• by Tanya Gazdik , July 12, 2016

IHG’s Holiday Inn and Roadtrippers, a web and mobile road trip planner, are encouraging travelers to take more road trips.

The two brands are partnering for the “America’s Most Epic Road Trip” contest offering as its grand prize a road trip across the U.S., which will be crowdsourced from user-generated content contributed by the Roadtrippers community.

For the second year, the brands aim to make it easier and more enjoyable for travelers to plan, chronicle and share their travel experiences as they hit the road. As part of the program, Roadtrippers has launched its new Travel Guides, technology that merge travel stories with functional trip itineraries, so travelers can read about places, locate them on the map, and sync an itinerary across devices.

Last year, Holiday Inn collaborated with the Roadtrippers team to develop articles, photo essays and travel tips, curated to inspire readers to take their own journeys, says Eric Lent, vice president, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, The Americas, IHG. 

“We are excited that this year, we are able to make the program even greater, leveraging Roadtrippers' interactive map and Trip Guides, to seek and select a winner to take an epic road trip of their own, staying in Holiday Inn hotels throughout their travels,” Lent says in a release.

As part of the contest, the Holiday Inn brand and Roadtrippers have asked travelers to share their favorite places to visit within the United States – from natural wonders to small-town hidden gems. The teams will take inspiration from user recommendations to create a single, epic road trip and send one winner on the adventure. To enter for a chance to win*, travelers can share guides they create and encourage friends and family to vote. 

Entries will be evaluated based on alignment with the contest theme (quality of locations submitted), thoroughness and thoughtfulness of editorial as well as by the voting community. Voting is open through Sept. 7.