Travel – it’s the stuff dreams are made of. If we aren’t out there doing it ourselves, we're 17 weeks deep into the Instagram account of someone who is. And let’s face it, for the vast majority of us throwing our savings at avocado toast, travel isn’t always up the top of our financial “to-do” list. So what do we do instead? We seek the thrills and adventure of travel through the people lucky enough to be doing it. We sit behind our screens and drink up their every word, froth over their summer-induced photos, and cling onto their every descriptor of the Aperol Spritz they sipped on by the Italian Coast. Never in history has it been this easy to experience travelling from your couch.

Long gone are the days of flicking through dusty Lonely Planet Guides and relying on Middle School Geography classes to learn about the wonders that fill this planet. Travel in 2017 is on demand – you can livestream the chimes of Big Ben, summit Mount Everest via the Instagram story of a mountaineer in the Himalayas, and salivate over a detailed recount of someone’s breakfast croissant from a Parisienne Boulangerie all without leaving home. Travel journalism has become a sensory and intimate experience, capturing the wanderlust spirit that exists in every single one of us.

Travel journalism, like all journalism in the past fifty years, has dramatically changed the way it reaches its audience. Printed content is rapidly declining and being replaced by a range of virtual mediums.

In 2006, there were 37,543 employed journalists in Australia, and by the end of 2015, that number had fallen to 27,500. [1]

Coincidentally, it was in 2003 that the web’s most powerful blogging platform WordPress launched. [2]

Blogging – what is it, and why is it revolutionising journalism?

It all began as a way for individuals to share, well, just about anything and publish it online – no restriction, no limitation and for little to no cost. The phenomenon gained momentum after entrepreneurs identified its marketing potential [3], and it has since evolved to a multidimensional sector exposing a range of topical content to an unlimited audience.

The blogging platform WordPress publishes 24 posts every second from its 74,652,825 registered blogs. By the end of 2016, WordPress alone powered 27 per cent of the entire Internet [4]. This resource immediately exposes journalists to a plethora of opportunities – journalists are no longer required to sit in an office cubicle and write dreary columns for the daily newspaper. Instead, they can individually customise a site to publish their own content and if successful, make a few bucks in the process. The digitalisation of the sector has gone one step further in allowing writers to tailor their reader demographic through virtual filtration and tagging, where writer can reach consumer directly, any place, and at any time, cutting out all of the middle men.

This evolution hasn’t stopped at blogging. It’s progressed and transformed to something much more powerful through the development and advances of social media. Social media built the bridge between text and multimedia. It transformed the blogging industry by providing its audience with a sensory experience through imagery, videography and sound, as well as personal interaction and social connection. In 2017, an estimated 12 million people were blogging through a social media platform [5].

Looking specifically at travel blogging – the premise is exactly the same. There is virtual content tailored to any type of travel, available on demand through smartphone, tablets and computers alike. Travelling with kids? As a vegan? A solo female? Annual boys trip to Thailand? Well, good news. There’s a blog somewhere on the Internet to cater to your every niche. The are no limitations to content – a feature that didn’t exist just over a decade ago when the only source for travel was in the glossy pages of an adventure magazine. It’s millennials that are that most receptive to travel content – a 2016 study revealed that they are most inspired by beautiful visuals, and respond to content that leaves them ‘wanting more’ and the ability to craft their own itinerary. In fact, travel companies relying on travel-specific channels or aggregate sites are more likely to miss their millennial market. Instead, they are finding it more impactful to reach their audience through the channels they are using, such as social media, and allow them to ‘discover’ along their journey. And as the digital generation, it is the millennial era driving the demand for online travel content forward. [6]

All data is from The Urban List 2016 research and Australian Sensis Media Report 2016Visual data created with Canva (See endnotes below) — All data is from The Urban List 2016 research and Australian Sensis Media Report 2016
Visual data created with Canva (See endnotes below)

Statistically, travel related content is gaining momentum in the realm of online blogging and social media. The Urban List – developed in mid 2011 – is a digitally curated guide to life in Australia’s six biggest cities. They deliver online articles to an audience of 2.25 million, featuring the all things food, fashion, travel, health and beauty [7]. Clare Acheson, The Urban List’s Digital Account Manager, provided some insight on the industry.

