TRAVELLERS ARE MEDIA: How Travel Bloggers And Travel Influencers Act As Media Companies in Tourism 4.0

Fundamental values of travel bloggers have much in common with brand journalists and in general with content creators and medias companies. Here we individuate 3 main core values which represent the keys to success in the value chain of any travel blog: transparency, creativity, and sociability.

First is transparency
In the information economy, the concept of transparency refers to the openness and the accountability of medias. Transparency is considered a great challenge for content creators that often face pressures from stakeholders such as advertisers, publishers, and influential groups, including their own audiences.
In their paper "Transparency. How leaders create a culture of candor" (2008), authors David Goleman, Warren Bennis, and James O'Toole (34) theorised transparency is an essential pillar in every business sector, especially in the information economy. Communities recognize the role of opinion leaders to those content creators that comply with honesty policy.
Reputation of travel bloggers as independent and trustworthy source of information finds evidence the estimate that approximately 50% of bloggers worldwide generate contents without receiving any compensation.
To maintain both reputation and authority, valued travel bloggers would have to guarantee their audiences the honesty and reliability of contents they shared. This includes various actions such as mentioning paid partnerships as "sponsored by" and - in general - remaining independent in their reviews and opinions, not surrendering to external influences. Travel bloggers cultivate trust among followers as well by selecting carefully their collaborations, only accepting to work with those brands that endorse their values and travel behaviors. As an example, a travel blogger focused on the niche of sustainable travel could consider accepting paid partnerships with eco lodges, volunteering trips and beach cleans organizers, or perhaps taking part in tourist boards projects that aim to reduce the impact on the environment and to empower local communities.

Second is creativity
Concerning media economics, creativity generally indicates the process of creating, developing, producing, and distributing contents. The creative economy - as well named the orange economy - in one of the most fast-growing economies, affecting different businesses. It mainly consists of creating, producing, packaging, and distributing cultural goods. UNESCO study (35) reports cultural sector as accounting for 3,1 % of global GDP. Although the value of a blog post as a cultural good can be described as symbolic, rather than material, the creative economy is undoubtedly a solid business. What generates economic value for travel bloggers is the capability to create unique and original contents.
Even if content creators are often labelled as "gifted", creative work comes from perseverance and hard practice. To capture and maintain the reader's attention and generate value for the recipients, travel content creators often use the technique of storytelling as part of their creative process, to spark interest and facilitate memory through emotions.

Third is sociability
Sociability commonly defined the attitude or disposition to be sociable, engage in interpersonal relations and participate in social activities. Referring to media industry, sociability has to do with the ability and skills to nurture a loyal and participative community. Blogs can be considered the first stage of social media. For this reason, bloggers have been among the first content creators to value their communities and fanbases, which represent a sine qua non condition for their survival and an important stakeholder. Community needs to be cultivated not only through distribution of pertinent contents but as well by further actions such as managing genuine interactions, answering questions and comments, sending newsletters, listening, and appreciating contributions. Ideally, followers of an engaged community will feel to be members of a lookalike group and identify themselves with the blogger, that in this way would be able to influence their purchasing decisions. Sticking to these core values, travel bloggers can achieve so much popularity that they could make blogging their livelihood. One for all, is the Lonely Planet story, that we are going to recall in the next chapter.
Even if their founders' adventure started way before the spread of the Internet, Lonely Planet's growth traced the path that could turn any traveller to content creator, to publisher, to (multinational and multimillionaire) media company. As recorded by the founders (36) in "Unlikely Destinations. The Lonely Planet Story" (2005), it all started with two curious backpackers, keen to keep traveling and to share with fellows their knowledge of places learned on the road.