I recently gave a presentation called The Wild West of Travel Blogging: Staking Your Claim in New Media to a group of traditional travel writers visiting my area. It was great to connect with the old school writers again and remember where I came from and how hard it was when I first started in the travel industry.
Many people may not realize this, but I’m not a blogger. I’m a writer. I write for magazines, newspapers, websites, and blogs. I even write books (gasp). To me, blogging is just another medium where my words are published. One point I tried to reiterate throughout my presentation is that it’s crazy for all of us. Travel bloggers don’t consider themselves writers, some writers don’t even know what a blog is, and the poor travel industry professionals just want to do their jobs (get people to write about their destination so that consumers book their destination and everyone is happy).
So why is it we aren’t all working TOGETHER to teach each other? I think that travel writers should be mentors to travel bloggers and travel bloggers should in turn teach the writers how to survive in the new media world. The same goes for the travel industry pros - If a blogger comes to you asking for assistance, don’t just tell them no, explain why you can’t assist them and give them a few tips on what information they can provide YOU so that you can give them the answer they need.
I’ve heard more moaning and griping from everyone than actual ideas for a solution to the problem. We can’t feel threatened because there’s a new kid on the block. Instead, we should be asking them to come over and play on our swing set.
The gate to my yard is open. What questions do you have? Let’s try and find a solution and have fun while on the swing set.
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