desiree fishDesiree Fish, VP of corporate affairs and communications at American Express, is moving to head communications for travel booking site TripAdvisor, which is riding a wave of increased bookings and revenue.

Fish, as VP/global communications, will be based in New York for the Newton, Mass.-headquartered company. She reports to chief marketing officer Barbara Messing and follows the appointment last week of MDC Partners' Anne Bologna as VP-brand strategy.

Her 13-year tenure at AMEX included the launch of several new cards and benefits, as well as its financial crisis campaign pitching the card as the "smarter way to pay." She was previously an A/S at Hunter PR in New York.

Messing said Fish will help build a TripAdvisor reputation as the most trusted and useful travel authority.

Investor's Business Daily reported July 19 that publicly traded TripAdvisor is riding two hot trends – Americans are traveling more and they're using the web to book their excursions. First quarter revenue was up 25% to nearly $230M.

TA claims 200M unique visitors per month.