From correspondents in Delhi, India, 10:32 PM IST

Travellers can now bond online to share information and tid-bits about their favourite destinations, food entertainment and holiday itineraries, and also review destinations of their choice.

Zoomtra.com, India's first independent travel search engine, has launched a destination and travel review platform, 'India Dekha' on Orkut and Facebook, two popular social networking internet sites.

It is the first-of-its-kind travel networking space that collects public reviews about various places in India and allows Orkut and Facebook users to select a destination, review and rate it, said a Zoomtra press communique.

Once the application is added to the user's account, the user can select any destination from the list to add it as hometown or a place that the user has visited or wants to go to.

According to Zoomtra, users also have the option to make their own maps of the destinations and share these with others.

'It is amazing to see the passion that people have for destinations in India and their eagerness to express and share their views. The idea behind developing this application is to encourage peer advice among travellers to enable them with right decision making,' said Vikas Jawa, director of Zoomtra.com.

The application, Jawa said, would help travel enthusiasts plan a trip, find the best airlines, reasonable tariffs, hotels, and travel package deals without seeking recourse to a travel agent and paying him.

'India Dekha' has more than 100,000 registered users and has generated over 80,000 destination reviews.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)