Roaming Tales

The discussions from the Travel Blog Camp in London continue in the blogosphere.

The Travel Blog Camp in London last week has generated a bit of buzz in the blogosphere - perhaps not surprisingly since it was a blogging event attended largely by bloggers!

As well as my own summary, the following bloggers who attended the event have written about it on their own sites.

• Our host, Darren, from Travel Rants. He is also continuing similarly themed discussions at a new site Traveldotnet.

• Karen from Europe a la Carte (one of the presenters).

• Molly from STA Travelbuzz (presenter).
  

• Kevin from Travolution (presenter).

• Alex from Musings on travel ecommerce (presenter).
  

• Heather from On Her Travels.

• Guido from Happy Hotelier.

• Anthony from Mr and Mrs Smith.

• Ben from Trailbeater.

• Kelly from Sandwagon.

• Matt from Matt Parsons blog.

• Karen from Europe a la Carte.

• Jared from Joobili.

• Jeremy from Travelblatherer.

• Juliette from Mid sur l’Asie.

• Guillaume Thevenot on Hotel Blogs. 

And there’s been a some buzz from bloggers who weren’t at the event as well. Seattle-based Pam of Nerds Eye View gives it a mention on BlogHer, while all New Zealand-based Liz discusses it on Write to Travel.

It seems there is a lot of interest in travel blogging and social media, both for bloggers to be part of a community and for travel companies seeking to engage with and explore the space. The question is where do we go from here?

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In my first post for environmental blog EcoSalon, I write about Cornwall - a stylish choice for an eco-holiday.

I have some exciting news to share - I’m joining EcoSalon as a regular contributor. I’ve been asked to write two posts a week, one on green travel and one on green tech and lifestyle.

My first post is on eco-holidays in Cornwall, looking at walking, food, art and destinations such as the Eden Project. Cornwall is one of my favourite parts of Britain and, as I hope my photos show, an extremely beautiful part of the country. The post was published today and I’m delighted that it’s currently featured as the EcoSalon Daily Favourite right at the top of the site. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Leave a comment either here or on EcoSalon and if you like it, please feel free to share the link with your friends.

The theme of EcoSalon is about going green without sacrificing style and this is something that really strikes a chord with me. Readers who are familiar with this blog and my food blog The Gooseberry Fool might know that I am a passionate environmentalist. However, I also believe that people need inspiration and a reason for hope. We shouldn’t hide from the immensity of the challenge – but if we focus on doom and gloom, we risk generating despair rather than the committed and focused action the planet needs. Despair is just as destructive to the environment as denial.

I’m pleased to be blogging for EcoSalon because the blog is committed to the environment but with an aim to empower and inspire people rather than hector or scare them. There’s enough troubling environmental news out there – the question is what we can do about it.

Lest any fans of Roaming Tales be fretting about the future of this site - never fear! I fully intend to keep my own site and my blogging duties at EcoSalon are as well as, not instead of, what I already do. It’s a paid gig so this properly falls into my day job as a freelance writer.

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The inaugural Travel Blog Camp in London hosted around 80 bloggers and travel industry folk - and some heated discussions.

I had planned to attend World Travel Market either yesterday or today but I’ve been bogged down with a feature deadline. I’m working in an office for the rest of the week so it now looks like I won’t make it this year. To be honest, I’m fine with that. I went two years ago and I wore myself out traipsing around the ExCel centre in London Docklands and collected a huge swathe of business cards and brochures that I never looked at again. I don’t tend to plan either my travelling or my travel writing that way - as a writer I look for interesting stories rather than destinations and as a traveller, there’s no shortage of cool places I’d love to go.

I did, however, go to the Travel Blog Camp organised by Darren from Travel Rants last night. I must say I’m hugely impressed by Darren’s efforts and the fact that he even found sponsorship. The event was in a great location - Doggetts bar on South Bank near Blackfriars Bridge, which is a bit of an ugly building outside but has fabulous space inside and views of the river. When I was told he had close to 100 people registered (about 80 actually attended), I was shocked because I didn’t think there were that many serious travel bloggers in the UK.

