NEW YORK – Travora Media, creating a next-generation media brand in travel with local, social and mobile content services, today announced the acquisition of The Nile Project, Inc.(Nile Media), a San Francisco-based company with a portfolio of three well-known websites: NileGuide, 10Best, and Localyte and mobile apps focused on providing local expertise to travelers. Terms of the acquisition were not released.

With a highly-educated and travel-savvy audience, the Nile Media sites specialize in producing content that travel information seekers need to plan their next trip, including top 10 must-see lists, fresh weekly articles from local writers around the world, answers to travel questions from more than 100,000 global community members and tour guides, suggested trip itineraries, and original travel reporting and image galleries showcasing unique themes or events. Nile Media adds over a million new travelers to the Travora Audience Platform of more than 26 million proven travel consumers.

“In a world of ad inventory commoditization and ‘manufactured context,’ Travora is moving in the opposite direction by delivering more authentic travel content experiences to our users and sponsors,” says Nan Forte, CEO of Travora Media. “With fresh content from across the globe from more than 100 local editors, Nile Media’s sites enable us to more rapidly build out our local, social and mobile portfolio of trusted travel information brands. This acquisition, the first in a series of initiatives focused on transforming the digital travel consumer experience, brings the company a complementary audience, set of resources and leadership team to our mission of bringing trust and joy to travel on all new levels.”

Josh Steinitz, CEO of Nile Media, who will become a principle member of the executive team at Travora Media, says, “We are excited to join Travora Media and deliver authentic travel content and original digital product offerings for travel-minded consumers along with innovative marketing solutions for advertisers. With the new resources Travora brings, we can accelerate offering consumers access to quality content across all platforms – enhanced by the most popular social and community conversations around travel – while delivering customized audiences and ad formats to meet the needs of today’s lifestyle marketers.”

With well over a million unique visitors each month, Nile Media (www.nileguide.com) is a unique collection of industry-leading travel sites (10Best.com, NileGuide.com and Localyte.com) that provide sophisticated, modern travelers with everything they need to plan their perfect trip. From exceptional articles and ‘must see’ lists written by local editors to a proprietary ‘ask a local’ Q & A platform, the Nile Media collection has everything travelers need to find great recommendations based on real local expertise. Founded in 2006, Nile Media received venture funding from investors including Draper Richards, KPG Ventures, Austin Ventures, and Tenaya Capital.

Travora Media Inc. (www.travoramedia.com) represents the next generation of travel media and information, with hundreds of travel style websites and mobile apps and 26 million qualified travelers under its umbrella. Travora offers exclusive publisher representation across all stages of the travel lifecycle to publishers including Not For Tourists, Wanderfly, HopStop, Vayama, Viator, Rough Guides, Rand McNally, and many more. This exclusivity brings turnkey revenue solutions for travel publishers, and total access to a 100% Travel Qualified audience across local, social and mobile platforms for brands.

February 27, 2012 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Travel recommendation site 10Best.com today announced the winners of its inaugural 10Besties Readers’ Choice Travel Awards. Voting in the 10Besties began in late January with 20 nominees in each of 10 categories ranging from Best Beaches and Best Foodie Destinations, to Best Ski Resorts and Best Museums. 10Best’s readers were asked to vote for their favorite locations in each category.

“We’re thrilled to announce the winners of our inaugural 10Besties program from such a diverse group of nominees,” said Josh Steinitz, CEO of 10Best.com’s parent company Nile Media.  “We were blown away by the massive volume of votes we received from our readers, and are excited to grow this program annually as we move forward. These awards will help and inspire our users when they look to plan their next trips.”

In keeping with the site’s focus, 10Best.com has announced the 10 winners in each of its travel award categories as determined by its more than one million readers. Below are the #1 picks in each category, followed by the full lists of winners.

1. Best Beaches: #1 – Outer Banks, NC
2. Best Ski Resorts: #1 – Aspen Mountain, Aspen, CO
3. Best Theme Parks: #1 – Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO
4. Best Spring Break Destinations: #1 – Myrtle Beach, SC
5. Best Foodie Destinations: #1 – Chicago, IL
6. Best Museums: #1 – Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
7. Best Active Destinations: #1 – Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
8. Best Beach Resorts/Hotels: #1 – Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui, HI
9. Best Zoos: #1 – Columbus Zoo, Columbus, OH
10. Best Aquariums: #1 – Newport Aquarium, near Cincinnati, OH

Top 10 winners in each of 10Best.com’s 10 travel award categories:

