Sharing a short essay that arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of Dense Discovery — a newsletter about design, tech, sustainability and urbanism curated by Kai Brach, based in Melbourne, Australia.
Do we travel for transformation or validation?
It's always interesting to hear what thought leaders "outside" the travel industry have to say about the state of tourism, so I'm sharing Kai's article with his permission.
There's a few good points in this piece, including how touristic travel (e.g. mass tourism) can import more culture to a destination than it exports. I also agree that seeking validation on social media is drowning out good quality travel content.
There's some truth to Kai's point about escapism. Consider this: the biggest competitor to a travel agent is the electronics shop, where consumers can instead buy a new 50" flatscreen TV. In this scenario, which "escapism" is worse? Buying a new TV or booking a trip on a cruise ship? 😅
However, I don't believe that all trave...
Comments
Hello, I'm Ben, I created this video whilst on holiday in Egypt with my wife.
👉 I'd love to get some feedback so I can develop my skills and ideas.
I've always enjoyed creative projects and before Covid I filmed and edited my second Egypt holiday video. For me, it was fun to create - I love music, and so when creating the video I tried to find a suitable song which represents the destination, and our time in the magnificent holiday resort in Hurghada.
It got me thinking that most of the popular travel vloggers have created a channel based around their personality, and guide you through their videos talking to camera, often in a documentary style.
My video is completely different, and I simply used interesting visuals, edited as best I could, and it almost feels like a music video. I wanted to get some feedback on this, not only because I'm curious, but because I would love to create more travel videos in the future, so I welcome feedback to improve.
I'm really happy with the video I created, because I'm not a professional and I do not edit video often, but I really enjoyed coming up with the ideas - the sound effects part at the beginning was my attempt to capture as many sounds as I could, associated with going away on holiday. From packing the bag, zipping it up, grabbing the keys and closing the front door, to the in-flight sound. The "welcome home" voice I recorded on my mobile phone as the butler welcomed us to the hotel!
Obviously though, if people prefer guided videos, and not the music style videos I will try this next time :)
If you like my video please do share a comment on the YouTube page to help it get more engagement - this will be really encouraging for me.
Do you prefer long vs short video, visuals vs talk-to-cam (or both)?
Hey Ben, thanks for sharing your vlog for feedback.
I prefer watching vlogs with both commentary and "to-camera" speaking. This makes me feel like a part of an audience that the creator is speaking to. If the video is simply a nice montage of clips with music, then I feel more like an observer and am far less likely to engage (like, comment, etc).
You should match the video style for your intended audience. Are you creating a vlog for your subscribers / followers who want to keep updated on your travels? Or are you making a video that will capture certain keywords (e.g. people looking for reviews of that destination) so you can rank higher on search?
In your video above, I tuned out after about 90 seconds (although I did watch the whole video for the purposes of giving you feedback). While it's a beautifully made video, I didn't find it engaging or informative because of the lack of commentary. It felt more like a promo video for the resort.
This leads me to asking: did the resort give you a free stay, or special treatment to make the video? If so, you should make that clear to viewers, especially if you're presenting the video as part of a "review" which you've put on your website. Can I trust this review?
My last bit of feedback is that pre-covid videos (before 2020) are less valuable than post-covid videos. If I watch a travel video that was published in 2019 I am going to ask a lot of questions like "is that place still open", "is it still as busy", etc. Lots of destinations change over the years, and the pandemic accelerated that change for many places. So videos should be current.
Hope you find this feedback helpful.
Hello - thank you very much for taking the time to write your detailed reply, (and watch the full video) lot's of great info for me to consider! I think I need to establish how serious I am going to take creating travel videos. At the moment I am very busy with my day-to-day job (not video). If Covid hadn't have gotten in the way, I might have created more videos and developed my focus and vision more.
This video creation is an interesting story, because I naturally have a creative interest in content creation, especially video. But I didn't study it, so I try to learn and keep creative in my spare time. Initially, we went to Egypt on a paid trip and met the hotel owner. I was already creating a holiday video of that trip for fun. Once completed I reached out to show them and because we loved the place so much we wanted to go back anyway. This led to a free return and on that next visit and I created the second video (this one you've seen). But it was a very honest review. We wanted to go back anyway, and we still want to return again, it's a wonderful place, lovely people.
I also agree with the video being too long. I definitely need to re-think the music approach, because this is the reason for the video length (as it's the song length). I am just not sure I would be very good on camera, but if I get to go on holiday again sometime soon, I'll give it a try!
I do have one more query: on this approved Travel Massive post, there's a camera thumbnail. But I did upload an image, maybe I did that wrong?
Hello Ben, great video, you should be very happy with it. An editing challenge you should try is making a 30 second version and a 60 second version because your style is very popular with short videos. Also consider trying to make vertical versions as well because you might find an audience for this style of video on vertical video platforms.
I know that is not the type of advice you asked for but Ian and others have already given such good feedback. Hope it helps!
This is great advice, I really appreciate it, and thank you also for watching my video!
I think I have approached my previous videos wrong. Because I have gone out to capture lots of video, without really planning it other than to capture what interests me, then I find a song I really like which suits the place (I get permission to use it), then I work backwards editing to the music. Of course, by doing it this way my videos are the length of the music. This is the natural way I have so far, worked on my videos probably because I love music so much I have done it instinctively. However, I will 100% take your advice and create 30/60 second videos and also in portrait, you're 100% right.
I did also create another video during my trip to Ukraine in 2019 before the war, that was a shorter video, because I selected a shorter song (or maybe I just cut it I can't remember):
Hi Ben, I think @Ian has hit the nail on the head with his comments. "music" vids work to a degree but you would need to add a whole bunch more visuals, sights and sounds. More info on the destination is Def needed. (for me) but in saying that there is a market and an audience for all styles. So do what you are happy with, don't worry about other people. Once you determine what you hope to achieve with your video, you'll find your style.
You've done a great edit and good music choice, so you can Def be proud.
I'm not a vlogger personality type so I go for documentary style vids. My advice would be to watch as many travel vids as you can and emulate the ones you like.
All the Best on your journey.
Hi! Yes, I definitely agree more info is required. I appreciate all the feedback. Hopefully I get to go on more holiday trips to improve the style and get more interest from people wanting videos being made :)
I recommend checking out the Travelvids course from Dean ( @dptravelvids ) at www.travelvids.tv
They have some great tips for making videos with your phone.
Ah thank you, I will check this out! Here's my video from the first Egypt trip (filmed on my mobile).
Here’s a few travel vlogs I’m currently watching — hope these are helpful examples!
Sabbatical Tommy
Matt and Julia
Wind Hippie Sailing
Alice Ford Adventures (connect with @aliceford on Travel Massive)