Are you bored in your job? Looking for a new challenge!? How about come and work for us for a few months, probably unpaid, but will send you on a trip of a lifetime.
Or so the marketing spiel says...
More and more travel brands and DMOs are running competitions to win a dream job. Here is a recent selection:
Active now:
Viator - global tours and activities OTA
- "Your dream travel job"
- Looking for four people to shoot video in top cities across Europe and North America
- Videographers will travel in teams of two. Each team will visit roughly 20 cities in 60 days
- Winners will be provided with equipment, the cost of travel to/from the destination and upto 15,000 USD travel expenses.
- Videos will be uploaded (to Viator's Facebook page) and users will vote. Winning team (pair) will win 10,000 USD.
- Full information
2. EnjoyEngland - national DMO
- "Fan in a van"
- 70 day all expenses paid trip, in a camper van, around England
- Full information
- "365 days of dining"
- Food blogger has to embark on a 365 days of dining at 365 different restaurants (from a choice of 800)
- One year contract - salary $50,000, apartment and living compensation
- IMPORTANTLY - job also includes one year membership to a local fitness centre
- Facebook page and announcement release
- day tour operator
- "London Gold"
- Run their London day tour operation for the rest of 2012 and keep the profits you earn (!)
- You will be managing tour guides, running tours, co-ordinating the business side of things, managing the schedule and running your own tour
- Full information
Previously:
Are there alternatives for brands to consider?What about employing the services of a travel blogger - these are people who have an audience, have technical skills (audience engagement, photography, video, seo optimisation*).
Travel bloggers are crying out for opportunities to travel, write and engage on someone else's dime. This should be right up their street so why are brands going for regular folk over travel bloggers?
Perhaps it comes down to ownership of IP - for example Viator states in its competition terms:
"Viator will own all intellectual property in reports, diaries, blogs, photos, videos and other material created, produced or authored by you during the course of the Travel Stage."
Maybe existing travel bloggers can't stomach that particular condition and regular folk can.
[NB: * Don't mention to travel bloggers that you hope their work will improve your SEO rankings - that is Omerta].
Or what about travel writers?
In 2010 travel writer Lara Dunston and partner Terence Carter worked with HomeAwayUK for a grand tour of the world, under the brand GranTourismo.
One objective was to promote holiday rentals as an alternative to hotels. They stayed in 36 holiday rentals over the course of the year. Lara wrote about her experiences with this new model for Tnooz.
Will we see more "win a job" competitions or will employing travel bloggers become the dominant solution for low cost, social media friendly, coverage and media production?
Or will quality count - and travel writers make a come back?