London 2012 Olympics offline

The hotel I stayed in offered 24-hours internet at €20 via Orange, which was unfortunately down for most of my stay. Not the fault of the hotel but the 2012 Olympics are not that far away and I think the city really has to realise that it’s 2009 and people want access to the internet and expect it.

While walking around London I tried unsuccessfully to find hotspots to pick up emails or send photographs to my Flickr account. Sure, if I headed into coffee bar’s and paid for a coffee I found relatively good access. I think London needs to get its act together for 2012.

UK is not hot for Wi-Fi hotspots

To be fair London isn’t the only city with a lack of Wi-Fi hotspots. My home city of Leeds is the same and I have had problems using the internet on my mobile network at many cities and towns in the UK. It seems that we are lagging behind many US and European cities.

London hotels and free internet

There’s a debate going on that London hotels should provide free internet. As I wrote back in October, the problem I have is that internet is expensive and the service is usually poor. It does make me wonder if hotels are simply profiteering from a service that more of us demand.

I am interested to hear from other hoteliers about how much it costs for a small to medium sized hotel.

Thoughts on London and WTM Wi-Fi hotspots

It is very well advertising the fact that they have internet access but if the quality of the service is poor or it is expensive consumers are going to complain. What do you think, are you bothered about having access to the internet while travelling, should WTM and ExCeL provide Wi-Fi hotspots?

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

UK isn’t too hot for Wi-Fi hotspots

Lost networking opportunities

I would have liked to have chatted to more people, but, running around like a headless chicken meant I got very little time for networking which from my perspective is a shame. So, apologies if I didn’t get around to chat to you or if I looked distracted. It was another occasion where I was out of my comfort zone.

Highlights of Travel BlogCamp

The night had to be kept informal and I spoke to a few people before the event and they were concerned that because it had more sponsors that it would become corporate. The Q&A session with the sponsors meant that the audience could interact and it was very well moderated by Kevin, and it was kept informal.

Challenges for independent travel agents

While all of the speakers were great, the highlight of the night was listening to Murray Harrold and his experiences with the internet and social media. Listening to an independent travel agent talk made me realise the challenges that they have to take their business online.

His humour and passion really shone through for me.

Twitter and paid travel content

The rest of the night we discussed twitter (a lot) which you would expect considering 90% of the people there were regular users of the social media site. I’ve been to both the PhoCusWright ITB and Travolution conferences this year and Facebook was hardly mentioned in comparison to Twitter.

An interesting debate started about paid and free content. Would I pay for travel content? No, they are so many places on the internet where you can receive travel content. I don’t enjoy public speaking but my libel issue earlier in the year made me want to warn bloggers of the dangers.

Reviews of Travel BlogCamp

You can follow the discussions that took place on Twitter by searching for #tbcamp or feel free to read the posts below which review the night. Thanks to everyone who wrote a review because like any event it’s important to receive constructive feedback to improve further events.

Social media tips at Travel Blog Camp
Travel Bloggers’ meet-up
Travel BlogCamp 2009 review
Notebooks not needed: Travel Blog Camp review
Travel BlogCamp 2009 review
PR’s view of Travel BlogCamp
Review of Travel BlogCamp
Thoughts on Travel BlogCamp

If you have written a review but I have not included it here please get in touch. I will be sending out a survey to everyone this weekend as in the spirit of social media, it is important to receive feedback on the event so that I can improve any future Travel BlogCamp’s.

Thank you to

Firstly a massive thanks to the brave sponsors for the Q&A session; I think this does prove that the travel industry has finally started to realise that they have to grasp social media and interact with people both online and offline.

Chris Clarkson – Sunshine.co.uk
Hugo Burge – Cheapflights
Zoey Chant – Essential Travel
Alberto Knapp – I Wanna Go There

A special thank you to all of the speakers did a fantastic job at raising questions from the audience and interacting with them. The moderation on the night I am sure you will all agree was great, and the conversation was kept informal and relaxed so that everyone could join in.

