The project was begun in July of 2003 by the two founders, Evan and Maj. It was inspired by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and by the needs of travellers for timely information that long book-publishing cycles can't seem to meet. In April 2006, Wikitravel and World66, another travel wiki, were acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., an operator of consumer information Web sites.
Wikitravel is built with the spirit of sharing knowledge that makes travel so enjoyable. Whenever travellers meet each other on the road, they swap info about the places they came from and ask questions about places they're going. We want to make it easy to share that knowledge and let others share it; our copyleft license means that the facts you know can spread far and wide.
To create Wikitravel we use a tool (or a process, or a technology) called Wiki which lets any Internet reader create, update, edit, and illustrate any article on the web site. We all share our pieces of knowledge, edit them, distill them, and assemble them into a pleasing and cohesive whole. The more people that use the Edit link, the better Wikitravel becomes.
You're currently in the Shared section of the site, which serves as a repository of images and a central coordination point for all language versions. (Read more about it here.) The English travel guide is over at http://wikitravel.org/en; see Language versions for the full list of versions.