The world’s most uninspiring travel blogs
By Darren Cronian on Friday, February 25th, 2011

There are a gazillion travel blogs out there now, and even those travel companies have finally realised (finally) of the advantages of creating one. I can hardly sit here and criticise independent bloggers when my blog looks like shit, and I haven’t written on it hardly in the last 12 months, so I thought I would highlight some travel company blogs, and add my opinion.

The world’s most uninspiring travel blogs

Marriott on the move

I am sure Bill Marriott is a nice guy, he looks like one, but I have often wondered does he really write this blog. I’m sure he is a busy guy, but I’ve yet to see him reply to any of the comments, especially those that are negative towards Marriott, surely that’s one of the main reasons to have a blog, is to respond to negativity on your own brand.

British Airways

Is it a blog or isn’t it. It states quite clearly “Catch our latest travel news in the British Airways Travel News blog” so it’s a blog, right? Well, comments have been stripped from the “blog” and it’s all very Zzzz. No photos, just marketing talk and stuff that isn’t very interesting. I want to know more about the planes, what goes on at the airports etc. Oh and allow people to comment, don’t be afraid British Airways.

First Choice

The blog is very sales (and SEO) led, unlike the British Airways blog there’s an opportunity to comment, but, the writers do not really interact by asking questions. Oh, and apparently, First choice think there’s only 3 must do things in Majorca. I’d personally like to see a blog to look like it’s written by a human, not a SEO keyword tool. For a tour operator blog I would have expected more content to inspire me.

Trip Advisor

I remember reading the Trip Advisor blog a few years back and actually enjoyed it because they published odd and funny hotel reviews left from consumers. Nowadays it has turned into another SEO link churning machine. Why oh why they host their blog on Typepad and then move to WordPress.com, I will never know. Blogger next? Please could we have the owl back writing because the Trip Advisor employee’s are dull.

Priceline blog

The final travel blog, and I am just about awake. Reading a blog of just text, and marketing, sales talk is so boring. Where is the inspiration, it’s a travel blog, where’s the photos, why would I visit this blog regularly and build a relationship with the Priceline brand and company. There’s no fun reading blogs like this I am afraid.

Most travel brands solely see their blog as a way add links to their products and services, but, they could do so much more. So many of the brands who have travel blogs treat it as a tool to sell consumers something, rather than trying to show us that they are human, and inspire consumers.

As usual I am interested to read what you think.


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18 responses to “The world’s most uninspiring travel blogs”

Keith | 25 February, 2011 at 12:10 pm

Tour operators, airlines, tourism boards and other travel companies could do better by recruiting travel bloggers to blog for them. Travel bloggers can provide that personal touch, unique perspectives that inspire and help endorse the brand. Just my two cents. :-)

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James | 25 February, 2011 at 12:15 pm

What’s the bloody point! Finally somebody has got some brass to say your blog is boring. Hands up my blog is not a piece of fine art, but hey at least I have some interest in my topic! I’m sure you could grow the list. Look at all the corporate blogs where the last posts was 2004, great idea marketing dept!

Here’s to praying I don’t fall on your list and if I do here’s to hoping I’m not back the second year!

James

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Pingback - EasyJet claims first airline blog | Tnooz | 25 February, 2011 at 1:36 pm

[...] NB: Travel Rants has just published a scathing article on the state of corporate travel blogging. [...]

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Craig McGinty | 25 February, 2011 at 1:55 pm

I wonder if Google’s recent change might put a stop to this SEO technique?

http://mashable.com/2011/02/25/google-content-farms/

Linking to their own products and pages really has nothing to do with helping or informing the reader; interesting Google says it will look to tackle “low-value add” websites.

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Robert | 25 February, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Well said, most corporate blogs are this boring, the don’t understand the word inspirational. Get you customers to do it as Keith said there are some great travel writers and photographers out there.

Robert

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Jack | 25 February, 2011 at 2:59 pm

I was looking forward to some controversy…but it would have been a brave move and anyway the juxtaposition may have been that you could have drawn attention to seriously boring blogs and ‘upped’ their views fooling them into believing they’re not boring at all – there’s no such thing as bad publicity and all that.

The travel company blogs that get me are the ones supposedly written by ‘experts’ and ‘local’ insiders and then there’s no mention of who these people actually are.