The reason became clear on the night - it wasn’t just bloggers but also travel industry professionals and PRs who wanted to engage with bloggers and learn all about how they could be using social media in their own businesses. There were about 80 people in total and I met a fair few of them in the social time before and after the speeches, including Heather from Heather on her Travels and James from itravelnet. I mainly went for the networking opportunities but I actually really enjoyed the speeches - and surrounding debate - as well. I took photos but they didn’t turn out as it was really rather dark and I didn’t use a flash - but I did catch a snap of the welcome sign, which amused me greatly for the novel spelling of ‘blog’. (Blame Doggetts, not Darren, for that one!).

Alex Bainbridge, Musings on travel ecommerce

Our first speaker was Alex Bainbridge, a travel industry consultant who blogs at Musings on travel ecommerce. His name is at the top of his blog and this is deliberate. “I believe a blog should be from a personal perspective - there’s no point trying to be better than the news because you can’t be and people aren’t looking for a rehash of the news on a blog,” Alex said in his speech. Do you agree?

For him, blogging is all about hosting great conversations and he admitted he is sometimes guilty of “extreme blogging” to provoke a reaction in the comments section. “I see comments as a bit of currency so if someone writes something really good on their blog I’ll make time to go and comment,” he added. He said he could envisage a time when he might stop blogging if he found somewhere else to have the conversations he craves, though so far he has resisted the allure of Facebook and Twitter.

Karen Bryan, Europe a la Carte

Europe a la Carte is one of the most successful independent travel blogs both in the UK and globally. Karen Bryan is the founder and she has now taken on other writers, turning it into a multi-author blog cum online travel magazine. Karen’s speech was about the different types of travel blogs and what the future holds for each.

Her first category of travel blog is an online personal travel diary. These bloggers keep their sites for the benefit of family and friends, so they have a written record of the trip, and sometimes to showcase themselves as a potential travel writer. They are often hosted for free by platforms such as Wordpress and Blogger or specific travel-themed equivalents such as Travellers Point and Where Are You Now?. Karen believes this category of blog will continue as long as there is enough quality content for the platforms to make money from advertising.

Her next category of blog is an interactive online travel magazine. This includes offerings from big media organisations such as the Guardian’s Travel Blog and also independent sites such as her own or Darren’s Travel Rants. The former will be able to make money from advertising because they are part of a bigger site. However, life has become more difficult for blogs like hers because of Google’s crackdown on text link ads - bloggers that flout Google’s policy can have their page rank reduced to zero, which a deadly effect on traffic. Karen said one opportunity for online travel magazines is to band together as an advertising network with other sites with quality content. She is currently experimenting with Ad Roll to see if this would work for her. This is the first I’ve heard of Ad Roll and it sounds really interesting. Have any of you used it and have you had much success?

The third category, according to Karen, includes marketing blogs by established travel brands. She said this can work “as long ad you realise that a blog is a lot of time and effort - it’s low cost compared with advertising on ITV but you have to keep it up and keep pushing it”.

She bemoaned the fact that posts written with search engine robots in mind often outperformed quality content in terms of traffic. She said she wanted to see more aggregation of quality content within travel blogging. What do you think? Do you agree with Karen’s appraisal?

Molly Flatt, STA Travel Buzz

STA Travel has done something quite brave in social media - and it prompted quite a bit of heated debate last night. The travel agency has employed a social marketing specialist 1000 Heads to create STA Travel Buzz, which is a place for STA’s customers, typically young travellers, to connect on the web. Molly Flatt from 1000 Heads gave the presentation.

