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User-generated travel sites have been a popular topic on Vagablogging lately, so I read with interest two recent columns about them by guidebook guru Arthur Frommer. Turns out, he’s not a fan.
In the first of the two columns, Frommer pans the reviews on user-generated sites by inferring that their authors aren’t travel experts:
You will have to forgive me if I am not blown away by these casual critics, these greenhorn guidesters. The last kind of travel advice that I would ever heed is the judgment of a person who has stayed exactly once at exactly one hotel in the destination that he or she is visiting for the first time.
So it is with the people who provide user-generated comments. They have been to London, let’s say, once. They have stayed at exactly one hotel. Their stay might have been improved or marred by one incident, one staff member behind the front desk treating them with either courtesy or disdain. Based on such fleeting impressions, and with no experience of other London hotels or of the general standards of the city, our one-time travel writer explodes with either enthusiasm or indignation.
Frommer goes on in the second column to warn that some user-generated reviews may have been written by marketers:
In a recent column, I questioned the use of user-generated travel Web sites. I doubted the worth of hotel and cruise recommendations by inexperienced travelers who, in many cases, were basing their advice on the first trip they had ever taken. But I did not question the integrity of the people making those recommendations.
I should have. It turns out that a widespread practice known as “buzz marketing” is raising major doubts about whether the comments you find on these “user-generated” sites are the real thing — or if they are part of a calculated campaign to either promote or destroy the reputation of a particular hotel or cruise ship.
Granted, if you can get travel advice for free from user-generated sites, you’re less inclined to pay Arthur Frommer for it; a good reason for him to slam them. But he’s got a point. If that advice may be coming from inexperienced travelers — or worse, marketers — is it really worth taking?
I think Frommer is both right and over-reacting. His concerns are valid, but he’s underestimating both the savvy and goodwill of today’s traveler, which can make user-generated sites fresh and valuable resources. Still, when browsing user-generated reviews, it’s smart to keep Frommer’s warnings in mind.
But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?
Don’t wait for the media to break the news — keep an eye out for worldwide disease epidemics on ProMED (Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases), a website by the International Society for Infectious Diseases. ProMED is dedicated to rapidly reporting global disease outbreaks that affect human health, as well as related animal vector outbreaks. The site was developed primarily for physicians and public health professionals, but is readily accessible to the average traveler. There is a bit of medical jargon to pick through, but there is a lot of valuable information, especially for those venturing beyond the typical tourist haunts.
The World Health Organization has a similar site, Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response, devoted to epidemic updates, which is easier for the non-medical professional to understand, though it does not go nearly as in-depth as the ProMED site.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an excellent Traveler’s Health page which focuses on every region of the world, including pre-trip checklists, necessary vaccinations, and ways to avoid illness when abroad.
The CDC also inspects cruise ships and posts their inspection shores on its Green Sheet. While most ships scored high on the criteria (including disease reporting, food storage, and water supply safety), there were ships that did not make the passing mark of 85, including Stad Amsterdam, coming in with a dismal 62 rating, the lowest score reported.
With these websites and a pre-trip doctor visit, travelers can take precautions to avoid being caught up in a disease epidemic. There’s nothing like a case of the avian influenza to ruin a trip.
Travel Rants is a blog started by Darren Cronian who, after a frustrating experience with a travel agency, needed a place to vent. He has since it expanded to cover travel in general, focusing on the nuts and bolts of the industry while offering guides on topics ranging from tax-free shopping to what to do if you’re arrested while abroad.
One of the most useful features, however, is the regular coverage of air travel news. The site has a UK and EU-oriented view — since Mr. Cronian is from Leeds — but most information is relevant no matter where you live.
Creative Writing Workshop
at the Paris American Academy
July 2nd through the 27th, 2007
I’ll be teaching an intensive, month-long creative writing workshop this summer at the Paris American Academy. College credit is available for this hands-on English-language writing program, which includes courses in:
In addition to taking classes and amassing writing portfolios, students will participate in one-on-one critiques with professional writers (inlcuding myself), give readings in Parisian bookshops, and receive "survival" French lessons. Other instructors include O. Henry Award-winning author and playwright John Biguenet, and novelist Lauren Grodstein.
Between classes and tutorials, there will be ample time to experience the city, attend cultural events, visit museums, learn history, take day-trips to the countryside, read books, hang out in cafes, dance by the Seine, and make friends from around the world.
