Executive Summary
The objective of the report is to provide the generalized evaluation of the marketing sphere of travel blogging and to depict the main principles and perspectives for the resource Travelling More. The website (with the domain name travelllingmore.com) would be a compatible Internet resource on travelling, with the recommendations, unique offers, shared experiences, and future possibilities of merchandise opportunities available for its visitors. The informative unit of the website would include the sections of information about the destinations in general, the details of the local attractions, restaurants, hotels, landmarks, and cultural events.
The report also features the results of the PEST analysis conducted for the purpose of defining the target audience of the website and the target market. The results suggest that the potential target market for the Travelling More blog can be quite flexible, considering the fact that information units would be organized in a way to be adaptive to the users’ demand. However, the primary target audience would consist of the active people of the different age groups since the desire to try various styles of travelling and recreations requires more active lifestyle attitude. The same target market can be used for introducing the e-commerce elements to the website.
The results of the SWOT analysis confirm that the main strength of the idea is its appeal to different audiences, whereas its weakness may be the large amount of content that needs to be provided. The opportunity is to acquaint the users with the different travelling styles. However, the threat is that the competitors would also implement the similar manner of the information representation but with more content.
In comparison to other travel blogs, the special feature that makes Travelling More unique amongst other similar web resources is that it will proportionally feature the information on the travelling opportunities of different styles, from camping to luxury recreation. It would also ensure the potential success of the blog since it could be more responsive and adaptive to the needs of the readers.
Introduction
The idea behind the increasing popularity of the travel blogging relies on two aspects. Firstly, travelling, recreation, and cultural tourism seem to be the major growing interests of the public. Secondly, the concept of the travel blog presupposes the individual unbiased opinion of the blogger. Travel blogs help users to receive information from the experience of other people rather than just get advertising content from the tourist agency.
The factor that defines the competitive situation among the travel bloggers and the growing number of the websites about traveling is the general interest of the public to traveling (“Monthly Departures to International Destinations” par.1). The wide spreading of the social media enhanced the cultural tourism. Meanwhile, in modern society people have all means of sharing the impressions of their journey, and prefer to get advice on travelling from their peers rather than manuals or agencies. The areas of interest of the tourists often change, and, therefore, the means of informing about the travelling attractions other than blogs do not always catch up with the developments. Especially, it concerns the social groups that prefer to try new types of recreation. Moreover, the popularity of the travel blog is often defined by not only its ability to follow the trends amongst the tourist places of interest but also to introduce their own fads and to discover new places, restaurants, or cultural destinations.
The travel bloggers at the current market vary in their level of amateurism, the spectrum of their content, categories of the travel experience that they review, and, of course, involvement in the e-commerce. Alongside some professionally made travel blogs, for whose authors blogging is their main occupation, there are many amateur projects and recently started websites. They can often have some interesting theme or colorful description of one the experienced travels, but the main problem they face is the inability to provide enough content to make the users return to the website. Meanwhile, the bigger websites that include more than one blogger who provides content are difficult to manage and to make the information relevant and exhaustive. Those are the resources about travelling that often have the outdated information because it is harder to update it on a bigger website. The other problematic category is the blogs that misuse the element of advertisement or e-commerce on their websites. Both those things can be useful and are able to improve the spectrum of the services the website provides, but they need to be used correctly.
Perspective of the website idea
The Travelling More blog (with the domain name travelllingmore.com) can be described as a compatible Internet resource about travelling. It will include the tips about the destinations, cultural and dining locations, shared experiences, and future possibilities of merchandise opportunities available for its visitors.
The primary objective of creating a new perspective of the travelling blog is to try not to repeat the mistakes of the competitors. Thus, the first aim is to make sure that the information is not stale or outdated; the point of blogging the travelling experience is to introduce people to the new aspects of perhaps familiar cities rather than repeating something that they already know. In this respect, the format of the blog has one crucial advantage. It enables the blogger to concentrate on the minor but more exciting and unexpected details instead of providing the profound guidance. The smaller details often catch more attention. Moreover, the content of the blog, in such a way, would not be crammed with the incomprehensible information.
