5 Benefits of Watching Travel Vlogs
Travel vlogging (video blogging) is a relatively new phenomenon. Vloggers are travelers who document their adventures through videos and share them with the world, mainly through YouTube. Travel vlogs offer you a peek into vloggers’ escapades. They are visual stories.
Travel vlogs have quickly grown in popularity as people share their experiences. Now they are the most popular type of travel-related videos watched on YouTube. Data gathered by Google found that travel vlogs receive four times more social engagement from viewers than other types of travel content on YouTube.
But what is it about travel vlogs that make them so popular? Travel vlogs use a personal and conversational approach to combine an enlightening experience with creative visuals. And these videos resonate with people in a way that the written word just can’t.
1. They Provide an Escape
Have you ever wanted a break from your routine and the responsibilities of life, longing to be someplace else? It is only natural to want to get away now and then. And, for most, traveling provides this escape.
Although getting up and traveling somewhere isn’t always possible at the moment, there is something that gives you a break. Travel vlogs provide an escape from the craziness of daily life, even if only temporarily, giving you a sense of ease. They transport you to another place.
Vloggers take you on an adventure with them. Creators like Max and Em connect people with their lenses to new cultures and landscapes. They allow you to travel vicariously through them right from your home.
Travel vlogs let you escape into the larger world around you.
2. You Learn New Things
Not only are travel vlogs entertaining to watch, but they supply you with loads of information about a country’s culture and history. It’s one thing to read about these things and another to see someone experiencing the culture first-hand.
Travel vlogs immerse you into a way of life, language, religion, customs, beliefs, food, roles, pastimes and more from cultures worldwide. This knowledge brings about a better understanding of ourselves and the world we live in, enabling us to be more insightful and open.
Yes Theory, a channel that believes that life’s greatest moments and deepest connections exist outside your comfort zone, does this particularly well. Their travel vlogs explore unique destinations with amazing stories to tell.
One such story is of Nepal’s honey hunters. This 260-year-old tradition involves scaling mountains in search of a rare hallucinogenic honey only found in the Himalayas. The video has great visuals and tells the story of the rare honey and its hunters’ culture.
3. They Spark Your Wanderlust
Travel vlogs chronicle people’s adventures and experiences from around the world. There is a seemingly endless supply of travel vlogs from all corners of the globe. From the most remote to the most traveled destinations, there is a vlog that captures it.
And people find inspiration from these videos. Perhaps it’s a new destination they’re seeing for the first time or have always dreamed of visiting. Or perhaps, it’s a new area or location from a country they have already traveled to. Or it might be a destination they never even thought about traveling to. Travel vlogs offer great visuals and new perspectives of these locations.
In fact, travel vlogs play a big role in planning a trip. Google’s data shows that 64% of people watch travel-related videos when thinking about taking a trip. And three in five travelers use these videos to narrow down travel-related choices, such as destination and activities.
There is a great big world out there for you to explore, and travel vlogs might give you the push you need to do so.
4. They Boost Your Mood
Travel vlogs let you watch the journeys people take and the beautiful places they visit. Traveling makes people happy, which, in turn, boosts the mood of those watching. People watch travel vlogs for many reasons, such as to seek relaxation. And, it is no surprise, as travel vlogs have a more casual, relaxed and personal style that people enjoy.
Travel vlogs, indeed, produce a positive emotional response from consumers. The research article “How Travel Vlogs on YouTube Influence Consumer Behavior” found that the pleasure generated by vloggers through their travel content gave viewers a sense of satisfaction.
Travel vlogs that depict enjoyable, entertaining and exciting travel experiences positively affect viewers’ emotions. And travel vlogs that have a relaxed and humorous atmosphere can make viewers feel happy or emotionally attached.
Previous research also found that online videos bring back past travel memories and excite viewers by stimulating appealing fantasies and daydreams. Therefore, if you ever need a little serotonin boost, travel vlogs are the way to go.
5. They Help Form Your Perception of Yourself
Travel vlogs help to form your self-congruence. Self-congruence refers to the degree to which a person’s ideal self matches their actual self. Self-congruence facilitates positive behavior and reinforces a person’s thoughts about who they are.
In travel vlogs, vloggers represent other visitors who have been to the destination that appears in the video. And recent research found that the image of travel vloggers plays an important role in forming viewers’ self-congruence.
Vloggers who express their passion and enthusiasm through vlogs influence viewers’ perceptions of themselves in a positive way. This is because viewers tend to consider it an expression of themselves when they see vloggers in a destination they have traveled to.
So, watching travel vlogs can make you more in tune with yourself and your character, giving you a greater sense of self-congruence.
Travel vlogs have a greater purpose than just showing a destination. Each vlog has a unique narrative that has the potential to influence you. They have the power to give you an experience you might not be able to have, educate you, inspire you and increase your state of self-congruence.