10 Best Beaches:
1. Outer Banks, NC
2. Hilton Head Island, SC
3. Myrtle Beach, SC
4. Sanibel Island, FL
5. Panama City Beach, FL
6. Maui, HI
7. Virginia Beach, VA
8. Kauai, HI
9. Siesta Key, FL
10. Coronado Beach, CA

10 Best Ski Resorts:
1. Aspen
2. Breckenridge
3. Vail
4. Telluride
5. Jackson Hole
6. Park City
7. Steamboat
8. Keystone
9. Whistler Blackcomb
10. Wolf Creek

10 Best Theme Parks:
1. Silver Dollar City
2. Cedar Point
3. Walt Disney World
4. King’s Island
5. Dollywood
6. Busch Gardens Williamsburg
7. Disneyland & California Adventure
8. Universal Studios Hollywood
9. Carowinds
10. Busch Gardens Tampa

10 Best Spring Break Destinations:
1. Myrtle Beach, SC
2. Key West, FL
3. Cancun, Mexico
4. Galveston, TX
5. Orlando, FL
6. Las Vegas, NV
7. Chicago, IL
8. Panama City Beach, FL
9. South Padre Island, TX
10. New Orleans, LA

10 Best Foodie Destinations:
1. Chicago, IL
2. New Orleans, LA
3. New York, NY
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Charleston, SC
7. Boston, MA
8. Memphis, TN
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Atlanta, GA

10 Best Museums:
1. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, D.C.
2. Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
3. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, D.C.
4. Henry Ford Museum, Detroit
5. Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
6. Art Institute of Chicago
7. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
8. American Museum of Natural History, New York
9. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
10. National Gallery of Art, D.C.

10 Best Active Destinations:
1. Grand Canyon National Park
2. Jackson Hole, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park
3. Outer Banks, NC
4. Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon National Park
5. Asheville, NC
6. Yosemite National Park
7. San Francisco Bay Area
8. Glacier National Park
9. Maui, HI
10. Big Island, HI

10 Best Beach Resorts/Hotels:
1. Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui, HI
2. Sandpearl Resort, Clearwater, FL
3. Kahala Hotel & Resort, Waikiki, HI
4. St. Regis Princeville, Kauai, HI
5. Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, CA
6. The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL
7. Ritz-Carlton, Naples, FL
8. The Sanctuary at Kiawah Golf Resort, SC
9. Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, FL
10. Castle Hill Inn, Newport, RI

10 Best Zoos:
1. Columbus Zoo
2. Cincinnati Zoo
3. Oklahoma City Zoo
4. St. Louis Zoo
5. Phoenix Zoo
6. San Diego Zoo
7. Toledo Zoo
8. San Diego Zoo Safari Park
9. Disney’s Animal Kingdom
10. Brookfield Zoo

10 Best Aquariums:
1. Newport Aquarium, Cincinnati
2. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago
3. Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta
4. Monterey Bay Aquarium
5. National Aquarium, Baltimore
6. Moody Gardens, Galveston
7. Oregon Coast Aquarium
8. Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
9. Discovery Cove, Orlando
10. South Carolina Aquarium

About 10Best
10best.com makes trip planning easy with engaging travel recommendations and practical “Top 10” lists of great restaurants, fun things to do, places to stay and important sites to visit around the world.   These lists are fastidiously compiled and curated by 10Best’s own team of expert travel editors from around the world.

About Nile Media
Nile Media is a unique collection of industry-leading travel sites (10Best.com, NileGuide.com and Localyte.com) that provide sophisticated, modern travelers with everything they need to plan their next trip. From exceptional articles and ‘must see’ lists written by our local editors to a proprietary ‘ask a local’ Q & A platform, the Nile Media collection has it all. Nile Media is based in San Francisco.

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Contact Information:
Molly Drake, Marketing Manager
mobile: 415-728-6178
molly@nileguide.com

In addition to the deep focus on travel photos, the new site features a major dose of original destination and thematic content, including fresh articles in categories such as “Affordable Family Destinations,” “Let it Pour” (featuring breweries, wineries and distilleries), “Will Travel for Food” (showcasing ideas for culinary adventures) and many more. For the first time, 10Best is now being infused with rich, original content on a regular basis from the global network of local editors built by NileGuide.

Key site features were also upgraded to further cement 10Best.com as a best-of-breed travel planning resource.  These include the inclusion of up-to-date menus for every restaurant listing and an improved sorting and filtering mechanism that enables users to drill-down further into 10Best’s editorial “Best of” lists via options ranging from “cheap eats” to “family-friendly.”

