Yesterday, I wrote about the travel restriction on Cuba, and before that, Part I and Part II of my Grand Tour. Today, we switch to a current-event topic in the travel world.
Over the last weeks, there has been some fairly heated debate over what’s going on in travel blogging. The ongoing debate was as to the ethics surrounding writing for things gave away freebies. As a relatively new addition to the field, I’m not quite sure I understand what the controversy is about. This can be encapsulated in a very simple statement:
Travel writers have been getting comped things as long as there has been travel writing.
Some weeks ago, there was a huge controversy when a group of bloggers and tweeters in the travel field were invited on a cruise by Princess Cruise Lines, and invited to blog and twitter about their experiences on the cruise. All the tweets would be tagged #followmeatsea. An excellent summary of all the events done by Rich can be found at BrilliantTrips. Gary over at Everything Everywhere also does a great job of covering the events, from another perspective.
Everything was all well and fine until the entire thing exploded. Lila makes an excellent point in this article, and was one of the articles that led me to post this. I am relatively new to the travel blogging community, but I think that gives me a unique viewpoint that some folks that have been in this a few years might not have.
Blogging is only 10 years old. The bubble will burst at some point.
There cannot be an infinite number of travel blogs out there. Eventually, as with everything, the market will reach a saturation point. Social media is the same way. You can only have so many tweets by travellers before people just throw up their hands and realize all they’re doing is tweeting to each other. Now, I’m not saying that that point has arrived, but I’m saying that it will arrive at some point.
All of this business with the cruise however, is sort of indicative of that happening. Instead of intelligent discourse over the ethics of something, or the environmental impacts of cruising (thanks again to Lila! You’re awesome!), what happens is that because of the ease of having a twitter account, or the ease of commenting on a blog, you get infighting. Unfortunately, the one downside of blogging is that everyone can have an opinion, whether its founded or not, or backed up by experience or not.
So what does this all mean?
In some senses, the internet is the ultimate expression of capitalism. There is fierce competition for subscribers, page-views, twitter followers, and Search Engine spots. And ultimately, it’s driven by the market forces. Higher numbers of each of these things translates to more ad-clicks and money generated.
Ultimately however, it’s going to be the content that carries people through the forthcoming bubble. When there are 25 articles entitled “Top 10 Hidden European Destinations” or “Tips for finding great flights,” the expected return from each of these blog posts in terms of ad revenue is going to be low.
Now, if you think this means I’m criticising social media, I’m not. I think it’s a great tool, and it’s what will carry travel writing from now on. It’s integral. But I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Also, social media growth is so fast that every day, we are seeing new forms of media. There will be opportunities to use them to collaborate on travel in the future, which was the unfortunate breakdown of #followmeatasea.
The final word…
No one gets into travel writing solely because they want to make money. A lot of people decide they can make money off it, but I like to believe the ultimate motivation is a love of movement, a love of going places, seeing new things, and expanding ones’ self. And if everyone does his or her part to find new and great content, and get it out to as many people as possible, the real future of travel blogging will be achieved.
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So very true.
I think about this all the time. How many travel writers and bloggers does the world need? I suppose in some ways, that’s the question that keeps me from thinking of myself as a travel writer. I think of myself more as a fiction writer, but life, circumstance and interest has lead me of late to write about travel.
And I do love being part of the community. I find I meet so many wonderful people. Some I’ve met in person over drinks or dinner somewhere in the world. Others I know only through online.
I do think there’s a tendency for some to take this all very seriously. That, I think, is a mistake.
Your image of the travel writing as a bubble waiting to burst is rather apt, and I wrote something similar about social media in general last year.
http://tinyurl.com/dhhc56
Anyway, thank you for this article. It is insightful, interesting and informative. I appreciate the list of links you include and am honored that have included my writing among those mentioned.
Wonderful to meet you, Dan. Hasta la proxima!
You make a good point. I think the best travel writing is done through the lens of something else, or works toward advancing another point of view. You’ve got some great ideas on your site, and I’m definitely keeping up with it.