Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[anthony]

Hi,

I happened to chance upon this website while I was doing research for a project that I am doing. It was interesting to find that many people "blog" about their travel experiences and I was wondering if it is true that when people read about these blog, are they likely to travel to the place that the author just went to?

In other words, is travel blog a means of effective advertisment for tourism???

Thanks!!!

[stevejames]

Absolutely.

I don't believe there can be any better recommendation than personal experience. Constantly hearing about my mate's fabulous travels convinced me to take the plunge, and in the same way there are many blogs here that captivate your imagination. For example, I'd never really thought about going to Antarctica until I read velvetnron's travelpod. Now it's on my list...

There are a few posters on this forum that are blatantly working in the tourist industry (most of their posts get dumped by the moderators into the Travel Adverts, Deals and Resources section). Their kind of advertising - glowing posts of utopian paradise - has zero effect on me and I'm starting to see it as a thing of the past. Personally, I want a "warts'n'all" description of a place, far removed from the glossy brochures of tourism. I want the real country, dirt and social problems and all. Blogs give me that.

And blogs can not only give you an overview of a country, but sometimes also of individual hotels and hostels there, providing honest and most importantly current information to us readers planning our trips. Guidebooks are great and all, but yer typical Lonely Planet is going to be at least six months out of date... travelblogs are the way forward!

[China Doll]

Yeah that's right...
We should visit around the world when we're young,so that can leave the beautiful memories.Then we'll record them as a book.
In fact I want to read your tourism book someday.....

[technotrekker]

I'd second Steve on that - it's pretty hard to get coherent up-to-date and independent advice about many places that people in the backpacker market go to.

Tourist advisories and operators embellish facts and present everything in their optimum light, travel agents aren't usually interested in the budget end of town, and searching the web gives you a morass of generally useless or obselete information.

If I'm stuck on a next move then blogs are a great way to check facts and get a picture of the options before you set out. Coupled with online forums like Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, you can make a pretty informed decision before taking the next step.

It should be noted that they are particularly handy when you can search on a specific place at the local level. It comes undone at regional or national levels as searches by country or region turn up too many irrelevant options (much like the web does). This problem will only worsen as blog writing (and forum posting) continues to flourish, so there will need to be more advanced search features provided (e.g by date, activity, ranked multiple terms etc) to pinpoint relevant info for the potential traveller.

With all that said, I wouldn't like to see blogs manipulated into becoming a marketing tool for destinations or service providers as your question seems to imply. It would be difficult to do but am sure some will try (as they have done on forum sites). Might have to keep an eye out for that in future...

Keep trekkin,
TT