Wikimedia may be launching its own online travel guide (update)

Wikimedia, the parent of Wikipedia, may be helping to create a competitor to TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet. Skift reports that the board of trustees have voted to approve an ad-free travel guide, which will allegedly be built in partnership with other travel wikis. Administrators from Wikitravel and Wikivoyage have reportedly pledged to work with Wikimedia, with Wikitravel administrators complaining that their own site — owned by Internet Brands — is “frozen in time.” This new project, one person says, gives the site a second chance.

Relatively little is known about the unnamed wiki, but Skift says that serious development will start in September. The free guide will be written by users and supervised by Wikitravel and Wikivoyage administrators, and some content could be imported from those sites as well. Wikimedia may not replace established travel guides, but it could raise the bar on user-provided information and reviews. We’ve reached out to Wikimedia for more details and will update with any news.

Update: Wikimedia says that the Board of Trustees of the Foundation has not yet voted to approve a Wikimedia-based travel site — the board has requested an additional six weeks for discussion before a decision will be made on the project.