KAYAK gets in on Wave Season with New Partnership with Tripadvisor's Cruise Critic

As momentum around cruises continues to rebound, KAYAK users now have access to Cruise Critic's vast network of content

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Feb 03, 2022, 07:00 ET

NEEDHAM, Mass., Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Cruise Critic, the world's leading cruise reviews site and a subsidiary of Tripadvisor, announced a partnership with travel search engine KAYAK to jumpstart the company's return to offering cruises in its search results. Now, travelers in the U.S. searching for a cruise on KAYAK will have access to Cruise Critic's vast network of cruise itineraries and reviews.

As the cruise industry continues to rebound and move toward pre-pandemic levels, interest from travelers looking to book a cruise remains strong. To support this demand – particularly among KAYAK travelers – the two market leaders have come together to further drive bookings and assist those looking to return to sea.

How it works:
Now, KAYAK users can search and shop for a cruise by destination, cruise line and/or departure month directly on KAYAK.com. Once that search is initiated, the user is sent to a Cruise Critic-powered experience which leverages Cruise Critic's in-depth reviews and wide range of bookable cruises to help travelers find the cruise that best fits their needs.

"Teaming up with KAYAK to bring our vast inventory of cruise ships and reviews to their audience of travelers is an exciting opportunity," said Mark Patscher, Senior Director of Sales at Cruise Critic. "As demand continues to rise across the wider travel market, we're thrilled to be able to make it easier for KAYAK to more effectively deliver a high-quality cruise experience to their extensive network of users."

A win-win: For Cruise Critic, this partnership offers a boost in traffic for the site and its partners. For KAYAK, it provides the ability to scale their cruise business with one of the most trusted cruise partners in the industry.

"As momentum around cruises returns this year, we want to ensure that we continue bringing value to our travelers by providing them with all of their options in one place - cruises included," said Annie Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer at KAYAK. "Just in time for wave season, our travelers can now access cruise content, reviews and itineraries for a more seamless and comprehensive travel planning experience."

"We are extremely proud of the value that KAYAK finds in our product, and are honored to be able to help better serve their users," said Mike Ewing, GM of Cruise Critic. "We're confident that the partnership between these two travel industry powerhouses will help more travelers around the world find and book the right cruise for them."

About Cruise Critic
Cruise Critic^® is an online cruise guide, offering a comprehensive resource for cruise travelers, from first-time cruisers to avid cruise enthusiasts. The site features more than 650,000 cruise reviews and hosts the world's largest online cruise community where travelers share experiences and opinions with fellow cruisers. Cruise Critic was the first consumer cruise site on the Internet, launched in October 1995 by The Independent Traveler, Inc., a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, Inc.

About KAYAK
KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world's leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car, cruise, vacation package. We also support business travelers with KAYAK for Business, our free corporate travel solution and are transforming the in-travel experience with our app and new hotel and accommodation software. For more information, visit www.KAYAK.com.

About Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor, the world's largest travel guidance platform*, helps hundreds of millions of people each month** become better travelers, from planning to booking to taking a trip. Travelers across the globe use the Tripadvisor site and app to discover where to stay, what to do and where to eat based on guidance from those who have been there before. With more than 934 million reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, travelers turn to Tripadvisor to find deals on accommodations, book experiences, reserve tables at delicious restaurants and discover great places nearby. As a travel guidance company available in 43 markets and 22 languages, Tripadvisor makes planning easy no matter the trip type.

The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP), own and operate a portfolio of travel media brands and businesses, operating under various websites and apps, including the following websites:

www.bokun.io, www.cruisecritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.thefork.com, www.helloreco.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.housetrip.com, www.jetsetter.com, www.niumba.com, www.seatguru.com, www.singleplatform.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, and www.viator.com.