How Travel Bloggers Impact One’s Learning
Giving a sense of community, raising awareness and providing entertainment.
When thinking about traveling the first thing that comes to mind is how expensive it is. But many individuals around the world share their traveling that they have done on a budget. A Brazilian blogger, Isa Koller describes her personal view on traveling and why she started a blog. “I created my blog with expectations that I would be able to inspire these people and help them realize that if a young girl with a base salary can travel, they too can travel,” Koller said. From a blogger’s standpoint, any individual who has a will to travel can and will travel.

Credibility
Traveling bloggers and or influencers have a great understanding of what it’s like to actually travel to a specific country and or place and completely dive into one’s culture — they have experienced this before. These individuals choose to share their experiences, tips, and tricks about where and how are the best way to find where to stay, where to eat, and the places that they should visit, etc. Such content not only provides entertainment for people to watch, but also informational factors that each individual can take for themselves to have a better understanding of a specific culture or the ways of life that may largely differ to where one lives.
Bringing Awareness
Travel bloggers and influencers can share specific matters to the world. Whether it is to bring attention to a serious matter or help individuals understand that ways of life are largely different from perhaps where they currently live. A blog of a great example, that is greatly influential and has an abundance of support is the United Nations. Not only does the United Nations have a specific website but it’s also keeping an Instagram page. The United Nations provides information about the important matters that are happening all around the world, gaining support and publication from other people to find a resolution for the specific conflict. The United Nations is a great example of Civic engagement, how individuals are coming together to contribute to a larger sum.

Civic Engagement
An article Learning Connected Civics exploits the immense capability that connected civics can have on the community and the large subjects that are of importance to us. “By constructing hybrid narratives, young people mine the cultural contexts they are embedded in and identify with for civic and political themes relevant to issues of public concern.” The blog that the United Nations holds, doesn’t provide clique views and information. It travels all over the world, bringing the content that will derive hope and contribution to specific matters. This blog is not only informational but widely influential. People from all over the world can come together to make a difference and offer a contribution. Now that is a sense of community!
Even though the United Nations isn't what we usually think of when we describe a “traditional” travel blogger, they can fairly be considered as one. The United Nations records different circumstances, places, and people that specifically they have recognized all around the world, documenting it and releasing it to the public.
Supporting Community
Content that includes regular individuals like ourselves — traveling to a country that is “less-known” and providing the imagery of cultural engagement, how can one not talk about it? Every experience of an individual shapes their character and their understanding of the world around them and or specific goals that they have set for themselves. The viewer can critically see and experience certain emotions that are portrayed through the content of the blogger.

Enduring the same emotions as seen in travel vlogs, Karolina Kolar describes her emotions when she is watching travel vlogs. “Watching travel vlogs makes me feel part of their story and part of their experiences; whether these experiences are positive or negative they are still shared,” Kolar said.
Many of the same individuals as Karolina, experience the same emotions when watching travel videos — alike individuals have the opportunity to communicate their feeling to others and or share their emotions. This means that anyone and everyone can participate either by sharing videos, creating blog pages, or commenting on the content of others.
Participatory Culture
Participatory culture is incredibly useful to travel blogs. The ideas set by the influencer can be expanded and or critiqued for the community to find different solutions/ideas about the subject. Travel blogger Isa Koller explains how the blogging community learns from each other by sharing their thoughts and experiences. “It is great to receive comments with other tips from other travelers who have done a similar itinerary as yours, or emails from readers thanking you for the itinerary they used in their trip,” Koller said.
Other people that are involved in the travel community and or blog(s) can provide answer(s) to the question(s) that individuals have asked, all under the same YouTube travel video or blog post. Travel blogs and their bloggers are not limited to themselves as a community. The viewers that are involved with their blogs create the community aspect that is highly engaging and provides support.
Academically Oriented
Travel blogs that focus on providing an authentic travel experience, have an abundance of information that can be utilized for a specific purpose — in particular study abroad. Study abroad is a great resource to study within a particular culture, experiencing the community through physical interpretation while simultaneously continuing to learn.

Travel blogs give you a glimpse into the surrounding atmosphere and or culture that one wants to study in. Gaining an understanding of what it’s like to be surrounded by such individuals, or what it’s like to live in such a place. An individual by the name of Olga Arzhayev, who had an opportunity to go study abroad in Spain describes how travel blogs gave her a good understanding of what Spain is truly like, and the cultural differences it endures. “Travel blogs showed me how different the culture was and some of the things that Spaniards do that American don’t. For example, kissing both cheeks when meeting someone (someone you know, or someone you were just introduced to). I was also very interested in the various foods abroad, and the travel blogs provided the images and videos that looking at a menu for the first time does not,” Arzhayev said.
Travel blogs are used by students in order to be educated in certain areas about the culture and the regular aspects followed by the locals. All living expenses differ in each country, but the travel blogs provide the most authentic information about lifestyle of the specific country.

