Blogging for New Zealand

I haven't been to New Zealand, but I know it's one the most adored travel destinations. Beautiful landscapes, friendly people and the benefit of mild temperatures are the perfect ingredients for an ideal vacation, and New Zealand has them all.

The end of 2010 has seen many natural disasters, from Europe to the US to Australia, the weather seemed to have gone crazy. Unfortunately, 2011 is proving even worse.

Only a couple of days ago Japan has been struck by an earthquake of magnitudo 8.9, which caused huge damages even if the country is well-equipped to face such natural phenomena. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and a leak in one of the country's nuclear power plants, sparking worries all over East Asia.

About three weeks ago an earthquake killed 65 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Craig Martin of Indie Travel Media is organising a web event to boost tourism to New Zealand. Even if I haven't been there yet, I'm sure one day I will.

This is what Indie Travel Media says:

"The world is in shock that one of the premium travel destinations in the world could suffer such a natural disaster as happened two weeks ago in Christchurch. And while all our thoughts go out to those people who have lost loved ones, lost homes and businesses, travel bloggers around the world are uniting to tell the world New Zealand is a great place to travel and there is no better time than now."

"March 21, 22, and 23 has been set aside by travel bloggers throughout the world as 72 hours of content generation about travelling to New Zealand. #Blog4NZ is the brain-child of New Zealand travel bloggers Jim McIntosh and John Reese. John himself living in Christchurch. “We want a total black-out of travel content across the world, we want Twitter dominated by Tweets about travelling to New Zealand, we hope that all travel bloggers rally behind this cause and publish as many articles as possible throughout this period about travelling to New Zealand” said event organiser Craig Martin of Indie Travel Media.

“New Zealand is one of the world’s greatest travel destinations and has been a great source for many travel bloggers and travel entrepreneurs. For many northern hemisphere countries it is the furthest most spot they can travel. It has been the place where so much innovation has come with regard to travel – the home of Bungy, the birth place of hop-on hop-off backpacker travel, NZ led the way in independent hostels throughout the eighties and nineties. It is also a country where tourism is the number one contributor to GDP, where the Minister of Tourism is the PM – that is how important tourism is. This is the travel community saying hey go to NZ – if there is one place that should be on your travel list this year it is NZ” said Dan Roberts of Travel Generation. “This is something that as the travel community we can do to support not only all the businesses in Christchurch but everyone in New Zealand.”

Over the next few days event organisers will be working with the whole New Zealand tourism industry to gather resources, images and content that travel bloggers from all over the world will be able to access to generate their stories during the 72 hours of blog4NZ. At the same time the call is going out to all travel bloggers, travel experts, photographers and social media users to show the power of the Internet to make a real long term difference to those travel businesses suffering in New Zealand not just now but over the next 12 months in New Zealand as a result of the earthquake.

For more information go to Blog4NZ website


Contact: Dan Roberts Travel Generation
dan@travelgeneration.com
Phone: +64 3 441 8494
Mobile: +64 21 360 486

Download your free e-books with bloggers' Best Kept Travel Secrets!

Back in November, I had taken part in a project involving many bloggers, promoted by Katie of TripBase Blog, and called Best Kept Travel Secrets.


Now, I'm very pleased to announce that what initially was just a blogging initiative, has now turned out very successful and has given the opportunity to launch a series of free ebooks that gather all tips and travel secrets of the main travel bloggers.


TripBase has teamed up with Charity:Water and gave this project a mission: to provide funds to build freshwater wells and clean drinking water to people in developing nations and to raise awareness about this fantastic cause, encouraging hundreds more people to donate and to make a real difference on the ground.


For every downloaded e-book, 1$ donation will be made to Charity:Water, so I would like to encourage all my readers and subscribers to support this cause by downloading any of the great free e-books available (or all of them if you like!).


You can download them by following this link or by clicking on the badge on my right sidebar.

5 travel blogs you can't afford to miss

Trawling through the resources of the net I keep stumbling across marvellous travel blogs and, I admit, I keep stealing other bloggers' ideas. So now it's time to give myself up and confess which are the blogs that have inspired me the most.

1- Cool Travel Guide. I know, Lara Dunston doesn't need an introduction. Established travel writer, she has published in newspapers, magazines and websites all over the world. However, I can't avoid mentioning her blog as it's a real source of inspiration for travellers and travel writers.

First of all, in her posts she covers cool and quirky sides of travelling, as promised in the headline, but also, Cool Travel Lara doesn't shy away from criticising what's wrong in the travel publishing industry and shares very willingly useful tips for would-be travel writers. Do you want to start a career in travel writing? First step: Cool Travel Guide!

2- My Several Worlds, written by Carrie Marshall, Canadian writer and photographer. The website is focused on destinations, attractions, lifestyles and cultures in Asia and features interviews to artists, writers and photographers.Very user-friendly, My Several Worlds gets its glamourous looks from the fabulous pictures and the state-of-the-art design. If you are thinking about travelling to Asia, in here you will find all the useful info you need, from travel insurance to "teach-and-travel" matters.

3- Europe à la carte. Although the title can mislead some first-time visitors, this is not a blog about European wines, but Europe all over. Literally. Travel writer Karen Bryan here covers every single aspect of Europe and European life, from the world of arts to over-packed capitals to small idiosyncrasies that make the Old Continent a huge immortal attraction.
Hotel reviews, museum tours, quirky traditions and unsung spots: Europe à la Carte has all you need from a proper European online travel guide.

4- Nomadic Matt. Yes, THAT Matt. The young king of the travel blogs. "Twenty-something vagabond" he's already written an Internet best-seller, whose title speaks for itself: "Monetize Your Travel Blog". Currently on the road, Matt not only updates his blog with his latest trips, but starts thought-provoking posts on the role of blogging, comparisons with the world of professional journalism and bad travel experiences. Cool choice of photos and videos and the greatest tips if you want to make profits out of your travel blog (who doesn't?).

5- Almost Fearless. Modestly titled, I would suggest "Completely Fearless" for Christine Gilbert's ever-expanding website. A complete guide on how to be a digital nomad, Christine suggests the best moves to take from day 1. Never-ending source of ideas, this site's author comes up every day with a new initiative. Started as a modest blog, now it's a busy website with tips, stories and free "Twitter for Travelers e-book". Really? Yes, just subscribe!

I know there are plenty of other great websites out there, and every day I stumble on some awesome travel blogs. Many of them inspire me when writing other posts or articles, and althout I'm not really the "series" type of person, I'll be surely writing about some other great finds!