For more information, including costs and course descriptions click my Paris American Academy page here.
To receive an application, email an inquiry to info@pariswritingworkshop.com.
The Paris American Academy is located in the heart of the Latin Quarter, on the rue Saint Jacques, a block from the Luxembourg Gardens, and less than a mile from the Seine and Notre Dame cathedral. Class size will be limited to 20 students.
Above: The Paris American Academy, in the heart of the Latin Quarter
With your help, we can make Vagablogging the 2007 Travvies winner for Best Group-Written Travel Blog.
Hosted by Upgrade: Travel Better, the Travvies aim to boost the profile of the travel blogosphere, so far left out of major Web media contests like the Webby Awards. It seems to be working: the Travvies are only a few weeks old and already they’ve been mentioned by the likes of Condé Nast Traveler.
Vagablogging was nominated in four of the Travvies’ six categories (Best Travel Blog, Best Single-Author Blog [by National Geographic Traveler's chief researcher, no less], Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog, and Best Group-Written Blog). As you might have guessed, we’re a finalist in the Best Group-Written Travel Blog.
Voting is now open to the public, and wraps up on February 28 at 6:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. So, please surf over to the polls and vote Vagablogging for Best Group-Written Travel Blog. And be sure to check out the other Travvies nominees, too; they’re all great travel resources.
For many, the idea of long-term travel is much more than another one of those things to check off a “to-do” list before you die - it’s a horizon-expanding experience. It can also be a way to give back to the communities who are helping you expand those horizons of yours by being a volunteer.
Since volunteering usually takes place in blocks of a few months at a time, it could be a great way to acclimate from being “out of your element,” and into full-on immersion of an unfamiliar culture. To some, the idea of working for free (or even paying to volunteer) might seem counterintuitive to the desire to travel the world for long periods. If you’re not making money (or at least saving it), how can you possibly continue that wonderful journey you’re on? While the money issue is certainly one to take into consideration when you’re contemplating a volunteer stint overseas, there’s more to the decision than just money. If you can volunteer for an organization doing work that means something to you — working with children or animals, or distributing food or medicine, for instance — you’ll have a chance at potentially life-changing experiences you’d never get by just visiting the same place, no matter how long you stayed. For one BootsnAll blogger, for instance, three months spent volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal caused a massive change - he’s now back in Nepal having opened up his own children’s home.
Conor Grennan began his RTW trip in 2003 with a few months spent volunteering at an orphanage outside Kathmandu. When he completed his journey, he went back to the same orphanage for another few months. Back home again and out of work, he decided he wanted to make a difference in Nepal, so he set about starting his own NGO and has recently moved back to Kathmandu permanently. His organization, Next Generation Nepal, is going about the difficult and exhausting work of rescuing Nepalese children from child traffickers and reuniting them with families they haven’t seen in months, if not years. Conor’s blog is a delight to read, primarily because he’s got a fantastic sense of humor and is able to see the joy in even the most mundane things, but also because he’s doing amazing things for the kids whose lives he’s touching.
While not everyone who volunteers overseas will make as drastic of a life change as Conor did, his experience shows what a powerful and long-lasting impact volunteering can have on not only your travels but also your life.
BootsnAll has several resources if you’re interested in learning more about volunteering overseas, including the Volunteering Abroad Travel Guide, the brand new Volunteer Logue and the Volunteering forum in the community.
Let’s face it, Rolf has the perfect life. Who wouldn’t want to Drive Around the World in a Land Rover, take a sailing trip through the Greek isles, or maybe study a little tantric sex in India, and get to write about it all?
While that might sound like the dream job, travel writing is not always such a picture-perfect adventure. As Rolf has said before, the travel writer’s life is not as glamorous as we might imagine it to be. It can be an arduous road, and getting started on the right path may be the most difficult step.
But if you agree that Rolf’s career is about as good as it gets, and you want to give it a try yourself, I recommend starting with as many jumping off points as possible. Check first with Rolf’s “Travel Writing Tips” page, which offers a straightforward how-to list on getting started with travel writing, along with useful resources such as Written Road, which offers all kinds of tips on market leads, job openings, travel writing contests, workshops, and conferences.
