strives to benefit from this growing trend: “We aim to be a 'one-stop shop' for travelers.” says Sebastian Heinzel, “We want to be the leading international travel 2.0 guide.”

German publishing house MairDumont sees great strategic value in its investment in tripwolf. “An intelligent combination of our expert knowledge with the experiences of thousands of travelers is the future for us,” says publisher Stephanie Mair-Huydts. “With tripwolf we use all the benefits and advantages of the internet and web 2.0.”

tripwolf was conceived in 2007 by Sebastian Heinzel and Alexander Trieb, two globetrotters from Vienna, Austria, with help from internet incubator i5invest. tripwolf was successfully launched in Germany, Austria and Switzerland last month.

Key Features

• Facebook integration
• Content partner and investor MairDumont, European market leader for travel information
• Portable data - build your own personal and printable travel guide for any destination
• Wiki-approach - users can add/update information
• Trip gurus offering knowledgeable local advice
• Community features
• Site is available in English and German
• Intuitive interface
• Covers the whole world
• Consistent geo-coding
• Travel blogs showing routes in a map
• Travel photo uploads
• Ratings for sights and hotels

Upcoming features

• iPhone application
• Flight and hotel bookings options.

About tripwolf

The tripwolf.com, tripwolf.de, tripwolf.at, tripwolf.ch and tripwolf.co.uk are online offerings of tripwolf GmBH.  tripwolf GmbH is based in Vienna, Austria with offices in New York and Budapest, Hungary, set up in 2007 and led by co-founders Sebastian Heinzel (CEO) and Alexander Trieb (COO) with a team of ten members.  MairDumont, Europe's leading travel publishers based in Stuttgart Germany, and American/Austrian web 2.0 incubator i5invest are the leading investors in tripwolf.
http://www.tripwolf.com

About i5invest

i5invest GmbH, based in New York and Vienna, focuses on developing IT and mobile telecommunication ventures and provides early stage capital for them. Led by founder and CEO Markus Wagner and driven by an core team of 12 seasoned entrepreneurs in Europe and the US, i5invest powers the foundation of tomorrow's online business.
http://www.i5invest.com

About MairDumont

MairDumont is the market leader for tourist information in Germany and Europe. MairDumont offers a range of printed publications including the Marco Polo Travel Guides, Falk City Plans/City Atlases, Baedeker Allianz Travel Guides, the Large General Atlas, DuMont Travel Guides, Varta Guides, the HB Illustrated Atlas and the Kompass hiking and cycling-tour range. MairDumont’s range of products is complemented in the electronic media business area. Its particular importance has lead to the setting up of an independent company (FALK MARCOPOLO INTERACTIVE) that concentrates on Internet, navigation-system, telematics and mobile products and services. MairDumont was established in 1948 and is a family-run company with a staff of around 560, and is headquartered in Ostfildern near Stuttgart. The entire group generated a turnover of around 190 million euros in 2007.
http://mairdumont.com

Related URLs

• http://www.tripwolf.com
• http://del.icio.us/tripwolf
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_June_2/ai_n25470826
• http://apps.facebook.com/tripwolf/application/tripwolf

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