Topic summary

Wikitravel

Wikitravel

Wikitravel is a web-based collaborativetravel guide based on the wiki format and owned by Internet Brands. It was most active from 2003 through 2012, when most of its editing community left and brought their contributions to the nonprofit Wikivoyage guide.

The site was launched by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins in 2003 as a multilingual effort aiming to cover all the globe's destinations. In 2005, Internet Brands bought the brand for $1.7 million from its founders. They later introduced advertising to the website. This move met opposition from users, with many German and Italian editors leaving in December 2006 for a newly established wiki, Wikivoyage that would be non-commercial.

In 2006, Wikitravel launched a free media repository known as Wikitravel Shared, and in 2007, it received a Webby Award for Best Travel Website. The same year, Wikitravel's founders and Jani Patokallio began Wikitravel Press, a project that first published printed travel guides in February 2008 based on the website's content, but shut down in 2011.

In 2012, in response to sustained dissatisfaction with Internet Brands' commercialization and technical support, a large portion of the editing community, including the founders, left and transferred their contributions to the Wikivoyage travel guide, which was relaunched as a Wikimedia Foundation–hosted project in January 2013. By 2018, Wikivoyage had surpassed Wikitravel in edit count and page count.