You can fool some of the people some of the time…

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Darren Cronian | 25 February, 2011 at 3:06 pm

Yes, quite a few people have suggested that I should not have linked the boring blogs but, I felt readers might want to check them out for themselves and comment here! :)

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Bob-ski | 25 February, 2011 at 3:34 pm

Yeah I think you got the title wrong on this one Darren, ranting for the sake of filling a post after so long methinks :) . I was expecting holidays from hell type material… The BA blog is bad but compared to the first choice blog you can’t compare it. If I was going on a holiday with them I would find the info quite useful. I went to Majorca last year and I didn’t go to any of those locations so… 4me its useful. Thanks for pointing out their blog! if you actually read some o the content it is great – same goes for trip advisor.

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Hal Peat | 25 February, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Since I already associate Marriott with a boring brand image, their blog is a perfect fit to the image.

But seriously, I don’t think the impetus for having independent content on multi-national corporate hotel brands will come from that type of source, it will come from more regional, or single location operations that will in turn source specialists with credibility in their own immediate region to tell other travelers about that location.

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Bob-ski | 25 February, 2011 at 3:59 pm

This article has actually annoyed me quite a bit. As I sit on the train back home I feel a rant coming on myself. :0 it would be great if the article was more diverse. The “worlds” most boring and uninspiring blogs! Ahhhh kinda misleading once you read the content without picking on a company for adding a bit of PR. How else do you expect them to let ppl know about their products or get ppl to read further. The links actually guide you to the appropriate page on their site, something my mum would appreciate. It would be good if you included some more colourful blogs that originate from other countries… more research needed. Nb. Rant over Just nit picking. Train isn’t moving.

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JoAnna | 26 February, 2011 at 4:12 pm

Regarding Keith’s comment above, I agree that if companies feel they need blogs, then they need real people to write them, not just SEO machines that have no connection. Just a bit of a personal plug here, but I manage the blog for a Morocco tour company, and our writers have lived, worked and studied in the country. Are they literary masters? Not necessarily. But do they make a place real? I think so. A good example is this piece on how to ride a camel

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Hal Peat | 28 February, 2011 at 5:24 pm

You don’t have to be any literary master to provide content, on the other hand totally ignoring the social or safety or political aspect on the ground is ignorant and egocentric. Everyone is a real person – so that’s not nearly the issue here, IMO. It’s whether that “real” person is operating in some kind of a vacuum of their own that fails to acknowledge the wider current context of the place they’re telling about, or whether they bring that into their discussion or even decide to be on the ground at that location at all. Every decision in social media use can have an impact on the ground, a fundamental fact that people in the Middle East are displaying amply.

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Nancy D. Brown | 28 February, 2011 at 11:53 pm

I completely agree with Keith that, “tour operators, airlines, tourism boards and other travel companies could do better by recruiting travel bloggers to blog for them.” As JoAnna said, real people, writing real blog posts, provide quality content from a local’s perspective.

I am a solo blogger, attempting to share Insider Travel Tips with readers. Like James, I’m happy that my What a Trip blog was not found on your boring and uninspiring travel blog list.

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Hal Peat | 1 March, 2011 at 2:41 pm

@Keith, @Nancy D. Brown, publicist – the TBs, tour operators airlines and other travel companies already are commissioning travel bloggers to create content for them. They’re just not using *your* particular type of travel content or the travel blogging community you belong to because it has no credibility.

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christine | 11 March, 2011 at 1:06 pm

There are always genuine bloggers and fake ones, I believe. Yes, the travel companies are doing SEO activity through the travel blogs, its their business. However, it should not matter much to us. We get to know which blog is helpful from the content, which generally depict experience.

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Lynda Marsden | 23 March, 2011 at 12:04 am

travel blogs can be very useful , but you need sometimes to read between the lines and pick out the genuine bloggers from the SEO writers that many travel companies employ. The more genuine the blog I find are the most interesting.

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Bob | 25 March, 2011 at 6:56 am

Well, I think a good corporate blog is one that you can’t tell is a corporate blog! I don’t think its fair to generalize from the 5 examples you listed to “most travel brands.” As you said, companies are finally catching on to the importance of blogging and I’m sure with their resources some of them have figured out how to create genuine blogs that at the same time also help their marketing.

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Sam | 30 March, 2011 at 5:54 pm

it’s about sharing information, and travel bloggers have a big part to play. On a wider playing field it’s about people who have a passion for travel coming together and providing input, whether that’s a day-to-day traveller sharing his experience, a expert travel blogger giving his top tips on round the world travel/or destination, or a tour op sharing deals and insightful information on the destination. Everyone should be involved…

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