Budget airline add-on fees When it comes to budget airlines, Ryanair is the traditional whipping boy. People love to hate Ryanair, and automatically assume that it is the worst airline for underhand practices and add-on fees. The truth, however, is that Ryanair has largely eliminated many of its naughtiest habits. Yes, it charges a fortune [...]
Continue reading about Is Flybe’s web booking system fair – or even legal?
As Jeremy Head rightly points out in his new post, there is so much destination guide content festering on the internet that much of it becomes interchangeable. Why, in essence, should you go to one site’s guides above another’s? Many websites – be they for hotel, airlines or generic travel companies trying to build their [...]
Continue reading about How to make destination guides distinctive
Round the world trip As some of my regular readers may be aware, I recently spent two months travelling around Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore. I was on a somewhat whistlestop round-the-world trip, and I primarily did it because I had a number of commissions for various clients in the UK and Australia. [...]
Continue reading about Corporate blogging: Does it compromise a writer’s independence and integrity?
Corrections My previous post – Bloggers vs Journalists: Why bloggers are second class citizens – seems to have stirred up quite a debate. There are a few things that have been brought to my attention since that I thought I should add. First of all (and somewhat going against my argument), it seems as though [...]
Continue reading about Postscript to bloggers vs journalists debate
Or The Curse of the Woman Who Didn’t Know When To Shut Up. Difference between bloggers and journalists A few weeks ago, the ever-excellent Matthew Teller hosted a debate on his blog about the difference between bloggers and journalists. It’s something of a hoary old debate, but some excellent points were raised. Key amongst [...]
Continue reading about Bloggers vs Journalists: Why bloggers are second class citizens
Amazon innovation It’s an innovation that has, largely, slipped under the radar. But it could have a big impact on how the travel industry deals with social media. I’ve a feeling that Amazon may have just changed the game. Amazon affiliate program For those who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, forgive me: [...]
Continue reading about Will Amazon change how social media works in travel?
The internet: killing travel journalism? A while back, I weighed in with my thoughts on how the internet is supposedly killing travel journalism. At the bottom, I made a small point which I didn’t think too much of at the time, but I am increasingly coming to think may be important. Travel companies as [...]
Continue reading about The emerging new market place for travel journalists
Blogosphere debate Jeremy Head has written a characteristically interesting post on whether travel content that has been paid for by a company can ever be objective. As part of the debate, he references Matthew Teller’s proposal about PR agencies and tourist boards paying travel writers for articles rather than the publications they are published in. [...]
Continue reading about Who will pay for travel writing? A potential compromise
Is there money in travel writing? Jeremy Head has written a fascinating piece on the new travel technology news service, Tnooz.com. He goes through the fears that many travel writers are facing about the internet taking over from print. To put it in a nutshell, where will travel writers get their money from in the [...]
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Tourist information office advice If you go into a tourist information office, you are generally looking for advice on what to do, where to go etc. It would be a bad tourist information office that just told you to look at all the leaflets and brochures that are scattered around the room. Tourism authority [...]
Continue reading about Why tourist board websites alienate travellers