Learning by Doing
All that travel blogs provide is a visual representation of the country or place. Visual representation doesn’t truly submerge one’s understanding and appreciation of the country’s culture and or history. “I personally prefer travel vlogs because videos show more than pictures ever can, but you don’t really experience a country or culture until you fully immerse yourself into it,” Arzhayev said. Even though travel blogs/vlogs provide a sense of the culture and atmosphere, experiencing the environment for yourself is incomparably unique.
Travel blogs are just a starting scope of what individuals can learn. Learning happens by doing, and travel blogs are the first step to doing what is planned or thought about. One can find useful and meaningful information from other individuals that have traveled to the specific destination and documented their travels. An article Connected Learning defines how learning progresses by using the knowledge and skills to have an understanding of the discoveries that validate a specific purpose. “Learning unfolds as young people propose, test, play with, and validate theories about the world, as well as by reflecting on and making sense of these experiences.” Travel blogs give the audience a platform to find interests through different cultures and historical observance — utilizing what one found to advance in their areas of interest.
“For general readers, first they can benefit by learning or reading the experiences of someone who already passed through the situation of being somewhere, and maybe don’t commit the same mistakes that I may have committed, plus I like to share the simplest and safest ways to enjoy a place, if someone is looking for a comfortable travel, my blog will definitely benefit them,” Koller said. Bloggers try to inform the viewer about the experience that the blogger had while traveling. With this information, the viewer can be ready and certain about the challenges that one may face while traveling and perhaps choose another route. The travel blog, as well as the blogger all, face learning curves and challenges. All these challenges are shared to help and encourage others to share their experiences and what they have learned.
Certain individuals choose to travel because they want to learn more about the place and or culture. In some cases, these individuals choose to record what they have seen/experienced. “I have a huge passion for learning from travel, and especially places that people might not have considered visiting, so right now, I’d say my focus is on showing people parts of the world and stories that they might not see in other media outlets — but the beauty of blogging is it is always evolving,” James said. Not only does Daniel James learn about the places he travels to, but also about the creative framework that he must adapt to create the content that he does. Daniel learns from doing the things that he does and expands upon his learning — all through the framework of a travel blogger.
Openly Networked
How content is presented to the viewers all depends on the travel blogger/individual. Each network base differs from the rest and has different viewers on each platform. For the information to be reached to a large sum of individuals, many if not all media platforms must be utilized. But this all depends on the creator, and what information he or she is trying to bring forth to individuals.
A blogger, Daniel James provides his explanation about informing the public about his travel experiences and understanding a specific culture and or place. “Everyone consumes content differently, so I think to reach a greater number of people you need to cover all bases — YouTube for video, social media for snippets, and blog posts for long-form content. Of course, for each platform there is a different level of experience and culture you can convey, it’s a lot easier in a 3000-word article than a tweet for example, and I think it’s important to know how to shorten those key messages,” James said. If an individual preferably doesn’t like to read articles or long worded blogs, they can choose to find their information from a different media platform that will be a fit for them personally.

Travel bloggers make use of media networks that they prefer and or that will inform the public through a different interpretation of that place or culture. For example, Daniel James is keeping up with multiple media-based platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and a website for his travel blogs. Each media platform gives the audience a specific interpretation of the place or culture. Through Instagram, Daniel shares his photography of the places that he has visited as well as providing a small caption of the photograph’s description. Through YouTube, Daniel has the opportunity to present moving visual images that capture a large sum of details and information. Videos give a sense of reality about all the different cultural/architectural properties that a specific location has to offer. Using a website, Daniel combines all the information and resources all in one place — organizes the content as he desires, inserting links and or images to other media platforms and shares his personal opinion on his travels.
Concluding Thoughts
Traveling has a large influence on individuals and how they interact. Every experience of individuals shapes their character and their understanding of the world around them and or specific goals that they have set for themselves. Participatory culture expands throughout travel blogs. All the ideas are being shared and interpreted through the viewer’s point of view. Conflicts that arise throughout the world can be brought to recognition through travel blogs, bringing the community together to solve the conflicts. Civic engagement is highly influential through travel blogs and generates a place for information and solutions to be discussed — raising awareness for specific matters. Travel bloggers that provide content that negotiates the specific cultural presence, can have a great impact informing the audience about the differences between every individual expanding into the differences of a community. Not only do travel blogs create a sense of community, but they are also academically oriented. Students can inform themselves about cultural differences and prepare themselves for the surroundings that they might encounter.

Travel blogs are a great digital tool for those individuals looking to educate themselves about a specific place or diverse culture. Travel blogs can be accessed through multiple sets of media and experienced differently. Bloggers have the opportunity to choose what media platform they want to use to inform the audience about their travels and how they want to organize the information.