Travel Insights 100 Travel Expert's Badge

Today we are reading poll results.

Since we read anything that inspires and informs travel, it seems appropriate to read what the Travel Insights 100–travel writers and bloggers, including moi--have to say.

The Travel Insights 100, officially launched yesterday. Participants have permission to discuss the results of a poll regarding Twitter, but only if you (yes, I’m talkin’ to you) promise that you will join the discussion of Twitter.  Members of Travel Insight 100 are travel writers, travel industry professionals, advisors and analysts, and travel bloggers. Questions did not draw 100 answers because the travel writers were, well, traveling–or maybe writing. Okay, here are just a few of the things that I found most interesting in this poll.

Twitter

First, since 97% of the respondents are on twitter, and 56% checked Twitter more than four times a day, it is safe to say that this is a very social-networking-kind-of-group.  And as I drilled down into the replies to other questions, I began to get a  picture of why these travel writers and travel professionals find twitter important and useful.

When deciding what they would tweet, the answers varied widely. To me this underscores one of the most endearing qualities of Twitter–the many different voices. The most important consideration to this group was being of interest to their followers, and next came caution about how they were representing themselves or their business. 1/3 talked travel only, and 28% said they tweeted “whatever came into their mind.”

When asked how they decide who to follow, NO ONE said they follow only those that they know.  Twitter is a place to break new ground and find out about new things. Less than 1/4  follow only those who are tweeting about travel. Many, many comments stressed that this group checks out the people who follow them and are “picky” about who they follow. They are looking for intelligent people with interesting posts.

However, if you want these picky people to pick you, here are some clues. They like people who find a mix of professional or business tweets with personal. Top no-nos are sending so many tweets that you flood my account or spend all your time tweeting self-promotion. In a related vein, being “too corporate” is looked down upon.  Do try to be clever because this crew does not like “mundane.”

The travel experts suggested so many links to articles about Twitter and travel, that I think I’ll save that list for another day.

Now, your turn. Are you on Twitter? If so, how do you decide who to follow? How do you decide what to tweet? Do you get travel info from Twitter? Let’s talk.

P.S. I am writing this on the 17th, and I just noticed that my French word of the day is editeur, meaning ‘publisher.’ How appropriate.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Mumbai Stop Light

Welcome to A Traveler’s Library. If this is your first visit, I hope that you will stick around. Be sure to read the two response posts to this one, which I link at the end of the article. And if you are curious about that book mentioned in the first paragraph, it is about the Dominican Republic.

I recently finished a wonderful book that killed any desire I might have had to go to the place featured, and then I saw the Academy Award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, which definitely did not make me want to visit Mumbai.  I began to think about the anti-travel movie. And the don’t-go-there book.

Is there such a thing? Although I have not read the book that Slumdog was based on, I have read comments that say it portrays Mumbai as even grittier than the movie. Does this make me want to travel there?

Controversy still rages (on Twitter for instance) about the depiction of Mumbai in the Academy-award winning picture.  Most Indians whose comments I have read are not happy. One said on Twitter, “Would you like it if America were portrayed by a movie that showed only the slums of New York?” Uh, well, there have been quite a few movies that do not show America in the best light. But perhaps because movies set in India are rarer in the United States, the impact of Slumdog has been greater. American movies, set in America, are widely viewed around the world, the good, the bad and…all that.

But back to the question of whether Slumdog Millionaire might make people actually want to go to Mumbai. I began to hear another discussion which caught me by surprise.  Slum tours, it seems, are newly chic. Some call this kind of tourism ‘Poorism.’

Do the profit-making companies that lead these tours actually give back to the communities as they claim? What motivates people to go on such tours? Is it voyeurism? Isn’t all travel ultimately voyeurism? Do the slum tourists come away changed in any way? Will they be more sensitive and generous in the future? Will the inhabitants of the slums learn how to make a legitimate buck off the tourists, or will the bad guys among them simply hone their pickpocket skills?

Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss, discussed the tours in a 2008 New York Times article. You can learn more about one of the tour companies that he discusses, Reality Tours, at their web site.

For now, I only know that for me, I am not interested in visiting a place to look at the lives of the poorest, and I am wary of traveling where I fear that I will be isolated in expensive resorts or hotels from the regular street life because it is unsafe, unhealthy or simply unsavory.  Call me unadventurous, but that’s my thought.

I am sure of one thing…the people who run tours in the slums of Mumbai are going to do a lot more business because of Slumdog Millionaire. As to the two main questions here–whether I am totally missing the point of Mumbai, and whether slum tourism has a place– I have an open mind. So educate me. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Oh, I mentioned a book up there in the first paragraph. I’ll get around to that soon.

See the posts that followed this one when Monica Bhide replied with her take on Mumbai in two parts. And if you enjoy what you see at A Traveler’s Library, please subscribe by RSS or e-mail–you’ll see opportunities in the right hand column. The link attached to the title of the movie will take you to Amazon where you can buy the DVD. It won’t cost you any extra, but it will earn a few cents for A Traveler’s Library. Thanks.

Photograph by Mike Powell, Flickr, Creative Commons license

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.