International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 57 | Page 53

NEW
T R AV E L S I T E
CHALLENGES
THE “CROWD”

N

ew
travel
portal
uses social media
techniques to enable
travelers to share travel
experiences, photos, videos
and blogs and crowd sourcing
to build content.
Innovative travel company, Visits
& Trips Network, has just launched
TripNut.com, a radically different
travel portal that is using social
media techniques to attract a
global Community of travelers
and crowdsourcing techniques to
challenge TripNut.com users to
develop travel related content for
destinations all over the world. But,
TripNut.com goes a step further
and puts travelers in direct contact
with hotels, B&Bs, tour guides,
tour operators and other travel
service providers. It also enables
travelers to instantly connect with
travel agents when they may
require professional help.
Canadian Founder and CEO,
Vian Andrews, says “TripNut is
designed so that over time our
members, travel service providers
and travel professionals can
create the richest and most honest
motherload of travel information
on the Internet. It’s also designed
to facilitate candid discussions
about the realities of traveling
today and about how individually
and collectively we can reduce
the devastating impacts the travel
industry has on our environment.”
TripNut.com integrates unique
travel planning technology that
enables travelers to create

a TravelBook for every trip
they take. They can use their
TravelBooks while traveling as
a personal guide book, but they
can also upload pictures, videos
and blogs about their trip and
then share it with friends and
family and other members of the
TripNut Community either while
traveling or when they return.
Every TravelBook can be archived
for future reference.

Founder and CEO, Vian Andrews

TripNut members can join Affinity
groups such as Adventure Travel,
Biking, Wine and many others to
meet up with like-minded travelers
and members can join Edit
Circles, which are modified wikis
to add information about places
they know and love. Members
who refer new users can also earn
TripNut Points which they can use
to pay some or all of their personal
travel costs.
According
to Andrews
the
Company is also contemplating
using crowdsourcing techniques
to raise the capital it needs to
scale up for what they project
will be millions of users. “We are
looking at a few crowdsourcing
funding sites to see where we can
get the most traction. I would like
nothing more than for TripNut.
com members to be owners of the
site and to share in the reward of
building the TripNut Community.
This industry needs to be improved
over what we are getting from the
big players today, and travelers
have to lead the way.”
http://www.tripnut.com/
Join us on Facebook!
Join us on Twitter @tripnuts

www.internationallifestylemagazine.com