Molly says STA does not comment on the site, even when there is negative feedback. She feels this would be intrusive and destroy the atmosphere of the site for users. “The idea of having CEOs monitoring conversations going on and commenting on things is my worst nightmare,” she says. “We’re not their customer service department and it would be a dangerous path to start down.” She defended her stance passionately but many in the audience were aghast at this stance, feeling that users would expect a response. What do you think?

The other initiative 1000 Heads has taken for STA is STA Explorers, where they network and link to the travel blogs of STA customers. She pointed out that this was not a matter of reaching out to established bloggers, it was genuinely a case of encouraging customers to blog. The blogs are on several different platforms, which she hopes will mean a wider readership as some readers only stay within the community of their own platform.

Kevin May, editor of Travolution

Travolution is a business magazine for the online travel industry and it has an attached blog. [Full disclosure: I used to work with Kevin at Media Week and I've written for him at Travolution].

Kevin hosted a conversation rather than giving a speech. He had got hold of the guest list and calculated that 20% of the people in the room were in public relations, so he started off by asking people why they came along. Jane from Thomson Holidays and Sarah from Holiday Rentals both said they were just starting to explore social media, trying to figure out what it was about, what the terms of engagement were, and how they could use it. Charlotte from Lastminute.com said the company had already started to dip its toes into the water, with a presence on Twitter for example.

The second conversation was prompted by a conversation Kevin had with Guido, the Happy Hotelier, on the difference between journalists and bloggers. Kevin’s view is that there is no difference because they’re both just content producers. A few people in the audience suggested differences, such as bloggers’ willingness to link to the outside world and the fact that journalists will ask for input before they write a story, whereas bloggers give right of reply in the comments section. Karen from Europe a la Carte said readers didn’t care whether the work was by a ‘trained journalist’ or a ‘blogger’ as long as they were reading quality content. I also added my 2p worth as I believe that while journalists and bloggers might both be content producers, I thought that was meaningless. Content production is huge category that also includes people like a script writer on Desperate Housewives or producer on Sesame Street. What do you think?

All in all, it was an interesting and worthwhile night. Thanks, Darren, for organising it. I hope I’ve given everyone plenty of food for thought and look forward to a conversation in the comments field.

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• The Daily Telegraph in the UK has published a round-up of the best travel blogs around the world. Some of them I’m already familiar with, including Gridskipper, Londonist, NewYorkology, Travel Rants, Perrin Post, Cranky Flier, Epicurious, Intelligent Travel, Gadling, Telegraph Travel Blog, and FamilyTravelLogue. Others are new to me, including Where Are You Now? (which seems to be a blogging platform and network rather than an individual blog), Hotel Chatter, A Luxury Travel Blog, Moleskinecity, Escape Blog, The Cool Hunter, Eater, RoadGladiator, InFlightHQ, and Travelistic (video site).

• Lifehacker lists the five best travel sites for finding cheap tickets.

• Visiting London and don’t know where to get a decent cup of coffee? Krista at London Restaurant Guide is doing the leg work for you, with reviews of two London cafés: Flat White in Soho and Nude Espresso near Brick Lane. She also recently ran a great blogging event on the perfect London Saturday, as defined by London bloggers.

• Browners at Around Britain with a Paunch reviews Pakistani restuarant Zayna in London. Apparently the food is fab, though the location is a bit secluded.

• Still on the food theme, Sheila at Perceptive Travel has some tips for places to eat on New York’s Lower East Side, while Jessica at Ripe London goes hunting for churros y chocolate in Granada, Spain.

• Environmental blog About My Planet on how to protect the world’s beauty spots when you’re travelling.

• Speaking of green, Intelligent Travel reports on a project to help the Masai to protect lions in Kenya - check out the great video.

• Meanwhile, New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido has a novel way to protect the environment - collecting snow in winter to help cool the building in summer. Again, Intelligent Travel has the details.

• Susie is an American woman who has moved to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with her Arab husband and their son. She blogs at Susie’s Big Adventure and has some surprising things to say - for example, did you know that Jeddah is a huge art city?