“I think there is a substantial market [online] and I think that it is only going to grow. If you want to access a large number of people in a timely manner and be able to get measureable results to know exactly how many people read the article, or how many people clicked through to book with a hotel – digital will give you that. It’s something I think is really important.”

Clare Acheson from The Urban List shares her insight into the future and demand for online travel-related content. Background music: "The Lounge" - Bensound http://www.bensound.com

It isn’t only freelance and independent journalists that are harnessing the opportunity. Big-name companies utilise travel bloggers to promote their goods and work in affiliation to target their demographic through subliminal messaging and social media filters. In 2016, an estimated 74 per cent of travellers sought travel ideas from social media [8]. It’s no secret that these companies are the reason travel bloggers are financially afloat. A 2016 study revealed that a sponsored post, posted from an Instagram account with over 100,000 followers can earn up to 1500 British Pounds for the “influencer” [9].

Take Brooke Saward for example. Deemed the greatest young Australian travel blogger at the tender age of 24, she boasts 1.1 million social media followers, and receives over 5 million visitors annually [10] to her blog site, World of Wanderlust. Her Instagram feed is aesthetically coordinated, and her affiliates are some of the best-known global travel corporations. Her story of success is congruent with many of modern days’ major travel social influencers – The Polkadot Passport, Nomadic Matt, and The Young Adventuress – all having created an enterprise from the success of their blogs and the number of likes on their posts.

In 2017, it may seem as though the complexity and diversity of virtual connectivity and interaction has plateaued – we've seen such rapid growth in social media and blogging in the past five years, that it's hard to know where innovators will direct it to next. Above all, our online usage habits have become rather normalised.

Globally, there has been an exponential demand for visual content. Communication has evolved from texting and instant messaging, to the exchange of sending video Snapchats and Gifs in means of conversation, and will continue to affect media interactions [11]. The Infographic site, Venngage, conducted a survey with over 300 marketers examining company visual marketing strategies. The results announced that 91 per cent of online marketing content published contained visual material, and that it composed at least one-half of their posts [12].

It can be difficult to accurately predict where the future of online travel content, and even blogging in general is headed. The parameters of blogging is blurring rapidly as various media platforms are being adopted by digital influencers [13]. Blogs are becoming a receptacle for the myriad of places that content is now distributed through, like YouTube, Instagram and many other digital spaces.

““The idea of what a blog is (and will be) has become a moving target.””

— Mitch Joel [14]

Whatever the future for this industry, there is little chance that the appeal and exhilaration of travel will ever dampen . The accessibility of online travel journalism has transformed the way readers process and consume information. There is a huge opportunity for travel content creators to influence the frequency and location of travel [15] and work nomadically whilst earning a healthy salary. This digital revolution broadens the scope of traditional journalism and implores the personality and expression of individuals, to work as self-directed, freelance creatives.

Endnotes

[1] http://joboutlook.gov.au/occupation.aspx?search=alpha&tab=prospects&cluster=&code=2124

[2] https://wordpress.org/about/

[3] https://www.thebalance.com/blogging-what-is-it-1794405

[4] https://managewp.com/statistics-about-wordpress-usage

[5] http://tech.co/look-blogging-industry-stats-2017-02

[6] The Urban List Millennial Study 2016

[7] https://www.theurbanlist.com/brisbane/about-us

[8] The Urban List Millennial Study 2016

[9] http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity-news/how-much-do-people-really-get-paid-for-instagram-sponsored-posts-1176

[10] http://www.worldofwanderlust.com/about/advertising-sponsorship/

[11] Clare Acheson Interview, conducted 28 May 2017