Technology helps people travel without leaving home

By Kaitlyn Voyce

12/10/10

Travel comes with obstacles - such as finding the time, money, or a traveling partner - but the Internet has made it possible to connect with other travelers even if you can't leave home.

Travelers are no longer confined to meeting like-minded people only while on the road. With 16,219 travelers listed in the WeFollow Twitter directory, 4,487 Boston-area CouchSurfers, thousands of people blogging about their travels and a new online travel network called Tripping.com, it is easier than ever to find others with the travel bug.

Tapping into Twitter

It is important for travelers to build a following on Twitter so they have a network to tap into for ideas and conversation. Once a network is established, Twitter is one of the best places to find advice and help for a dream trip. Travel Tweeters are always willing to talk to others about their plans and offer suggestions to make the trip happen.

Alisha Miranda did marketing and community management for Sosauce.com, a site for independent travelers, and built its Twitter following. Miranda did not have solo travel experience, but found help from Sosauce's followers when she planned her trip to Spain.

"The majority of that trip was planned because of my Twitter outreach," Miranda said. "I have not found a community as welcoming, as supportive, as encouraging as the travel community."

Travelers can find followers by using hash tags. The hash tags #TNI (Travelers' Night In) and #TravelTuesday help travelers who are new to Twitter jump in to the conversation.

Every Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST, industry experts and travelers share tips and ideas based on the week's Travelers' Night In theme. The hosts from ZipSetGo.com ask one question every 10 minutes and travelers Tweet their answers accompanied by #TNI.

Kate McCulley, who recaps #TNI every week, said she knows people who get new followers every time they participate in #TNI. The more followers a person has, the more they can learn from the community.

Katy Lynch worked with Where I've Been, a popular Facebook application and grew the @whereivebeen following to 20,000 by the spring of 2009. She was having trouble reaching out to everyone individually so she started #TravelTuesday (or #TT to save characters) to connect with her followers and allow them to share their knowledge.

"It was really cool because a lot of my followers... didn't follow each other and #TravelTuesday really gave them an opportunity to follow other people who were following me. So they connected not only with me but with other bloggers and other people that they didn't know," Lynch said.

#TT has about 2,000 contributors each week, including travel companies who promote deals and bloggers who provide links to interesting articles they have seen on other sites or link to their own site.

The Blog Connection

"[Twitter] has allowed us to share our content a lot wider. And I think the best thing is it's allowed us to build relationships, which of course translates into an audience. A lot of people on Twitter have become subscribers to my blog," said McCulley, who started her blog Adventurous Kate in February.

McCulley started travel writing when she worked for Cheapflights.com. She used Twitter to connect with important people in the travel industry and find other bloggers. Before she started her own blog, she read and commented on sites she found interesting.

"When you start commenting, you'll start establishing connections," said McCulley.

McCulley knew she wanted to write for her audience and not for herself when she started her blog, but many people start their blogs to keep in touch with friends and family and develop a wider audience over time.

Delia Harrington, a Northeastern University student, started her blog Away She Goes to "assuage the fears of my friends and family members" while she studied abroad in Egypt. She said most of her family members don't travel as much as she does, so she is able to share her experiences with them

"That's one of the biggest things with my blog, is being able to show people like my uncle, the construction worker, places he's never going to go. Being able to show people what it's really like there, that's really important to me," Harrington said.

Harrington also found a market in writing about her experiences studying abroad. She wrote about ten things people usually don't admit about studying abroad. She said her friends now give her link to other students who are studying abroad.

Lillie Marshall's blog is ranked 47 on TravelBlogSites.com, an independent travel blog ranking site, but she started her blog Around the World L because she wanted to post updates for her family during her nine-month round-the-world trip.

"It ended up being more gratifying because of all the strangers.  Most of my loved ones ended up not reading it...it ended up being for strangers, which is cool and it helped me meet a lot of people and get a lot of opportunities," Marshall said.

The travel blog community extends beyond the Internet. Marshall traveled with Gary Arndt, whose blog is ranked No. 1 on TravelBlogSites.com, in Spain and became the host of Meet, Plan, Go Boston because of connections she made online. She said it is easy to cross the line from online to real world.

"It's like you feel like you know each other but then you meet them in person, they're always totally different than you expect.  But you're really comfortable with each other," Marshall said.

McCulley and Marshall worked together to use their Twitter and blog connections to find panelists for Meet, Plan, Go (link to extended travel article) in Boston. Meet, Plan, Go helped McCulley feel more connected to the community.

"I love travel. I've loved travel forever. I love blogging... I just love it and the people are so welcoming and friendly, so nice. And they get me. I think it was really valuable. I think Meet, Plan, Go was the first opportunity I ever had to spend time in person with people who were as crazy about travel in the way that I am," said McCulley.

