With the discussion raging about Web 2.0 applications in the hospitality, travel & tourism industry (with hotels slowing catching on), the subject of much enthusiasm in the Travel 2.0 game now seems to be Video! Moving beyond the original Travel 2.0 phenomenon (e.g.TripAdvisor, which now features over 6 million user reviews on hotels, destinations and local attractions), new sites are now focusing on the logical next step...combining reviews & ratings with videos of the actual hotel product.

Trivop
Trivop.com is one of the early pioneers of the hotel video review revolution. Run by a company called 'Videoagency', formed in 2006 to specialize in the production of online hotel videos. Trivop.com was launched in March/April 2007 and Thomas Owadenko, founder of Trivop.com says: "For travellers, visuals are a crucial element of the decision-making process and ultimately the booking process. The video medium is by far the best option available for this specific market. In forthcoming years, hoteliers will increasingly feature their own videos on their websites. We believe that it is necessary to create a dedicated portal to aggregate all these videos and therefore help the online consumer make his choice." On Trivop.com, you can view hotels' surroundings, their public facilities (the lobby, restaurant etc...) and all bedroom categories. Trivop has launched operations in Paris (the most visited city in the world) and planning to expand in the main European cities.

TvTrip


Another site that surfaced recently is called TvTrip.com. Tvtrip.com is based in Paris and Brussels, and claims to work with a wide range of travel experts world-wide and are developing new, advanced functions that will allow users to set their own preferences plus also share videos.



Travelistic
www.travelistic.com
Travelistic is a site that lets you explore the world through video. The site hosts all kinds of travel videos, including user uploads, professional content, and tourist board videos. Travelistic is a property of Diversion Media, LLC, a startup company based in New York City (Staff in the company used to work for MTV, iFilm, IGN, and Condé Nast, among other places).

TravelerVideos


TravelerVideos.com claims to be the internet’s largest human indexed traveler video directory. It’s a place for travelers to take advantage of the power of streaming video by sharing, reviewing and watching travel-related videos. Initially a travel video sharing service, TravelerVideos.com has grown into the internet’s best travel tool for finding, watching, rating and sharing thousands of travel-related videos.



TurnHere
www.turnhere.com
TurnHere, Inc. is a full-service Internet video solutions provider to the media, publishing, travel, local and real estate industries. They provide video strategy development services, produce high quality low-cost Internet videos and develop and execute plans to deliver those videos on the Internet...clients include various companies including InterContinental Hotels.

The video review game is still evolving and it'll be exciting to see who's going to be the winner...or perhaps just an early pioneer who gets the product right, like TripAdvisor. In today's travel marketplace, user generated content like reviews and ratings are a big influence on the purchase-decision, and the ability to see videos of the actual product go a long way in comforting wary bookers of what product they'll actually be getting once they're there. Everyone's aware of the controversy surrounding touch-ups and digital makeovers of hotel photography, so standards of how these videos are taken and submitted will also be crucial to how successful some of these sites become. In the end, we're all trying to move towards breaking through the clutter and the marketing wrap...travel 2.0 is trying hard to help the savvy traveller achieve just that.

On the lines of Travel 2.0, here are the other notable Web 2.0 savvy hospitality & travel websites:

TripUp
www.tripup.com
TripUp is an interactive travel community that connects people from all over the world through a social network with a travel twist. The idea for TripUp originated with a group of friends vacationing in the Caribbean who became frustrated when out-of-date and out-of-touch guide books led them to deserted clubs, stuffy hotels, and horrible restaurants. Sitting in an empty bar (described in one guide book as "the place to party"), they imagined a website where you could ask locals and fellow travelers (the real travel experts) for candid advice about your upcoming trip, and also meet cool people to hang out with or even travel with while away. Upon their return, they developed TripUp to improve their future trips, as well as everyone else's. Additionally, they added a bunch of exciting features so you can plan and share your fantastic travels with your friends. Whether you are interested in meeting locals or fellow travelers during a trip or finding a "trip buddy" so you don't have to travel alone, TripUp gets you connected before you depart. Plus, as a TripUp member you can share your travel videos, journals and photos, find current and candid information about your destination from our member-created travel reviews and Trip Forum, ask a "trip guru" for insider advice about your destination, organize group trips with Tripvite, and explore all of the fun places your tripmates have discovered.



