TripAdvisor(R), the world’s largest travel community, has launched a traveler network (http://www.tripadvisor.com/network) that allows its 20 million monthly visitors to quickly tap into their most valued resources, their friends, to help them plan their travel more efficiently. TripAdvisor also announced today that it now features 10 million reviews and opinions, up from 5 million one year ago.

Research has shown that consumers rely most on other consumers for travel advice*, especially people they know best.** TripAdvisor’s traveler network allows you to quickly uncover a network of travel experts that you already know and that know you, and base your travel decisions on the opinions of those who share your travel tastes. It’s designed to save you time by helping you prioritize from among TripAdvisor’s more than 10 million reviews and opinions based on relevance to you.

How to get started — It’s easy. You don’t have to create it, just tap into it.

Go to http://www.tripadvisor.com/network and login or register.

Create your travel map to show others where you have been.

Check your email address books, connect with people you know who are members, and invite those who have great travel stories to share.

Now, as you browse the site, researching your next travel destinations, you will see who in your traveler network has already been to the places you’re researching and what they did while they were there.

You can easily connect with people in your traveler network through private messaging, either from your member profile or throughout tripadvisor.com(TM).

TripAdvisor’s traveler network will be available on TripAdvisor’s international domains later this year.