Travelblather

I really enjoyed the discussion at the Travel-rants Blogcamp organised by Darrien Cronian last week.

I particularly enjoyed the final debate, kicked off by Kevin May from Travolution.
He pointed out that around 20 of the 80 or so people in the room -
ostensibly to debate and discuss blogging about travel - were from PR companies or worked in PR.

I
thought this was fascinating. It shows that PR people - at least the
ones who are switched on - are increasingly aware of the way that blogs
form opinions about their companies and clients.

Several PR
people asked for input about what the rules of engagement should be for
interacting with blogs. There was some suggestion that PRs making
comments on blogs was something that the bloggers didn't like. I
totally disagree. BUT there are a few things I'd suggest to any PR
reading this and thinking of jumping on to the blogosphere:

1) Add value to the discussion.

If
you just chuck a comment on a post so that you can get a plug in there
for your company then that's seriously bad. I think this is where some
of the heated feelings in the room during this part of the evening came
from. There is nothing more annoying for a blogger than to feel his/her
blog is being used by someone else merely to promote other
sites/companies/brands. It makes me seethe!

2) Decide what perspective you are writing from - and disclose

If
you're commenting, make clear whether you are commenting as a PR person
stating a company point of view or as an individual making your own
opinions. (You might want to say "Disclosure: I work for PR company XXX
and the company we are discussing is one of our clients.) This is
another potential hot potato if you don't make this clear. Nothing like
reading a bunch of comments from someone you've not come across on your
blog before and following links back to find they work for a PR company
but haven't admitted it.

3) Don't try and control the debate in any way

You aren't dealing with a newsroom of journos who are about to write
a huge headline. Your reputation as a good PR company is not on the
line (well not at the moment, blogs just aren't THAT influential YET)
Resist the urge to kick into damage limitation mode and counter every
opinion if
the debate is a bit negative. Make it clear who you are, add comments
and get involved, but let the debate continue. Watch and learn a bit.
This kind of stuff is gold dust! It could tell you a stack of stuff
that you'd normally spend a fortune on focus-grouping. 

4) Be credible

If
you are serious about engaging with an on-line community - great! I'd
love more comments on my blog from all ends of the spectrum... but
particularly from people who I know are commenting because they are
passionate about what's being debated and have valuable insight to
offer. You gain that credibility by reading other blogs in the same
sphere, and commenting. Blogging is about welcoming opinions from all
and I most certainly do.

5) Consider starting a blog of your own

There's
no better way to get your head round what works and what doesn't, what
makes people happy and what gets their backs up, what makes a great
post and what doesn't, than by taking the plunge and starting a blog
yourself. It's easy to set one up and believe me it will be worth the
investment - even if you only do it for 6 months or so and then decide
you can't keep it up. Whether this is a personal blog or a company one
needs some careful thought - and I'd encourage you to go through that
thinking process as you will begin to 'get' quite quickly some of the
subtleties of blogging. I have my personal blog and I also contribute to my company one.
I write about similar things, but I have to think a bit about my
audiences in these two quite different contexts and I have to be
careful about disclosing sensitive information (about clients for
example) on the company blog.

I really hope that this is useful
and doesn't sound patronising... It's most definitely offered in a
genuine and open way. Anyone got any other PR rules of engagement to
add?

I am going to post a stack of stuff about WTM soon... I promise. But I HAD to just stick this up.

Regular readers (all two of you) will know I have little time for PR agencies. I resent the way they pump meaningless waffle at me dressed up as news just to keep their clients coughing up the cash. Ironically one I received today from Siren PR for their client Canvas Holidays was actually genuinely interesting. (Shock horror.) The France specialist now offers quirky Gypsy Caravans (in French Roulottes de Campagne)to stay in on several of the camp sites it features. The full release isn't available on the Canvas Holidays site, but as soon as it is I will add a link here... that's assuming it still carries this howler of an error...

The call to action at the bottom of the release is as follows:

Yes try the link... it goes to Royal Caribbean Cruises... Oops.

I just read a truly surprising piece of news over on the Travelmole website. Discount supermarket chain Aldi is planning to launch a UK travel website selling holidays. According to their spokesperson Sarah Butler:

“We have sold a
million holidays in Austria since we launched in 2003... We are not new to travel and we are
hoping to replicate the same success in the UK.”

She said the timing of the launch was perfect in the current economic climate.

“People are
looking for good deal and our motto is ‘A break you’ll remember at a
price you’ll love’. We are thriving in the credit crunch and our sales
are up 26%.”

OK. So I'd be the first to buy a cheaper can of beans or oven-ready pizza at ALDI, but a holiday? Seriously?