The other mistake to avoid is common for the amateur travel blogs. Many recourses become popular for a short period because they blogged one interesting material, but then they lose their users. The reason for that lies in the inconsistency. In order to keep the high numbers of users visiting the blog, Travelling More needs to provide the content for the website consistently. It is better to blog a small piece of material regularly than a large description of the whole travel at once.
In order to improve the informative aspect of the blog, it needs to have categories for descriptions because each user is interested in the different nuances of the travel. The basic categories would include the sections of information about the destinations in general, the details of the local attractions, restaurants, hotels, shopping, landmarks, and cultural events. Apart from that, the system of suggestion of materials and the organized tags would help the users to get their bearings about the website more quickly.
Finally, in terms of adding the e-commerce element to the website, it should correspond to the main theme and be recommendatory rather than imposing. It would help to make the content more diverse and, at the same time, save the users’ time that they would spend on looking for the similar products.
The PEST analysis
In the modern framework of the market structure, there are different groups of society varying in age, gender, lifestyle, income, cultural background, etc. Those aspects combined form the basis of the political, economic, social and technological factors (PEST) analysis (Koumparoulis 32).
Analyzing the political factors that influence the target market of the travel blogging, we need to take into account the factor of political stability (“Tourism Statistics” par.2). In other words, blogging about places that undergo civil disorders and wars will not make the resource successful. Also, it is important to account the fact that different countries have different systems of entry. If the destination requires a complicated procedure of getting a visa, the users should be informed about that.
Economic aspect concerns the target market itself. The potential audience of the blog can belong to the groups with the different levels of income. The idea of Travelling More is to try to relate to different groups and to explore the diverse travelling options. In such a way, reading about it, the users will not only find new destinations for themselves but also discover more about travelling options that are not usually associated with their income. The important task of the blog is also, if possible, to provide information about the economic situation in the country of destination, the currency exchange rates, etc.
In terms of social factors, the target market includes people of different age and gender groups, as long as they are interested in the active lifestyle and exploring new places. According to statistics, the data of 2014 suggest that nearly 68 million of American tourists per year travel outside the US (Mangla par.1). It guarantees a large potential audience for the travel blogging, especially, because the technological factor is not a key issue in this case. It requires no more technological knowledge than just accessing the Internet.
The SWOT analysis
According to the SWOT analysis, the main strength of Travelling More is the appeal to different audiences, whereas its weakness may be in the large amount of content that needs to be provided. The opportunity is to acquaint the users with the different travelling styles. However, the threat is that the competitors would also implement the similar manner of the information representation but with more content.
Comparative analysis of other resources
The first resource that can be compared to Travelling More is the blog reviewing the world’s concept stores located at the domain hipshops.com (“Hipshops” par.1). The website focuses on the representing the popular culture locations around the world, including the coffee shops, clothing and fashion attractions. The major strength of the blog is its system of organizing content with tags and references. It is easy to find the necessary information on the website, and it is not overloaded with either photos or textual descriptions. It is also designed with the exquisite minimalism. However, the weakness of the resource, compared to Travelling More, is its narrow area of focus. Travelling More would cover the larger spectrum of the tourist attractions, including not only shopping destinations but also a variety of places to dine, nightlife, events, housing options and hotels, as well as unusual landmarks and cultural attractions.
Another travel blog that is a strong competitor is brownbook.me (“Brownbook” par.1). The materials on the website offer a very deep insight into the described destinations. The blog has a thorough research behind it, but most importantly, it includes the elements of advertisement and e-commerce. The weakness of the Brownbook is that it is focused on only one geographical area, whereas Travelling More will be able to offer more variety of not only different destinations but also styles of travelling.
Works Cited
“Brownbook – an Urban Guide to the Middle East.” Brownbook. 2016. Web.
“Hipshops – a Smart Compilation of Concept Stores from Around the World.” Hipshops. 2016. Web.
Koumparoulis, Dimitrios Nikolaou. “PEST Analysis: The case of E-shop.”International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences 2.2 (2013): 31-36. Print.
Mangla, Ismat. “Americans Traveled Abroad In Record Numbers In 2014.” International Business Times. 2015. Web.
“Monthly Departures to International Destinations.” Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. 2016. Web.
“Tourism Statistics.” Eurostat. 2016. Web.