TripAdvisor, Inc., owner of the leading global travel information and advice destination http://www.tripadvisor.com/, today announced that Stephen Kaufer, co-founder and chief executive officer, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year(R) Award for the New England region. The award was presented at a ceremony in Boston, Mass. on June 23. Kaufer was recognized in the category of "Realizing Business Potential."

In his acceptance remarks, Kaufer thanked all TripAdvisor employees who helped him build the company from a start-up in 2000, to the leading online travel information and planning resource for consumers. TripAdvisor provides consumers with honest, unbiased, real traveler reviews and opinions to help them make informed decisions about where to go, where to stay, where to eat and what to see when traveling to destinations worldwide. TripAdvisor recently announced it has more than two million reviews and opinions posted on the Web site.

"When we started TripAdvisor our goal was to help consumers cut through the hype and clutter of travel industry marketing and get the whole truth in an easy to use format," said Kaufer. "We simply wanted to help people have a great escape ... avoiding the potential 'vacation from hell' experience. We've now grown to have an active and loyal community of users, with more than 13 million unique visitors worldwide every month. That's the strongest proof that TripAdvisor is providing value to the consumer."

Kaufer was inspired to start TripAdvisor based on a personal travel planning experience. He was frustrated with the travel resources available in 2000 when he was planning a trip to Mexico. Kaufer, a software engineer by training, recruited an experienced team of software architects and collaborated with high-technology executive and venture capitalist Langley Steinert to build TripAdvisor. The company was sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2004. Kaufer and Steinert remain active in the day-to-day management of the company.

Award sponsor Microsoft presented Kaufer with a $10,000 prize as part of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The money will be directly donated to the Stephen and Caroline Kaufer Fund for Neuroendocrine Research, named in honor of Stephen Kaufer's late wife, who passed away from cancer earlier this year. The fund supports research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor.com is the leading global travel information and advice destination, with more than two million unbiased reviews and opinions and covering more than 200,000 hotels and attractions. With more than 13 million unique monthly visitors worldwide, TripAdvisor.com offers easy access to major online travel sites, including Expedia, Orbitz, hotels.com, American Airlines and Travelocity, for the best deals on the Web. TripAdvisor offers travel suppliers a cost-per-click marketing platform, so customers pay only for leads, not impressions, with every campaign. Winner of dozens of awards, including PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites and Forbes Best of the Web, TripAdvisor is part of IAC/InterActiveCorp .

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SOURCE: TripAdvisor, Inc.