WINOL SHOWREEL

*For Documentary Assessment.
Submitted 17/05/2014

CRITICAL REFLECTION #3

The decision mid semester to combine each individual features magazine into one had a profound effect on my role as Editor of WINOL Travel and Adventure. In my previous Critical Reflection I outlined the pros and cons of maintaining a magazine in relation to it's navigation and target audience. With my initial struggle to manage and upload content on a regular basis, I supported this decision wholeheartedly.

Near the start of the semester, www.winol.co.uk ranked *1,309,425 globally and *38,579 in the UK [16.10.2013] peaking on Thursday 10th October with *67 page views. This was most likely the result of the weekly WINOL News bulletin aired on the Wednesday prior. Compare this to the end of the semester and we see a steep decline (see graph 2). According to www.alexa.com, however, WINOL's Global Rank has increased to *773,133 and *30,063 in the UK* From my point of view, "Here & Now" has played a specialised role in maintaining this. 

(1) Number of page views 9th-16th October (Google Analytics).

(2) Number of page views 25th November - 1st December (Google Analytics).

WINOL’s relaunched “Here & Now” magazine* has worked hard to improve the organisation of Features as a whole, with the installation of a modernised, user friendly ‘Gabfire Theme’ for WordPress (which I will have to be familiar with for my fast approaching Final Year Project). Each market now has its own subcategory, with the main slider situated at the top of the page. Being its most redeeming feature, this aims to promote some of the websites top highlights. Like with News, there is constant competition between magazines to get their pieces mentioned in the ‘barkers’ as they act as the highest form of promotion. You can see in the image below, both the Paintball package and the World Travel Market overview have appeared under the slider subcategory of “Events” and if you scroll over the “Travel” tab further above, invested in the world of adventure are a number of written articles, as well as a couple of video packages managed, produced and edited by myself*

World Travel Market 2013.

[SLIDER IMAGE]

Caption:

WORLD TRAVELMARKET: 

A BRIEF LOOK INTO ONE OF LONDON’S MOST EXCLUSIVE GLOBAL TRAVEL EVENTS.

This year saw a variety of international tour operators and travel professionals gather in the confines of the Excel Exhibition Centre for World Travel Market; one of London's most exclusive global travel events. As my first time visiting, it was overwhelming to see its increasing popularity as a place to network with other like-minded experts within the field of leisure and tourism. The open area hosted uniquely stunning exhibits that had been divided up into different continents of the world and a mixture of sit in cafes and restaurants meant universal cuisine was readily available.

A range of educational seminars were held upstairs in a number of different conference rooms; including a lecture regarding the Youth Travel Industry. David Chapman, Director General at the WYSE Travel Confederation, outlined the company's most recent 'New Horizons' survey, that measures the travel profile of young people around the world, comparing the desires of an average "backpacker" to that of the more upmarket "flashpacker." He revealed "what we've seen is a very significant growth in the over 30 age group" whilst continuing to add "this reflects that the youth travel market is getting progressively older." Their findings showed that there was a decline in the original "backpacker" tradition, making way for the rise of the contemporary "flashpacker" as people look to find more value for money when it comes to planning their journey. "We're often asked, what is the difference between a hotel and hostel? And the answer is the 's' which stands for social" said Chapman. The report further states that youth travellers now make up 20% of international tourism*.