Most mainstream newspapers and magazines today give periodic lip service to the evolution of travel, acknowledging that more and more travellers consider themselves ‘ecotourists,’ but not really giving their readers enough to feed their ethical penchants. Hamstrung by shrinking budgets, market-deaf advertisers and cumbersome bureaucracy, major travel media look like they’re being outpaced by the industry they’re supposed to support.
So why aren’t you, the new generation of penmen and -women, stepping into an expanding vacuum? Why aren’t more of you – buttressed by blogging skills and vocal in your frustrated desire to be recognised for your craft – helping to drive the kind of change that positions you as leaders? More nimble, more imaginative, more bold and less reliant on traditional revenue sources, you have little stopping you.
As one of the rank and file, I wouldn’t dare to guess at or pass judgment on your individual motivations as writers. And yet, banking on substantial personal experience, I feel justified in a Lincolnesque examination of the evil-good balance of advocating for the fastest-growing but most rough-trod parcel of the travel terrain and of wondering aloud why so many of you (travel writers in general, but bloggers in particular) appear to be shrinking from a perfect storm of a challenge.
Keeping reading this article on Travelllll.com
Thank you Ethan for this thoughtful and long needed observations!What we keep seeing and reading about are pristine beaches, snow topped mountains and so on. Today traveling goes beyond the simply wonderful place. Many travelers are now looking at discovering the spirit of the place they visit, meeting real people, enjoying an authentic experience. Authentic is a word that is used too much. What I mean is not staged events, not organized tours that only show what is easiest to organize, rather a slow-tourism that allows for a direct contact with the life, habits, culture, and people of the place. So, yes, why bloggers and travel writers still ignore this? Are they too lazy?!
Posted by Patrizia Antonicelli | March 8, 2012, 5:38 amHi Ethan,
Unique experience I call it eating with a local and discovering a little about their lives whilst visiting their country.
Some travellers are too suspicious or afraid of taking the first step into this new exciting way of finding out about local culture.
I have dined in Marrakech, India, Brighton, USA and London and had really good food and experiences.
It is the way of the future sharing resources, it will soon become common place.
Best wishes, Vicki
Posted by Vicki Edmunds | March 9, 2012, 3:41 pmThanks for the comment, Patrizia. I wish I knew the answer. Then it would be easier to gauge how to work toward a solution. It could be laziness, but a comment directly on the article suggests apathy, something that is certainly part of the problem. So how can we work together to make the issues more poignantly real? And how can we help more travel writers to sit up, take notice and act?!
Posted by Ethan Gelber | March 9, 2012, 1:10 amIt seems like a niche topic and most blogs are more related to peoples personal travels. That being said you might think this topic would come up more even as it relates to our personal travels.
Posted by David Urmann | March 15, 2012, 5:55 pmThere are hordes of bloggers out there talking about local travel, about going places and staying in locally-owned hostels and guesthouses. Eating local food. They may not have responsible travel as an explicit aim of their writing, but I haven’t read a blog about someone who stays in high-rise hotels in walled compounds once in years of reading travel blogs. That’s boring. Nobody cares. So nobody writes about it.
Where things are slow is the ink-to-paper publishing world, and I’ve now got a bit of experience as to why that is: responsible travel does not sell by the million. A tale about a person discovering the spirit of a place can only really be read by someone who has done or is hoping to do the same-i.e. a niche market-because everyone else will get bored or find the work pretentious.
So to who are you referring?
Posted by Jamie Emmerson | March 15, 2012, 4:03 pm