1. Lola (Akinmade) Åkerström

2. Quick Background
 Writer, photographer, blogger –
www.akinmade.com
 Blog at Geotraveler’s Niche –
www.lolaakinmade.com
 Blogger for Sweden.se
 Write and photograph for many publications

3. Quick show of hands
How many of you are travel
bloggers?

4. Quick show of hands
How many of you have a
home base?
…Yes, many bloggers have a place they go back to
re-energize before the next trip…

5. Quick show of hands
How many of you have met
with the tourism board* of
your home base?
* - if your base actually has a tourism board

6. Quick show of hands
Do they know who YOU
are?
Are they aware you
exist as a blogger in
their backyard?

7. Goal of workshop
 Highlight the benefits of working
locally
 Explore some case studies
 Give you five tips for approaching
your local tourism board

8. Safe to say…
 We’re all passionate
about travel
 Many bloggers always
on the lookout for the
next big trip; the next
blog/media trip

9. Travel blogging
The travel grass seems to
always be greener on the
other side

10. Travel blogging
Ironically, your local
tourism board keeps flying
in bloggers and journalists
who think the grass is
greener on YOUR side.

11. Travel blogging
What if your personal
situation changes that
affects the frequency
of your travels?
Temporarily or
permanently?

12. Travel blogging
Here’s why you
need to start
working with
your local
tourism board

13. Working locally
Reason #1
Opportunity to build expertise

14. Working locally
The problem with
most forms of
media trips is
that they’re
platonic.

15. Working locally
Meaning –> It’s challenging
to gather unique content
from the same trip 6-10
other travel bloggers

16. Working locally
Other bloggers can’t go on
every media trip your
tourism board organizes,
but YOU can

17. Working locally
Unique
advantage and
opportunity to
build and be
recognized for
regional
expertise

18. Working locally
The reason you also want to
build expertise in a region
is because generic travel
blogging is overcrowded.

19. Here’s the problem
Travel blogging reality curve
YOU
+
Thousands of
Other blogs

20. Working locally
Reason #2
Gain deeper access to local
resources

21. Working locally
You can acquire more in-
depth content for your own
travel blog than surface
material generated from
media trips

22. Working locally
Battle the plague of
“generic” travel
content

23. Working locally
This will, in turn, help you
solidify your personal
brand with fresh, in-depth
and frankly, cool regional
content.

24. Working locally
Reason #3
Additional source of income

25. Working locally
Let’s be real
We would love to be paid
to do what we love =
Blogging + Travel

26. Working locally
Every tourism board
has an annual or
at least semi-
annual budget

27. Working locally
If you have a rough idea of
what they’re trying to
accomplish, you can get
yourself a nice chunk of
that pie

28. Working locally
How?
 Blogging
 Photography
 Writing
 Social Media

29. Working locally
Reason #4
Less expense for your tourism
board

30. Working locally
They don’t have
to fly you in or
put you up for
3 nights at a 5-
star hotel –
plain and
simple

31. Working locally
Reason #5
Leads to other work

32. Working locally
Your local tourism boards has
tons of contacts in the travel
industry ->
airlines, lodging, other
destination marketing
organizations (DMOs)

33. Quick recap of benefits
 Opportunity to build expertise
 Gain deeper access to local resources
 Additional source of income
 Less expense for your tourism board
 Leads to other work

34. Working locally
Case
Studies

35. Working locally
Case Studies
 Candice Walsh
 Jennifer Miner
 Micke Kosman
 Lola Akinmade (ME!)
 Andreas Susana

36. Case Study 1
Blogger - Candice Walsh
@candicewalsh
Board – Newfoundland Tourism
How long – Since 2011

37. Case Study 1 – Candice
How they met –> Twitter
“I did a trip around Central Newfoundland
with Adventure Central last year. Only
travel writer in the Travel Media
Association of Canada based out of
Newfoundland.”…Candice Walsh

38. Case Study 1 – Candice
Benefits –> Led to other work
“…Explore Canada Like a Local series on
Matador Network. Heavy emphasis on
"Newfoundland travel" on my personal blog,
and they've helped me build contacts. So I get
maybe 3-5 emails a week from people travelling
to this province, asking for advice, etc.”
… Candice Walsh

39. Case Study 1 – Candice
Unexpected rewards –> Incredible
contacts
“Since St. John's (and Newfoundland, really) is such
a small community, I've made incredible contacts
and have landed other work with various media
folks (i.e. web copy)..”… Candice Walsh

