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Travel Beyond Words
August 6th, 2008
Thoughts on Travel from Travel Rants
- Mark Evans
- Director, Community
One of my favorite travel bloggers is Darren Cronian, who writes the popular and award-winning Travel Rants blog. Darren recently invited his Twitter followers to “interrogate him” about the travel industry, so I took him up on the offer.
With the growing interest in being green and the environment, how do you think the travel industry is going to change or will have to change?
The travel industry is going to have to tackle the environment and global warming issue head on as a group, rather than individually. I’ve seen environment initiatives and they don’t touch the surface. The industry in my eyes has a responsibility to educate consumers.
What’s your take on how travel will be affected by slower economic growth, particularly in the U.S. How will this change how people travel?
I’ve recently read that U.S. visits from Brits were up 11% during May, compared with the same month last year. I think the good pound to dollar exchange rate and the fact that shopping and travelling within the U.S. is much cheaper is the reason.
On the other side of the pond, us Brits are lucky in that we can travel around Europe on low cost airlines for the same price as it costs to get a train from one side of the country to the other. It was recently cheaper for me to buy a return ticket to Slovenia than it was to get a train to London.
I don’t think we’ll see a massive reduction in tourists travelling abroad despite what the media might report, consumers simply need a holiday and break away from it all. Holidays are just as expensive in the U.K. as they’re abroad, with no guarantee of good weather.
What kind travel do you see as up-and-coming? For example, is eco-tourism going to see big growth, or will adventure travel attract a lot of attention?
With over 20 million people reportedly booking their own DIY holiday this year, we are starting to see an increase in multi-centre holidays. Consumers are much more adventurous than they were five years ago. More of us want to take short long weekend breaks to different destinations, rather than have one holiday in one destination.
I don’t think consumers understand eco-tourism holidays. I know I don’t quite ‘get it’ and this is where educating travellers about the environment is important.
What do see as some of the more exciting destinations that people are starting to explore?
Long haul destinations seem to becoming popular as the Euro is strong against the weak Pound, so travellers can get better value for money in destinations like Thailand and Hong Kong. Let’s not forget Eastern European destinations though, like Slovenia, Slovakia and Latvia.
Can you give me the Travel Rants story? When and why did you start writing it? How did the blog evolved? Do you think travel bloggers are starting to get the same as attention and respect from the travel industry as travel journalists?
Well, it’s a question I am asked regularly, and to cut a long story short. I paid a visit to a high street travel agency. The agent who dealt with me had no intention of helping me; she was more bothered about planning her weekend than helping a consumer.
I made my feelings known and walked out of the shop, never to visit again.
I’d heard about blogs from a computer magazine I subscribed to at the time, so I bought hosting, domain, and Travel Rants was created. I write in my spare time, and I’ve no working knowledge of the travel industry so this gives me the opportunity to write from my own experiences.
The blog was featured in the Guardian as an ‘Essential travel website’ along with Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor In 2007 and again this year, Travel Rants was voted best travel consumer blog in the Travolution Awards, which is a massive achievement, considering I was up against a large media organisation.
I don’t think that bloggers get the same respect as journalists from within the travel industry. That does not bother me too much, as I prefer to have my own voice and opinions. One day the industry will catch on and realise how powerful blogs and social media can be.
Technorati Tags: travel rants, travel
Tags: darren cronian, Travel, Travel Rants
7 Responses to “Thoughts on Travel from Travel Rants”
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August 6th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Nice post, Mark,
As both a travel journalist blogger, I agree with Darren that travel bloggers do not get the same respect as journalists. I think a lot of folks, including PR people, are not yet convinced of the power of the blog.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I agree with Darren that UK travel bloggers are not taken seriously by the travel
industry.Travel companies and PR companies are still fixated by the circulation
figures of print media and when they compare these with the daily visit figures of
blogs dismiss blogs. However they forget the evergreen nature of blogs, that
newspapers and magazine will be in the recycling bin within days. A
print media circulation figure doesn’t mean that every reader is looking at the
travel section whereas a reader coming to a travel blog is interested in travel.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am
[...] a busy week here at Travel Rants HQ [well my living room]. I survived being interrogated by Mark at Planet Eye and Gareth at ASAP Ventures about my thoughts on travel. Phew. Who said managing a blog was easy [...]
August 13th, 2008 at 6:14 am
@Karen
There are many printed media who do good job online. I see a tendency of
simultaneously publishing the same stuff in print and online, while
the barriers behind which their content used to be hidden (payment or
subscription) are being taken down.
I even believe that there are so few UK based travel bloggers because the
BBC, The Guardian, The Times and other UK based news providers are doing such
a good job….
August 28th, 2008 at 12:34 am
well this is useful… (at least for me)
very thanks
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travel link
September 6th, 2008 at 9:08 am
It’s not often that I disagree with the Happy Hotelier, but I am going to on this occasion.
The BBC has no travel content (unless you include Lonely Planet)
The Guardian has a blog, but is very rarely updated
The Times doesn’t have a blog that I am aware of
So, I would disagree that they do a good job blogging.
The problem with the majority of Brits is that they want to run an online business that
generates revenue with very little work. Blogging as we all know is certainly
not that.
That is also the reason why travel companies do not get into blogging, because
they see the time it takes to write content, but they do not realise how powerful
the content is.
Instead they would prefer to waste thousands of pounds on Google PPC.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
insightful analysis and lively discussion here makes this blog the destination for those wanting to write creatively and think about our society and the impact we make on it at home and abroad