“We set ourselves on a mission to radically improve user engagement on 10Best.com,” offers Josh Steinitz, CEO of parent company NileGuide.  “We employed rigorous user testing and relied on our network of top-tier editors from around the world to produce what is truly a new and category-leading site experience.  I’m thrilled with the result and look forward to continuing to leverage the strengths we have across our individual portfolio websites to build high-engagement, category-leading digital products for travelers.”

About 10Best

10best.com makes trip planning easy with engaging travel news and practical “Top 10” lists of great restaurants, fun things to do, places to stay and important sites to visit around the world.   These lists are fastidiously compiled and curated by 10Best’s own team of expert travel editors from around the world.

About NileGuide

NileGuide.com offers unique, “for travelers, by locals” recommendations and free itineraries covering what to see and do, as well as where to stay and eat, in thousands of popular travel destinations.  These recommendations and original itineraries are created by a unique network of NileGuide editors, or “Local Experts,” spanning the globe.  NileGuide.com also provides a Q&A tool that allows travelers to ask questions and get answers from more than 75,000 local community members around the world.

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Contact Information:

Anne Moellering

VP, Marketing

650-636-9369 ext. 103

anne@nileguide.com

“We’re committed to creating high-quality original travel content that marries local knowledge with expert editorial, and this acquisition helps us accelerate that strategy,” said NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz.

NileGuide has a proprietary global network of several hundred contributing editors, known as NileGuide Local Experts, who live in top travel destinations around the world. These Local Experts provide free itineraries and unique, “for-travelers-by-locals” insight into topics ranging from the top kid-friendly things to do in London to the best hotels in New York City. Additionally, through the Localyte acquisition, NileGuide.com provides visitors with the unique ability to receive answers to their travel questions from locals living in over 75,000 destinations around the world.

10Best.com, known for its strengths in restaurant and attraction recommendations, features additional original content on the best hotels and places to shop in the world’s top cities. For example, the site provides users with travel advice on topics ranging from the best seafood restaurants in New Orleans to the top attractions in Chicago.

10Best founder Brice Bay of Enveritas Group adds, “We’re excited to bring 10Best to a company that’s growing through a combination of top-notch original content and providing travelers with Q & A access to a massive community of people living in top destinations around the world. NileGuide is pushing the envelope in original travel content, and we’re excited to contribute to their growth.”

About NileGuide

NileGuide.com offers unique, “by-locals-for-travelers” recommendations and free itineraries covering what to see and do, as well as where to stay and eat, in thousands of popular travel destinations. These recommendations and original itineraries are created by over 150 NileGuide editors, or “Local Experts”, spanning the globe. NileGuide.com further provides travelers with the ability to ask questions and get answers from over 75,000 locals around the world.

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Media Contact

Amy Widdowson

amy@nileguide.com

650-636-9369 x106

NileGuide

251 Rhode Island Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

Peter takes the reins of NileGuide’s dynamic tech team, with a long history of start-up leadership. Prior to NileGuide, Peter was Director of Web Engineering at Netflix, where he managed the Streaming Infrastructure group (among others), which helped bring Netflix content to the cloud. Prior to Netflix, he held executive roles at Edge Dynamics, LivePlanet, Excite, and Classified2000. He also spent six years at Apple Computer, helping develop the world’s first PDA, the Newton.

Nick joins NileGuide from the company he co-founded, Voyij, where he designed and implemented a next-generation search engine for travel deals. Prior to Voyij, Nick was the lead engineer for the Faretracker software at Sidestep, prior to their acquisition by Kayak. Nick has also held senior technical roles at Netscape and IBM among others

“NileGuide is committed to innovating and breaking new ground in the online travel category with a compelling user experience,” said CEO Josh Steinitz. “Peter and Nick both bring years of consumer web experience, a passion for serving customers, and deep technology expertise and will help take our company to the next level.”

About NileGuide

Through a global network of local experts and content partnerships with many of the world’s most trusted travel publishers, NileGuide provides a one-stop resource for the best travel recommendations on the web. NileGuide’s web site and mobile applications offer access to hundreds of thousands of points of interest around the world, including hotels, activities, restaurants and suggested itineraries. The company’s technology helps travelers filter their content to find recommendations based on preferences such as “local recommended,” “off the beaten path,” or “family friendly.” For more information, visit NileGuide’s Press Room.

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Media Contact

Amy Widdowson

amy[at]nileguide.com, 650-636-9369 x106

Twitter: @nileguide

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nileguide