Murray Harrold – Advantage Travel
Joel Brandon-Bravo – Frommer’s Unlimited
Guillaume Thevenot – Hotel Blogs
Eva Keogan – Lastminute.com
Kevin May – Tnooz

Throughout the night we experimented with live blogging, so thanks to Alex Bainbridge, for running that.

I think next year we will be looking for a larger venue so that we have a little more space, but, it will be kept to a small group of people so that it is kept informal and relaxed. I hope you enjoyed the food, I didn’t eat any I was that nervous about speaking.

Hopefully, I’ll see you next year at Travel BlogCamp 2010.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Travel BlogCamp at the World Travel Market

Looking at the attendee list it should be an interesting night with plenty of discussion and networking.

World Travel Market

I am travelling down to London on Monday, I have plans for Monday night and Tuesday, but I will be at ExCeL on Wednesday for World Travel Market, if anyone wants to meet up for a coffee, just drop me an email. Thursday I plan to do a little bit of sightseeing before heading back up North.

Speakers

Joining me will be:

Murray Harrold – Advantage Travel
Joel Brandon-Bravo – Frommer’s
Guillaume Thevenot – Hotel Blogs
Eva Keogan – Lastminute.com

Moderating the evening will be Kevin May from Tnooz who are this year’s media partner.

Gold sponsor

Sunshine.co.uk

Silver sponsors

I Wanna Go There
Cheapflights
Accor
Essential Travel

Fantastic support

Unfortunately, registration has now closed and I am confident that we could have filled the room twice over but I want to keep the BlogCamp to a small enough size that there’s enough time to network and for the audience to join in the talks.

I would like to thank all of the sponsors, partners and the speakers who have all been fantastic.

Let the BlogCamping commence!

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Countdown to Travel BlogCamp 2009

Making flying greener

While my main gripe is that the revenue generated from air passenger duty has never gone to help make flying more greener. I will continue to take my holiday abroad. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons but primarily when I go on holiday I want a change of scenery and some sunshine would be nice too.

Maybe I am the reason why the government continues to hike up Air Passenger Duty.

Bailing out greedy banks

It would be nice to see the airlines and travel industry being more proactive and giving solid facts to the government why it is not a good idea to increase flight taxes, but the part of me knows that will just fall on deaf ears as the money is bailing out greedy banks.

Why can’t the airline and travel industry come together as a group, is this too much to ask for?

Air passenger duty increases

Flying in an economy seat, within Europe you will have to pay £11; flying to the USA will cost £45. For those flying to South Africa or Australia will pay £50 or £55. The group that will be hit the hardest are families who already have to put up with the ridiculous price hikes during the school holidays.

Flight tax poll says we’ll stay at home

Travelmole reported on a poll today from the World Travel Market which said that 52% would reduce their overseas breaks out of the 1,030 people polled. I would like to know what you think; are you going to stop travelling abroad or reduce the amount of flights you make each year.

Those of you who might fly into the UK, is the increase in flight taxes putting you off visiting.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Flight taxes rise again but are consumers really bothered

Looking at travel from another perspective

Some people have been very critical that I am always writing about the negative aspect of travel which confuses me because surely there’s so much nice positive content out there that you need someone to look at it from a different perspective.

Keeping busy

You may have noticed that I have not written much around here lately. I’ve been busy in the day job, and planning Travel BlogCamp, but tonight I am sat here thinking how I can take this blog forward and keep it useful for consumers and the travel industry.

My goals

In the four years that I have written this blog I have learnt a lot of skills and if you want to create a successful blog you have to learn them quick. I am not stroking my ego here but; I’ve won a travel award, been featured in the national media, filmed for TV, spoke at a travel event, but where do I go from here.

Sure, my goal is to work for myself full-time and travel more, but that’s another story.

Help me plan the future of Travel Rants

My readers are important to me and I value your opinions. I’d love to hear about the type of topics that you would like me to write about. What features would you like me to add to the blog? So readers, let this post be your chance to help me plan the future of Travel Rants.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Shaping the future of Travel Rants