And if you’re serious about travel writing, join the club, literally. Check out the International Travel Writing Society website, where you can browse through their advice on becoming a travel writer, and sign up to receive their monthly newsletter. The ITSW is dedicated not only to the practice of travel writing, but also to the study of travel literature and review of current travel books.
Finally, as Rolf advises: Read a lot - you can’t write good travel stuff unless you read good travel stuff.
Related: Rolf is also teaching a travel-writing course in St. Petersburg, Russia this summer, in addition to his annual Paris Writing Workshop.
Online travel communities are great trip-planning resources, so it’s cool that new ones are popping up, like, every other day. Last week we got a note from Trip Sweeney, co-founder of the new travel community, Step Up Travel. We asked Trip to tell us about Step Up Travel, and what it has to offer for the independent traveler. Here’s what he had to say:
What is Step Up Travel?
Step Up Travel is a travel classifieds site, established to allow local small enterprises and individuals to publish web-page advertisements of their own unique cultural activities and services so that travelers can connect directly with them as an alternative to larger more commercial options. The emphasis of Step Up Travel is on the traveler-local connection and the mutual experience.
How did Step Up Travel come about?
Scott and I (co-founders) met volunteering in the Emergency Department of the largest, most chaotic public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Souza Aguiar. We both agreed that our commitment to the health of people extends far beyond bodily ailments–it extends to socio-economic factors that impact the physical health, mental health, and well-being of a person, even their sense of self-worth.
We purchased a property together in Brazil and began to rent it out to travelers and give the proceeds to local, community development projects. To empower local people, We also connected visitors with local people we knew who offered something about their culture that they thought would be of interest to a traveler.
Each guest gave excellent feedback for the experiences they had the local people and added how special and unique the opportunity was. Then one guest proposed, “How great would it be if we could travel this way everywhere we go?” . . .This type of comment led us to search for ways to bring this person-to-person, community-based tourism to a larger audience. In developing our model, we researched sustainable development policies, reports, initiatives, and learned from leaders in the field, all of which has influenced our final product–www.stepuptravel.org.
How is Step Up Travel different from other online travel communities, like BootsnAll or Travellerspoint?
Many online travel communities are traveler-centric and similar in that they emphasize the destination itself and the traveler-to-traveler connection for advice, travel buddies, discussions, and stories. They do an excellent job of this. Step Up Travel was designed to help create a movement in travel that emphasizes the traveler-local relationship in the destination and connecting travelers based on the common interests to meet, empower, and respect local people, and to get “off the beaten path” and experience the more personal, local paths.
In many other online travel communities there is little involvement by local people who are not travelers, but who are interested in cultural exchange; and, commercial postings by local service providers are often prohibited. Step Up Travel, on the other hand, welcomes local people and service providers to offer their culturally-rich talents, activities, and even services, as freelance employment. Travelers can immerse themselves more authentically in a culture with the local people and then empower them, rather than feeding the commercial tourism industry, by leaving feedback that recommends them to future travelers, which allows locals to grow their small business.
How can using Step Up enrich someone’s travel experience?
Step Up Travel can enrich travelers’ experiences in three ways:
1) Travelers can have richer, more authentic and cultural travel experiences by directly contacting, meeting, and engaging on a personal level with the local people who make their culture what it is.
2) Travelers can help local people they meet along the way connect with other travelers by recommending that they post on Step Up and then leaving feedback to support them. Through Step Up Travel, travelers can help local people build small, reputable travel/tourism businesses to earn supplementary (or even primary) income.
3) Joining and participating in a network of socially-minded travelers who are interested in travel that emphasizes importance of personal exchanges, genuine benefit to local people and their communities, and ultimately building a more peaceful and equitable world.
What is your vision for Step Up Travel? If realized, how would it help both travelers and locals?
Our vision for Step Up Travel is more a vision of how the tourism industry might change, altogether.
We think there is currently too much “tourism” in travel. That is to say, “tourism” is a word and experience we’ve all learned to loathe, because it brings to mind a commercial and branded way of traveling that is ironically so far removed from the culture it seeks to explore. But it’s not just big tourism that is insular; we’ve also seen (and experienced) how easy it is for even the “off-the-beaten-path” backpacker to travel in a cultural bubble. For instance, it’s easier for you to learn about other foreign travelers while traveling than it is to learn about locals. This may sound familiar to many of us who have eaten with, chatted with, swapped emails with countless other foreigners along the way. It’s not so easy after all to get immersed in a foreign culture.
