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Wikipedia launches online travel guide

The foundation behind crowd-sourced knowledge compendium Wikipedia launched a free online travel guide built collaboratively by volunteers from around the globe.

Wikimedia Foundation rolled out Wikivoyage.Org as its popular online encyclopedia celebrated its 12th birthday and said yesterday that the travel guide was debuting with 50,000 articles in more than a half-dozen languages.

"There's a huge global demand for travel information, but very few sources are both comprehensive and non-commercial," Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner said in a release. "That's about to change."

A Wikivoyage travel guide available online since 2006 and supported by a German non-profit association by the same name donated its content and brand to the new project, according to Wikimedia.

"The purpose of the Wikivoyage Association is to promote education and knowledge of all countries and regions in the world, as well as understanding among nations," said association board chairman Stefan Fussan.

"We're very excited about the launch of Wikivoyage as a Wikimedia project."

Wikivoyage content is written by travelers, for travelers, in native languages, according to project administrator Peter Fitzgerald.