• Sheila at FamilyTravelLogue writes about a tornado simulator at San Francisco Airport.

• Jess at FushMush on the delights of Cinque Terre in Italy.

• Natalie at Kuju Abroad brings you this wonderful picture of a old Cuban woman and a story to match.

• Julia at food blog A Slice of Cherry Pie writes about her autumn escape to Suffolk.

• Europe is really not that expensive, according to Tom at Tripinator.

• Intelligent Travel on matching music to your travel destinations. It’s a regular feature in its sister magazine National Geographic Traveler and this month the playlist takes us to East Africa.

• TravelSavvyMom is one of my favourite travel sites - I don’t even have children, but I love it because it’s so witty and well observed. This week, Rebecca writes about her children’s favourite Parisian attraction - the pigeons. Jamie writes about the agony of trying to teach her kids Spanish - and you can win a cool prize of Rosetta Stone language learning software up for grabs. And Kayt has posted a hilarious video about Ernie from Sesame Street.

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• * If you ever travel with children, be prepared for a few embarrassing moments dealing with the culture clash. Kayt at Travel Savvy Mom shares her own hilarious, cringe-making moments.

• * Autumn is here and in rural England, the apple harvest is underway. Anthony from the Smith Travel Blog helped make cider in Herefordshire.

• * Enjoy these stunning pics of iconic American landscapes from Kim Wildman at Wild About Travel + Writing who took a trip to Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border.

• * In nearby Nevada, Liz at Perceptive Travel is living it up in Vegas.

• * Myamii from For the Love of Food shares what she learnt on her trip to Ireland.

• * Intelligent Travel has a new home, more fully integrated into the National Geographic site. The blog also brings us news of an art exchange between Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and the Louvre.

• * Lara at Cool Travel Guide recommends Art House, a boutique hotel in Damascus - unusually it’s located outside the Old City but, as Lara explains, this has some advantages.

• * Darren at Travel Rants on the rise of virtual travel, with virtual malls and the whole Secon Life phenonmenon. Personally, I don’t see this replacing real travel but I have been known to check out destinations pre- and post-trip on Google Earth.

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There’s a green theme to this week’s round-up of travel links.

• Liz at Perceptive Travel writes about TripAdvisor’s $1m charity give-away. Charities in the running include environmental organisations such as Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society, as well as development and aid organisations such as Medicins Sans Frontiers and Save the Children.

• Over at Intelligent Travel, Suzanne Roberts writes about the greening of the Burning Man festival, while Meg Weaver writes about a museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that claims to be the greenest in the world, and also in San Fran, Pat Tanumihardja turns her attention to sustainable sushi.

• A piece by Elizabeth Becker in The Washington Post examines the impact of mass tourism on the planet titled Don’t Go There. It makes sobering reading. (Link via Intelligent Travel).

• Pam at Nerd’s Eye View recently hobnobbed with royalty at the Conde Nast World Savers Congress, covering the event on Twitter [search using the #WSC code], and writing two thoughtful pieces on her own blog. Beata Loyfman and Julia Bainbridge have also blogged about this on the Conde Nast site, and Conde Nast Traveler has published notes from the event online.

• Harry Pearson on the Guardian’s Travel Blog bids farewell to the passenger ferry from Newcastle to Norway - killed off by cheap flights apparently.

• Over on the Emerald Isle (yes, I’m stretching the green theme a bit here), food blog A Forkful of Spaghetti reviews breakfast at Denis Cotter’s Cafe Paradiso.

• Finally, don’t be too alarmed at these green polar bears featured by Jeremy Elton Jacquot at Tree Hugger.

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This week’s Carnival of Cities is up at Sheila’s Family Travel Logue, with a great range of posts from New Delhi to Paris. Check it out!

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• * Pam from Nerd’s Eye View on some unscheduled excitement (not the good kind) on her flight to New York to cover the Conde Nast World Savers conference (see her Twitter feed for the conference coverage).

