Mobil Travel Guide Becomes Forbes Travel Guide

Nov 10, 09 | 1:51 am

The Mobil Travel Guide, publishers of the world's most prestigious star ratings systems for hotels, will now become Forbes Travel Guide after a licensing agreement between Mobil Travel Guide and Forbes Media LLC. An exclusive licensing agreement between the two industry leaders, with more than 140 years' combined experience, transfers the hospitality industry's premier star rating and travel guide brand from ExxonMobil to Forbes.

The Mobil Four and Five Star Award designation will now become the new "Forbes Four and Five Star Award" designation for hotels, restaurants and spas.

The 2010 ratings announcements will be announced at a glittering event in New York City next Monday, November 9th, 2009.

Hong Kong and Macau hotels and spas were rated by the prestigious guide for the first time last year and received the highest number of five star designations in any one city so far rated.

Through the partnership with Forbes Media LLC, Mobil Travel Guide plans to continue to set the standard and define the category of Five Star hotels, restaurants, and spas in the U.S. and around the world including Hong Kong, Macau and Beijing.

The honors for Hong Kong and Macau were presented last year by Mobil Travel Guide and the Hong Kong Tourism Board at a prestigious ceremony at The Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong on November 6 2008.  Key leaders in Hong Kong's tourism market, including many of the region's top hoteliers and government officials, welcomed the brand to the local market. 

This year, all the awards will be announced at the evening event in New York on Monday 9_^th November.

Those in Hong Kong who wish to be the first to learn which hotels and spas are given four and five star ratings can follow the results via Twitter on www.twitter.com/ForbesInspector. The results will start being announced from 8am Hong Kong time on Tuesday 10_^th November.

Forbes Travel Guide is poised to become the premier resource for travel information through its relaunched guide series, and new highly interactive website, to be unveiled in the second quarter of 2010.

"We are very excited as we launch this new era, under the Forbes Travel Guide banner. We feel that linking the Star Rating system to the strong luxury brand heritage of Forbes will provide more value to both the consumer and the hospitality industry by identifying the best that hotels, restaurants and spas have to offer around the world," said Shane O'Flaherty, President and CEO of Forbes Travel Guide. "The new Forbes Travel Guide is committed to the same rigor and discipline of the inspections and ratings process as Mobil Travel Guide has been for the past five decades."


About Forbes Travel Guide

Forbes Travel Guide is the new name for Mobil Travel Guide, the originator of the prestigious Five Star ratings and certifications. The company has provided the most comprehensive ratings and reviews of hotels, restaurants and spas since 1958. Forbes Travel Guide's team of anonymous, expert inspectors evaluates properties against rigorous and objective proprietary standards, giving consumers the insight to make better-informed travel and leisure decisions. Forbes Travel Guide, under license from Forbes Media LLC, is headquartered in Chicago, IL.


About Forbes Media LLC

Forbes Media encompasses Forbes and Forbes.com, the number 1 business site on the Web that reaches 18.6 million people monthly. The company publishes Forbes and Forbes Asia, which together reach a worldwide audience of more than 5.4 million readers. It also publishes ForbesLife and ForbesWoman magazines, in addition to local licensee editions in China, Croatia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and India. Other Forbes Media sites are: ForbesTraveler.com; Investopedia.com; RealClearPolitics.com; RealClearMarkets.com; RealClearSports.com; and the Forbes.com Business and Finance Blog Network. Together with Forbes.com, these sites reach nearly 40 million business decision makers each month.