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Another new local travel knowledge site
It’s astonishing just how quickly a phrase or an idea can catch on and seem to spawn a whole new generation of websites almost overnight.
Overtaking the Ice-cream man in Indonesia / Photo by Stephen Chapman
‘Local travel’ feels like it’s hit the big time at the moment, everyone wants a piece of the action, everyone wants to get involved in a web start-up and wrestle to become the next big thing in travel.
The whole ‘local travel’ ethic pioneered by the likes of Your Safe Planet (‘Your friend at the other end’), whl.travel (‘…your local connection’), and Guardian Journalist Vicky Baker a number of years ago has struggled to be heard for a long time, and the problem now for companies dedicated to providing a trusted service is competing with the great deal of noise unleashed by recent Web 2.0 (or is it Web 3.0?) start-ups around the subject. There seems to be a mixed bag of thoughts on whether ‘local travel’ refers to utilising the help of people native to the destination you are exploring or whether it simply refers to utilising tips from fellow travellers who have been there, or both. One thing is for sure that without a business model behind many of these initiatives that are popping up they are open to abuse and cannot always be trusted.
New ‘Local travel’ Forums
I recently discovered travellr (‘Ask the world a question’). It’s still in private beta but has a slick looking interface with a nice (very Web 2.0) ability to filter other people’s questions and answers based on the information you provide in your profile about places you’ve been and lived. It’s like Lonely Planet Thorn Tree brought up to date by making it more personally relevant, and easier to find information so often buried in the threads of heavily used forums. No sooner had I found travellr than I was directed to Localyte (‘Travel like a local!’), basically another travel forum to post questions and answers. Does the internet need more travel forums? My experience is that without constant care and attention these mediums are a haven for spammers and marketers.
New ‘Local travel’ Blogs
One of the more recently acclaimed websites ‘Spotted by Locals‘ is different from the two listed above in that it is a multi-authored blog and not a travel forum. ‘Spotters’ around Europe post short articles about things they find around their city that might be of interest to travellers. The site recently won best group authored blog in the inaugural Lonely Planet Blog Awards, beating the Matador Network behemoth and indicating just how popular the ‘local travel’ phrase is becoming. I think local blogs like these can be a gold mine of information and extremely useful. It would be great to see bloggers like this working closer with national tourist boards (interesting article by Chris Brogan ‘How Bloggers Can Work With Tourist Boards‘), but I fear their goal is to motivate people to visit and spend lots of money; not promote off the beaten track, small affordable local secrets.
The free lunch
With so many services available online for free these days, it’s a wonder anyone is making any money. Is everyone reliant on investment to push their projects far enough into the public domain so that one day they can exist off advertising deals? Is everyone striving to build something of value that will one day reach a critical mass of followers and be snapped up by one of ‘the big guys’, making the founders a small fortune? or is all this just careless business being carried out by people who simply build something because they want to and because they can, without seeing the need for any real revenue model?
The role of the brand
Hopefully the day will one day return when people don’t mind paying to secure a quality service offered by a brand with integrity, quality, ethics and a strong business model. I increasingly find my time swallowed up trying to keep on top of technology, who’s saying what, who’s been where, what’s new and what other people are doing in the travel industry. With so many social media channels to monitor, so much information passing before my eyes I yearn for a brand/company that I can trust, one that I know is moving in the right direction, innovating and will always keeps it’s feet on the ground. I’m in the midst of making the transition from PC to Mac for this reason. I think as we become more overloaded and overwhelmed by the internet we will once again surrender our decision making process to a brand/company that we respect and trust it to do us proud in our travel choice.
Further information:
Stephen Chapman
Founder of Make Travel Fair and editor of Make Travel Fair UK. Recently returned from an around-the-world trip taking in the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Indonesia amongst others. He is always planning his next escape but in the mean time is learning to appreciate the surroundings he grew up in.