• * The Lost Girls - three New Yorkers who blogged their way around the world - have signed a book deal. (Link via the Perceptive Travel blog).

• * Kim Wildman on Wild About Travel + Writing extols the perks of travelling solo and shares tips on travel photography.

• * Speaking of beautiful photography - these pics of Italy on Travel Planners are just stunning! (Link via Darren of Travel Rants fame on Twitter).

• * Intelligent Travel on the cost of baggage fees for surfers. (I imagine skiiers would have the same problem).

• * Lara from Cool Travel Guide points us to her article on Western Australia for Wanderlust magazine.

• * Europe A La Carte on Ventspils in Latvia - it’s a new destination for me.

• * Beach destinations for the thrifty traveller on the Guardian’s travel site.

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• * On my foodie site The Gooseberry Fool, I share my dining experiences in Kraków, Poland.

• * Kim at Wild About Writing + Travel shares her top 10 things to do in Havana, Cuba.

• * On Sheila Scarborough’s new and improved family travel site, now at its new home at FamilyTravelLogue, she reminds us of the importance of having the airline’s telephone number rather than relying on airport staff in the case of delays or cancellation.

• * Fancy living in a cardboard box? Intelligent Travel brings us news of a hotel made out of shipping containers. It’s just out of London, though I don’t think I’ll be rushing to take a look based on the photographs.

• * Also on Intelligent Travel, I like the look of these lightweight canvas shoes with a conscience. Actually, I seem to have starred half a dozen Intelligent Travel posts in my RSS reader on subjects as diverse as Mexican cooking classes and whale watching by kayak in British Columbia so I suggest you simply head there directly and peruse at your leisure!

• * Interesting twist on animal rights - apparently PETA is buying Sea World. The theme parks are being sold off and PETA is interested in buying at least one, in San Antonia, Orlando or San Diego.

• * Foodie blogger Jessica on Ripe London takes us on a personal tour of Amsterdam, with plenty of time to indulge in pancakes, Thai food and cocktails.

• * World Hum debates the rise of female-only beaches in Egypt.

• * Finally on Gadling, this English language name for a restaurant in China is hilarious. Lost in translation, perhaps?

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Roaming Tales has been dormant in the past couple of months, not by intention but just because I have been so insanely busy. I am a freelance writer and while I love to blog, paying projects must come first.

I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel so I hope to be blogging more frequently and giving some thought to the future shape of this blog. I would be very interested to know your thoughts so please leave me a comment.

I’ve just come back from Syria, where I stayed with an Iraqi family living in Damascus and attended a wedding, and also took a trip north of Damascus to Krak des Chevaliers, a giant medieval crusader castle, and Hama, city of the wooden water wheels. More about that soon, I hope.

In August, my fiance, another couple and I are spending a weekend in Krakow, Poland. In October my fiance’s family is visiting and we hope to visit Spain. I’m also researching honeymoon destinations in or near Australia for next April. So there’s plenty of travelling on the agenda.

Also on the agenda is the idea of creating a travel blogging community. This is something I have been keen on for a while; I wrote about this back in February and followed up with a series of posts highlighting other travel blogs. (Debbie at Delicious Baby has now published a great list of women travel bloggers, so do take a look).

I’m pleased to see that this theme was picked up at the recent BlogHer conference in San Francisco. There was no travel panel, but there was a meetup of travel bloggers and it looks like that could be the catalyst for something more. Pam, at Nerd’s Eye View, has started a travel blogger forum, which I’ll certainly be signing up for as soon as I’m done with this post. Elizabeth at Go Green Travel Green is asking what travel bloggers want from a community, which is of course an excellent question.

It’s terrific to see so much energy coming out of BlogHer and I think this could be the seed of something powerful and exciting if we pick it up and run with it. For a proper travel blogging community, I imagine we probably want to reach out to the guys as well.

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