There are plenty of travel bloggers out there. Most of us at least toy with a blog, whether we’re just updating the folks back home on what we’ve seen this week or we’re trying to make some money on writing about our adventures. But there’s an unexplored niche that I think is ripe with opportunity: tourism blogging. Tourism blogging differs from travel blogging, in that the blog is usually created or supported by a tourism board, hotel or someone else with a vested interest in bringing tourists to the area, while travel blogging typically focuses on recording just one person’s adventures.

Talking Tourism

If you’ve had some solid writing experience, why not get involved in tourism blogging? Sometimes, you can find jobs writing about cities for a particular company on the normal blogging job boards — but why not pitch your social media skills, along with your itinerary?

Just about everyone involved in tourism knows that online is the place they need to be right now — especially as many stationary professionals are, well, staying put. There’s not as much money pumping through the tourism industry right now, and you can use that fact to your advantage. With small staffs, local businesses and tourism boards aren’t able to get a lot done as far as social media (blogging, networking, etc.). If you’ve got that skill set, I’d suggest putting together a package and sending it out to the organizations and companies wherever you’re headed next. Offer to set them up a blog, write for it for a certain number of months and take care of any other social media needs you can handle.

You have a secret weapon that might just land you such a gig if you play your cards right: as a traveler yourself, you can probably take at least part of your payment as barter. For instance, if you’re working with a hotel, you might be able to take part of your pay as room or board. A free hotel brunch every day could cut your food budget in half with some careful planning.

Photo Credit — IndiePopRockJesse