Gloria May 21, 2009 Opinions, Social

Words matter: ‘local travel’ & other phrases

Using local transport in Antigua, Guatemala / Photo by Stephen Chapman

Using local transport in Antigua, Guatemala / Photo by Stephen Chapman

Over the past few days I have enjoyed reading a number of articles about travel issues in general. One I have particularly enjoyed, and I am sorry that I did not get a chance to read before, is ‘Another new local travel knowledge site‘ by Stephen Chapman, founder of Make Travel Fair.

Stephen discusses a very interesting issue:

“how quickly a phrase or an idea can catch on and seem to spawn a whole new generation of websites almost overnight”

more specifically he deals with how

‘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 article got me thinking about a number of issues. We have a vacation rental in Tuscany. We made the decision to make it as locally-rooted as possible from the very moment we started it. It seemed the obvious way to go, despite being a clear counter-tendency in a place like Tuscany, where ‘off-the-beaten-path’ (if such thing still exists here) is generally equated with ‘completely deprived of any tourist interest at all’. In such a well-know region, if nobody has already made an area ‘popular’, then it must be because there is nothing to see or do there.

Continue reading this article @ At Home in Tuscany

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Written by Gloria

A "born and bred Tuscan". My whole family comes from a small village called Civitella Marittima, halfway between Siena and the coast of the Maremma, and to me this is more than just the place I come from, it’s essentially who I am: the way I talk, my habits, tastes, and knowledge depend on the fact that I was born and grew up there. I run a holiday home here - Casina di Rosa.

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