Tripadvisor
www.tripadvisor.com
TripAdvisor, LLC, the largest travel community in the world, attracts more than 24 million monthly visitors (source: comScore Media Metrix, Digital Calculator Report, March 2007) across seven popular travel brands, tripadvisor.com™, bookingbuddy™.com, cruisecritic™.com, seatguru®.com, smartertravel™.com, travelpod™.com and travel-library™.com™. TripAdvisor.com features real advice from real travelers, with more than 5 million unbiased reviews and opinions, covering 250,000+ hotels and attractions and operates sites in the U.S. (http://www.tripadvisor.com) and in the U.K. (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk). The TripAdvisor® media network provides travel suppliers with graphical advertising opportunities and a cost-per-click marketing platform. Collectively, TripAdvisor® sites have won hundreds of awards and accolades from press and industry, worldwide. TripAdvisor, LLC is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE).

IgoUgo
www.igougo.com
A Travelocity affiliate - As the world's leading online travel community, IgoUgo's 350,000 members offer what guidebooks can't: hundreds of thousands of opinions on destinations across the globe, plus suggestions and photos for everything from cheap eats and luxury accommodations to must-see attractions and worthwhile day trips. 4,000 destinations, 350,000 members, 300,000 reviews, 200,000 photos, Launch: June 2000, Redesign: March 2005

Flickr Travel
www.flickr.com/search/?q=travel&w=all
Flickr is a photo sharing website and the travel section is particularly popular, with millions of photos shared by users around the world.



Travel with Gusto!
www.gusto.com
Gusto is a leading community of travel enthusiasts who are researching, planning, saving and sharing travel information. Gusto and its members offer thousands of opinions on thousands of destinations across the globe. Find out what other real travelers think about destinations by viewing member reviews, photos, favorite Web sites and blog posts. Gusto also works with Travel Partners to provide the best information, prices and options on world-wide travel deals. Gusto targets all type of travellers.

YouTube Travel & Places
www.youtube.com/categories_portal?c=19&e=1
The Travel & Places section of YouTube. Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow. YouTube received funding from Sequoia Capital in November 2005 and was officially launched one month later in December. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen proceeded to become the first members of the YouTube management team and currently serve as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer respectively. In November 2006, within a year of its launch, YouTube was purchased by Google Inc. in one of the most talked-about acquisitions to date. YouTube has struck numerous partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA, The Sundance Channel and many more.



WAYN - Where are you now?
www.wayn.com
WAYN is the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community website in the UK. WAYN is present in 220 countries and membership has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 8 million today. WAYN helps you to keep track of all your contacts from around the world and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been and where you are going!

RealTravel
www.realtravel.com
RealTravel is the best place for real people to find and share travel advice and experiences. At RealTravel, we believe that travel information is about more than price and star ratings - it is about the whole experience. You want to know what it is really like there. You want information on the people, the culture, how to get around, how to avoid problems, as well as suggestions for itineraries, accommodations, dining and things to do.



World Wikia
http://world.wikia.com/wiki/World_Wikia
Wikia are wiki communities creating free content with the MediaWiki software. These are hosted for free by Wikia, Inc., the company which runs the project. Anyone is free to start a new Wikia in accordance with the creation policy and terms of use. Wikia was founded by Angela Beesley and Jimmy Wales, originally under the name "Wikicities", in October 2004. It celebrated its first birthday on November 2, 2005. Wikicities relaunched as "Wikia" in March 2006. World Wikia is a free travel directory that you can edit, add information to, or create new pages and share experiences about your city or your travels.

WikiTravel
http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable world-wide travel guide. So far they have 15,450 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe.

Hotel Chatter
www.hotelchatter.com
HotelChatter is a daily web magazine chronicling hotel stories worldwide. HotelChatter is dedicated to covering everything related to hotels and lodging around the world, covering hotel deals and reviews, which celebrities are staying where, hotel industry news, tips for booking online, the hotels you should stay away from, the hotels you should book, and more. The publication is updated multiple times daily, and claims to deliver the freshest information on “where to stay when you leave.”

Honorable mentions:
Where's Yours? www.wheresyours.com Focused on an online community sharing their take on great places in nature.


Do you know of any sites that are defining Travel 2.0? Share and let us know! Comment below or send us an email at blog (at) thetalentjungle.com

tags: hotels, resorts, hospitality, travel, tourism, video, reviews, travel-2.0, web-2.0, online, ratings, guides, videoguide, video-reviews, trivop, tvtrip, turnhere, tripup, tripadvisor, igougo, flickr, gusto, youtube, wayn, wikis, hotelchatter