While putting together a presentation for the ETC (Educational Travel Community) conference in Boston, I was asked by the organizers to create a list of 15 travel-related resource sites that tour operators, tour suppliers, alumni group travel organizers, and others could monitor for current items of interest, and then share with their email and social media audiences.
Useful content that you share is content that YOU don’t have to create. It’s a time-saver and it’s also helpful for your customers or guests for those days when you don’t have original blog posts, photos, audio, or video.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of blogs and sites, and it’s a very mainstream version of my favorites, but here’s what I suggested:
** Wendy Perrin’s Travel Tips. Wendy’s been a consumer travel expert for years, first with Condé Nast Traveler and now with TripAdvisor.
** Practical Travel Gear – reviews and info on great gear for families plus business and adventure travel.
** Seat 2B – straightforward business travel tips from Joe Brancatelli.
** From National Geographic Traveler – the Intelligent Travel Blog. One of my long-time favorites.
** From USA Today Travel – 10 Best. Sometimes, a listicle will do just fine.
** Travel photography from Gary Arndt – Everything Everywhere. He’s also a “Wanderer in Residence” for the G Adventures tour company.
** The Amateur Traveler podcast; one of longest-running travel podcasts, with Chris Christensen.
** Baby Boomer travel expert Donna Hull – My Itchy Travel Feet.
** Unique, award-winning travel stories: Perceptive Travel and the Perceptive Travel Blog (I co-founded the blog in March 2007 and still write for it. We won the SATW Lowell Thomas Gold Award last year, and the webzine won NATJA’s top award this year.)
** From the UK – the Guardian travel section.
** Travel alone and don’t feel weird, with Solo Traveler.
** The U.S. State Department’s official blog – DipNote.
** Travel, airline, and hotel industry news – Skift.
** Travel technology news and analysis – Tnooz (now part of Phocuswire).
** Living and working in other countries – Transitions Abroad.
Then, as a bonus, I gave them….
Five Things to Do Now to Help With Content
1. Get the Travel & Hospitality SmartBrief emailed to you.
2. Get a dashboard like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to help manage social media.
3. Use Buffer to schedule content sharing for when you can’t be online, or to schedule overnight to reach international audiences in faraway time zones.
4. Post historic photos on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #TBT – Throwback Thursday.
5. Share photos related to a theme every Friday on Twitter’s #FriFotos.
Over to You
What are some of your favorite resources for travel-related information and news? Let us know in the comments….
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