This is Travel was a travel site published by Associated New Media, mixing editorial content with commercial deals.
It was the second major launch I was involved in with ANM. Work started in mid-2001 on what was to become a very large and comprehensive site.
The aim was to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for a user’s travel needs, covering all stages of the holidaying process. A customer could find inspiration and fresh ideas for their holiday through a variety of search tools leading to a vast archive of travel features from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as well as substantial amounts of original writing.
For researching destinations there were country, city, resort and hotel guides as well as live weather reports, climate histories, snowfall guides for ski resorts, photo galleries and currency exchange rates.
An Advice Bank gave tips on many aspects of planning and making the most of a holiday, and there were numerous other sections and tools such as sun factor calculators, phrase books, airport guides, a cruise ship database, airline seat layouts etc.
Flights, hotels and holiday packages could then be booked through the site, and a message board provided for people to discuss their holiday experiences with others and to share tips.
The site evolved over the years into a more purely commercial offering, before eventually being merged with the Teletext brand.