As founders of Step Up Travel and as travelers who are dedicated to learning languages, enjoying cultures, and digging for a deeper and broader understanding of the world, our vision is to facilitate cultural immersion and help redistribute wealth in more equitable ways. We envision a world where big-brand tourism is increasingly abandoned by travelers (and tourists) in search of more unique, authentic, and person-to-person experiences with few (or no) intermediaries that commercialize the process.
Through our website we ultimately hope that people will be having interactions that lead to deeper understanding of diverse cultures, human values, and ways of thinking and living.
***
Thanks, Trip.
Step Up Travel’s ads include listings for the usual suspects like lodging and restaurants, but there are some for more offbeat services like cooking lessons, and grassroots democracy-building efforts. The bulk of the listings are from South America - no surprise since the idea for Step Up Travel was born in Brazil - so many of them are in Spanish or Portuguese. Step Up’s homepage includes links to online translators to help you with that.
If you find Step Up Travel useful, you’ll also want to check out recent posts on the Travellerspoint and Tribewanted online travel communties, IgoUgo, and our member network, BootsnAll.
If fair-trade coffee is the most ethical, most humanitarian way to enjoy your morning beverage at your local (or nationally-owned) cafe – than shouldn’t fair-trade tourism be an equally popular menu item at your local travel agency? The people at Tourism Concern think so. They lead the way in promoting fair-trade or ethical travel, and their organization is committed to bringing fair trade principles to the forefront of the global tourism industry.
What exactly is fair-trade tourism? Like other tourism terms: ecotourism, sustainable travel, alternative travel – it can be a somewhat ambiguous, hard-to-define term. What are the guidelines to determine what makes for an “ethical” trip? We know when we are drinking fair-trade coffee, but how do we know when we are fair-trade traveling?
For starters, you can check with the Ethical Travel Guide published by Tourism Concern. This guidebook not only gives the reasons why fair-trade is so important for tourism, but it also gives basic guidelines and ideas for planning ethical trips. When you’re traveling, check to make sure that you follow some of the basic tenets their Travel Code:
Along with following this Travel Code, you can use the Ethical Travel Guide’s advice on specific destinations. The guidebook’s regional directory offers specific lodgings, tour operators, and local groups that meet with their fair trade principles. You can find anything from eco-lodges and village tours to homestays and nature reserves.
The sound advice offered in the guidebook can help anyone plan an adventurous and exhilarating trip while at the same time protecting the rights and welfare of local communities.
Tribewanted, is both an online and a real life community of people who are working together to create a sustainable village on Vorovoro Island, Fiji.
Ben Keene and Mark James founded the tribe in January 2006. The friends were brainstorming ideas for an Internet start-up when James came up with the tropical paradise concept on a cold, blustery day in England.
During its first six months, 1000 members joined the tribe, ranging in age from 17 to 60, from 25 nations.
There are three levels of tribal membership, starting at the Nomad membership, which costs 180 British pounds and includes a 7-day stay on the island (including all meals and airport/boat transfers), as well as one year of membership in the online community. The Warrior is the highest level of membership, including a 21-night stay for 540 British pounds, and membership through the completion of the project in September 2009.
The Yavusa tribe, which mainly lives on an adjacent island, owns all of the infrastructure on Vorovoro. Tribewanted works in partnership with Chief Tui Mali, who lives on the island with his family, and welcomes the newcomers.
The online community is crucial to the Tribe Wanted concept. The experience does not begin or end with time spent on the island. The tribe maintains a blog, where they discuss everything from tribal leadership to their experiences on the island. Members also hold meet-ups, hosted on four different continents so far.
“Tribewanted is a community adventure with a purpose,” according to their website. This purpose is to “realize the Green Dream.” This green dream includes composting toilets, recycling collection, a rainwater catchment system, and sustainable farming.
Being gentle with the environment is key to the Tribewanted concept, which aims for a “climate neutral” island, partnering with Climate Care to help offset carbon emissions from the constant travel to and from the island.
Though the island has a vision, individual members can choose to spend their stay any way they choose. They can lounge around, snorkeling, reading, swimming, and relaxing, or they can opt to participate in various projects, including farming. The only requirement is that everyone wash his or her own plate.
