What You Travellers Want from A Travel Blog? Right or wrong?

Recently, I did a study of what real travellers (i.e you!) actually want from travel content and travel blogs like this one. I also did a study about what travel bloggers think real travellers want. The results were a bit different…but that is another story…..!

I guess where I come from when it comes to travel blogs like mine is fairly clear – the name Tips for Travellers says it all. Tips! I have always thought the real advantage and contribution to the many choices of travel content and information available to travellers should be around the area of giving amazing advice and tips – based on having been somewhere and done it. Hopefully being able to advise on the best (and better way to do it). I have never really been focused on telling you readers stories (maybe some have gone away because of that!). So I was interested in seeing what real travellers wanted and did.

This is what I found. Does this sound like you and what you want?

• To hear opinions of others about places they have visited (58%).
• To get unbiased and honest reviews and opinions (48%)
• To read about the real life experiences of travellers (47%).

• The main impact of blogs seems to be about helping confirm or reinforce travel decisions:
• Helped reinforce or confirm a decision I had made about a travel plan (55%)
• Inspired me to visit a specific destination, stay in particular place or travel with a specific company (47%)
• Made me change my mind or decision I had made about an existing travel plan (35%)

• 71% of travellers say “real life”, first hand advice & tips is what they expect blogs to offer that is different to other sources of travel content.
• They also see personal anecdotes and stories (46%) and “impartial and unbiased opinions and reviews, with more frankness about the positives and negatives” (45%) as being key to what blogs do differently.

• Travellers say the top 3 most helpful content they find on blogs is money saving tips (54%); hotel, hostel and guest house reviews (52%) and general travel tips, advice and “how-tos” (48%).
• This is then followed by destination reviews and tips (46%) and anecdotes and stories of places in versus regular tips and advice (40%).

• 72% of blog readers say they dislike pop-ups (such as newsletter sign-ups) and 60% say they dislike articles with poor spelling and grammar.
• Other dislikes are advertising (57%), posts asking them to vote for the blogger in competitions, awards or to win trips (55%) and overly positive articles about trips funded by tourism boards or travel brands (48%)

Does this sound like you?

If you want to see the full study, you can see it on https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/TBU (look for the “White Paper PDF” link