Social Exchanges

Another way to find people who understand that passion for travel is through hospitality exchanges like CouchSurfing.org and Tripping.com. These networks allow people who can't travel a way to experience different cultures and form new relationships by hosting travelers in their homes, meeting with others for coffee or participating in events and activities in their own cities.

Jen O'Neal, co-founder of Tripping.com, said she hosted travelers when she lived in London to experience other cultures when she didn't have a chance to travel.

"Even though I couldn't afford to take the time off, you know hanging out with a bunch of Italians for the night was almost like being in Italy, you know. Something like that made my life really colorful and cultural without me having to pack up a bag and spend 500 bucks to travel somewhere," O'Neal said.

Bianca Cloutier, the partnerships manager for Tripping.com, studied abroad four times while in college. She stayed with a host family while in France and used hospitality networks to meet people when she studied in the Czech Republic.

"That experience in France opened my eyes up to the benefits of staying with someone who knows the areas and can show you their side of the city you're staying in," Cloutier said.

She started working with Tripping.com because she wanted to connect with more travelers while at home and get more involved with the travel community.

Jesse Fenton, the brother of CouchSurfing.org founder Casey Fenton, has hosted more than 500 people since he joined in January 2003. He said he doesn't have a specific formula for deciding who to host, but he likes to make sure it will be a good fit and he can learn something from them.

"The core people, the people who are really involved, know it's about creating amazing friendships, not just finding a free place to stay," said Fenton.

Jeff Byrnes is a CouchSurfer from Boston who has hosted more than 50 people.

"The worst experience I've had was just a boring experience. More often than not, the experiences are awesome. At the very least, I've made a new friend. At the very best, I've had people tell me amazing stories," said Byrnes.

Byrnes said he often hosts couples or people with traveling companions because they usually have more to share. He has hosted up to four people at a time, which he said creates a great dynamic.

"Every time I've ever done that it's been even better because now I have this interaction between two people from one place and a person from another, and then myself, an American," Byrnes said.

Byrnes said there is an understanding between CouchSurfers that it is more important to keep in touch when they are in the same city than it is when they are in different places. He said he has met a handful of people through hosting who he would consider true friends.

"If it were not for the sheer short amount of time, they would be my best friends. They would be like true blue, live in each other's houses. The kind of people you don't even call, you just show up at the door. I could call them in a panic in their home country and be like, "Hey, I'm stuck' and they'd help however they could," Byrnes said.

Travelers also seem to have a trust in their community and realize the potential to form meaningful relationships.

"I have way more to gain than to lose. There's really not much to lose, but the gain is lots of amazing friendships, amazing people, just the knowledge," said Fenton.

People who are not as involved in the travel community might find it difficult to open their homes to strangers, but sites like CouchSurfing.org and Tripping.com provide safety measures such as reviews and an identity verification process.

O'Neal launched Tripping.com in January 2010 and the site has 10,000 members. She said she saw a need for a hospitality exchange that integrated more technology and additional safety features like anonymous reviews. Even though O'Neal said these safety measures were needed, she said the travel community is safe and welcoming.

"I think it's because it's the spirit of travel, just it's a very intrinsic thing as a traveler, you just have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone... The people on our site, they feel like this is definitely a community, it's a safe place and they're much more adventurous and willing to meet each other offline," O'Neal said.

O'Neal added that people can use Tripping.com to host or meet travelers in their city for coffee or offer advice online. She also said she plans to integrate video into the site so travelers can connect with each other and teach each other things like how to make a meal from a certain region even if they can't travel to learn in person. 

The Boston CouchSurfing group has weekly meetings at Cambridge Brewing Company. Often more than 40 locals and travelers meet. Byrnes frequently brings his Surfers to the meetings.

"They get to meet other Bostonians. Besides, like a typical New Englander type, there's no such thing as a Bostonian for real. There's no one thing. This is a town of people from elsewhere," Byrnes said.

Byrnes said he values the Boston CouchSurfing community because he works from home.

"In my working life, I don't have a professional social life. I work alone, at home. So I don't meet people or talk to people all day long... It's hugely important to me. It's like a staple of my social life. Every Wednesday I know I'm going to get a huge jolt of social interaction," Byrnes said.

Even if a traveler can't leave home, they don't have to stop experiencing the world the way they do when they travel. The key is keeping an open mind while using the resources that are available at home.

"I think you just have to take that attitude of when you travel and you're totally willing to meet anybody, to go do anything," Harrington said. "You get caught up in your daily life, in your friends, and in your grind... if you take that attitude just being willing to say yes to things then you'll be able to experience what's great at home."