TripAdvisor reaches one billion contributions

TripAdvisor chief executive Stephen Kaufer said: “We are so grateful for the contributions that the TripAdvisor community has made over these last 22 years. File Picture

TripAdvisor has heralded reaching one billion contributions from its users.

The US-based travel guidance website, founded 22 years ago, said it hit the milestone due to a combination of reviews, tips, photographs, likes, comments and forum posts.

Trusted reviews and opinions from travellers are the heart and soul of the platform and help make everyone a better traveller

TripAdvisor chief executive Stephen Kaufer said: “We are so grateful for the contributions that the TripAdvisor community has made over these last 22 years.

“Trusted reviews and opinions from travellers are the heart and soul of the platform and help make everyone a better traveller, enabling millions of businesses to flourish and drive trillions of dollars in economic value across the globe.”

TripAdvisor marked the milestone of one billion contributions by highlighting some reviews from travellers who failed to fully appreciate landmarks around the world.

Consumer group Which? accused TripAdvisor in September 2019 of failing to stop a “flood of fake and suspicious five-star reviews” from artificially boosting hotels’ ratings.

TripAdvisor claimed the analysis was based on a “flawed understanding of fake review patterns”, and it has an “industry-leading team of fraud investigators who work tirelessly to protect the site from fake reviews”.