40. Case Study 2
Blogger – Jennifer Miner
@thevacationgals | @LA_COT
Board – Los Angeles' CVB
Discover LA
How long – Since 2010

41. Case Study 2 - Jennifer
How they met –> In person
“ Two years ago, I founded the Los Angeles
Consortium of Online Travel (LACOT), an
open, lose group of LA-area travel
bloggers, writers, and tourism professionals.
Carol Martinez, VP of Discover LA came to our
first meet up and has a been one of LACOT's
strongest supporters ever since.”…Jennifer Miner

42. Case Study 2 – Jennifer
Benefits –> Led to other work
“Having Discover LA be such a strong advocate of
the group led to LACOT being a partner with the
Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show and helping
host the International Pow Wow when it was in Los
Angeles last year..”…Jennifer Miner

43. Case Study 2 – Jennifer
Unexpected rewards –> Filled a gap
“This has been a wonderfully mutually beneficial
relationship. LACOT filled a hole that Discover LA
had in terms of finding and working with local
travel bloggers and attraction publicists, and
having representatives of Discover LA be active
members of LACOT adds an instant legitimacy to
the group.”……Jennifer Miner

44. Case Study 3
Blogger – Micki Kosman
@barefootnomads
Board – Kamloops, British Columbia
How long – Four months and counting

45. Case Study 3 – Micki
How they met –> Email
“We approached the tourism board, via
email, with a proposal to work with them.
We didn't ask for any sponsored activities
or accommodation in our pitch. Instead,
we focused on building a relationship with
them.”…Micki Kosman

46. Case Study 3 – Micki
Benefits –> Unique story ideas for blog
“Kamloops Tourism has helped steer us towards some
interesting topics and story ideas we may have missed
on our own. It's also been illuminating to get a good
feel for what their goals are. Often, bloggers are so
focused on their trip and their stories that we don't
consider what the tourism boards are trying to focus
on. In our case, our tourism board did a great job of
getting us to think about the needs and perspectives
of different visitors.”…Micki Kosman

47. Case Study 3 – Micki
Unexpected rewards –> In-depth knowledge
“Working locally has given us a much deeper
appreciation of what our local area has to
offer. It's made us see our small city through
several different sets of eyes: our tourism
board, international visitors, and even visitors
from another province .”…Micki Kosman

48. Case Study 4
Blogger – Lola Akinmade Akerstrom
@LolaAkinmade
Board – Sweden.se
How long – Since 2010

49. Case Study 4 – Lola
How we met –> Twitter and Email
Twitter – I tagged them on blog posts about
Sweden
Email – I sent an introductory email to an
editor about writing articles for them

50. Case Study 4 – Lola
Benefits –> Led to other work
- Image Bank
- Visit Sweden
- Visit Stockholm
- Recommendations to other publications,
- Etc

51. Case Study 4 – Lola
Unexpected rewards –> Access to
resources, contacts, building expertise
 Access to a lot of places and people
 Editors and publications reaching out for work
from Sweden

52. New relationship
Blogger – Andreas Susana
@Travelwriticus
Board – City of Graz, Austria
How long – A few days old

53. New study – Andreas
How they met –> Blog trip
“I was invited to do a blog trip in Graz
which is actually my native city. I was
approached by the organizer of the
blog trip: Creative Tourism
Austria”…Andreas Susana

54. New – Andreas
How they will work together
 Andreas will feature Graz tours and restaurants
on his blog
 Andreas hopes to gain in-depth knowledge
of his city Graz and the traditional dishes of
Styria

55. Working locally
Five tips for approaching
your local tourism board

56. Working locally
Tip #1
Send a letter of
introduction

57. Working locally
Tip #2
Send any and all links to blog
posts about the location to
their press contact.

58. Working locally
Tip #3
Start engaging with them
via social media.

59. Working locally
Tip #4
Attend local press events
and subscribe to
newsletters.

60. Working locally
Tip #5
Propose a cool
partnership idea

61. Working locally
Yes, I know and I get it
Always hopping on
the next trip is loads
of fun!

62. Another advantage
Bloggers can work transparently
without compromising their own
personal brands.
You live there. You know the realities
on the ground.

63. Working locally
Remember ->
You’ve got to
know what
you’ve got at
home as well.

64. Contact Information
Twitter - @LolaAkinmade
Portfolio – www.akinmade.com
Blog – www.lolaakinmade.com
Facebook -
www.facebook.com/GeotravelersNiche