Maybe in Austria the company has some kind of brand presence, perhaps people associate them with no-nonsense, dependable value for money? But here in the UK I'd question why anyone would book a break with them? One of your biggest expenses of the year? Your precious time off? An untested new player that sells cheap groceries? Hmmm. Personally I don't think so.

The travel business is mega-competitive, margins at this end of the market are ultra-slim - I can't see ALDI getting the volume it needs to make this work commercially. There are plenty of sites out there offering cheap deals - particularly the price comparison sites. I fail to see how ALDI will be able to differentiate itself without spending an absolute truckload of cash.

The website - www.alditravel.co.uk - goes live on January 8th. (Even that I'd argue is too late - a lot of people will have booked their breaks in the first week of Jan.) I'll be watching with interest.

The thing I really like about a blog is I can say what I like. It's mine, I publish it. So I can say negative things about the ads on here if I want to! I use Google-ads to serve ads to my blog and most of the time I'm happy enough with what gets put up there. But recently I saw an ad on here that made my blood boil.

Become a travel writer. Travel the world for FREE! it read. I clicked it. It took me to this website. A complete load of waffle about how you can Get 5 Star treatment, get PAID to write and visit most exotic destinations absolutely FREE!

It continues: They also get paid BIG MONEY to write about experiences. Even though
some “armchair travel writers” don’t even travel to the places they’re
writing about!

OK. Let's get a few things straight:

1) Travel writing pays really badly. BIG MONEY? I don't think so.

2) Yes, you get to go places without paying, but if you're travelling on business for a client in most professions you charge the client for your transport and lodging. It's a bit like saying "Work for IBM and get to travel the world for free!" So what!? You work your butt off whilst away to research the piece you need to write... it's certainly not a holiday.

3) There's little time for drinking cocktails. You are constantly travelling and writing just to make ends meet as a travel writer. You do have occasionally fantastic moments, but in between it's a job, much like any other. When I was freelancing I was writing up stuff at the airport from a
previous trip and getting up early to pack in as much as I could each day when I was away. I wrote a piece for the Daily Mail about Mexico earlier this year. A
holidaymaker would do the self drive itinerary in two weeks - I did it
in 9 days.

4) To suggest that you can simply pick up free trips is outrageous. It's tough getting commissions - you have to be very good at generating great ideas for the editors you write for and be able to write brilliant copy very quickly. These are skills that take years to really develop.You need great contacts with tour operators and PR agencies to be hosted on press trips - particularly if like me you prefer to go solo so you get an exclusive story. And it's exclusives that pay the better cash.

5) Armchair travellers? Err. Would a travel editor commission a piece about a place from someone who hadn't even been there? I wrote pieces from home without going on trips. It is common practice - but only because I'd visited the destinations I was writing about a lot in the past and knew them well and had good contacts to update facts. I am an expert on Seville, because I lived there and I wrote a guidebook. So sure, if anyone wants a piece on Seville I can write it without getting back on the plane.

There are lots of endorsements on the site and all seem to lead to people who run courses... despite the fact that they claim to be published travel writers. Entrepreneurs, self-help gurus... guys who are masters at extracting cash from people by appealing to their hopes and dreams. It's the art of suggestion... nothing more.

Oh... and guess what. There's another virtually identical site aimed at people who dream of being copywriters too. According to this site... Good copywriters earn more writing a simple letter... than most doctors do in a month. Yeah right.

I just read a really interesting report on EyeforTravel which I am reproducing here as they tend to take them down quite quickly.

Brits are embracing online media more than ever in their quest to
seek "cost effective, reputable holiday opportunities", according to a
survey.

The poll of 1,250 adults by webTV travel site, Holiday '09, goes on
to reveal that six out of 10 Brits don't trust traditional holiday
brochures anymore.

Over half of the people polled said they would be looking for advice
on how to save money and get the best deal on their holiday next year.
For nine out of ten consumers this research will be done online.

Ceriann Mullins, editor of Holiday '09 said: "It's clear that
following recent events in the industry and the global economy that
customers want reassurance from travel companies placing openness,
transparency and interactivity higher up their decision making process."

The research for www.holiday09.tv was carried out online by Opinion Matters amongst a nationally representative sample of 1250 UK adults aged 16+.

Very interesting stuff... and an interesting opportunity for those of use working in web. I don't think this is the end of the travel brochure, but I do think that any travel marketing person worth their salt should be thinking long and hard about where to spend their budget next year - in an increasingly tight financial environment. Printing brochures is the main expenditure for many tour operators and printing less of them, switching that spend on-line would seem like a smart thing to do.