Adventure Podcast (26.11.13)

Check out the podcast below for an insight into some of Europe's most beautiful Christmas destinations and much more. I'm leading the podcast, along with special guests Andrew McHarg and Hannah Hayesmore.

See the original script below. This had to be tweaked to fit the less scripted and more spontaneous conventions of a radio features bulletin.

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*.

WINOL Radio.

Check out the podcast below to hear an update on current content concerning the WINOL Travel and Adventure Magazine. I was interviewed alongside Editor Hannah Hayesmore.



Structure; HAS TO BE TIMELESS.

1. Paintball as upcoming feature (in studio discussion). 

Who? WINOL Team/Group. 
What? Ambush Paintball. 
Where? Travelled to Southampton.
How? Go Pro's and Sports Cam.

   2. WTM Excel London (include soundbites).

World Travel Market is an annual exhibition held at the Excel London. I went and spoke with Mary Rance, the Chief Executive of UKinbound, about what this global event means for her company. 

  3. Coming Up.

Indoor Skydiving Video Package Feature.

Further promotion included a short paintball package mentioned in this week's Access Winchester bulletin (approx. 4 minutes in.)



All exciting things to look forward to on @AdventureWINOL.

English Heritage Photojournalism.

[SLIDER IMAGE]

A THREE PART PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT:

AMY MOORE TAKES US THROUGH SOME OF ENGLISH HERITAGE’S MOST BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORICAL SITES IN AND AROUND WINCHESTER.

NETLEY ABBEY

Images taken with Canon 450D Digital SLR.

Experimentation with focus points/close up.

(TEXT FROM BOTTOM)

“Today much of the abbey is in ruins but it still remains one of the best preserved and most romantic Cistercian abbeys in the country.” (40 seconds)

(FROM TOP)

“Cloister became a courtyard with the fountain at its centre. The narrow slit windows of the old monastery were enlarged to create windows more suited to a Tudor long gallery.” (3:35 minutes)

WINOL Adventure; A Work In Progress.

For the second semester running, my role as Editor of WINOL's Travel and Adventure Magazine means that over the past few weeks I have been working closely with the Web Editor to make the website more user/navigator friendly (outlined in my Critical Reflection) and making it one of WINOL's most viewed magazines to date (see post). 

As the magazine is very much "picture led", the decision to keep the main slider (above) aims to advertise all the best features in a way that is very valuable in grabbing the audiences attention. When it comes to improvements, we have added less subtle side tabs that lead to the main WINOL news site and to all the latest Adventure features content.

From the main slider, you'll be transported to the written website (we're working on adding video - baby steps) which has undergone a major overhaul. The live Twitter feed has been added and as you can see at the top of the page, there are tabs aimed to make the website more specialised and structured.

Adventure Statistics #1

Circulation figures date from 21.10.2013 via alexa.com.

In the table below are estimates of websites’ UK and global popularity over a number of months; the lower the number, the better the rank. 

I aim to track the WINOL.CO.UK rank towards the end of each month.

WEBSITE NAME	GLOBAL RANK	UK RANK
WINOL.CO.UK	1,294,102	36,672
ALUXURYTRAVELBLOG.COM	32,798	37,836 (US)
THEBRITISHTRAVELER.COM	2,361,295	-
ENGLISH-HERITAGE.ORG.UK	47,596	2,562
GROUPTRAVELWORLD.COM	3,778,495	-
NEWMOTORING.COM	446,849	11,512
VISITWINCHESTER.CO.UK	915,178	61,432

The table shows that competitor ALUXURYTRAVELBLOG.COM receives more hits globally, most likely due to its round-the-world content, which I hope to include more of in the ADVENTURE MAGAZINE over the coming months. 

In the UK however, ENGLISH-HERITAGE.ORG.UK thrashes the league table with a whopping 2,562 popularity ranking. This could be due to the fact they manage many tourist sites around the Hampshire area, with the website containing information regarding their opening times, their location, etc. 

An upcoming feature mentioning some of their most historical locations will be available in the ADVENTURE MAGAZINE over the coming weeks and I hope by making the most of social media (through twitter interaction and tagging, for example), it will invite more traffic to the site.  

Similarly, if we compare the ADVENTURE MAGAZINE to some of its sister publications (below), we can quite clearly see that it has outranked them in page views. It also appears to take the lead from the main news site WINOL.CO.UK, overtaking it by approximately 500 views.

I think this has been down to the competition launched a couple weeks back through the @AdventureWINOL Twitter page, which I believe has succeeded in drawing a lot of traffic to the site. I would like to include one of these at least once a month.

Circulations figures date from 1^st September 2013 to 21^st October 2013 via Fasthosts/Matrixstats.

WEBSITE NAME	NO. OF PAGEVIEWS
WINOL.CO.UK	7015
WINOL TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE	7650
ABSOLUTE:LY (FASHION)	6219
NEW WINCHESTER REVIEW	5066
THE VOLT (MUSIC)	4448

I hope to maintain this level of popularity throughout the semester. 

Fresh Meat.

three counties

one week

peterborough 

the east coast 

it's my first day

in the office

hardly the life

of a traveller

yet I'm still

determined 

to make you

proud of me 

breaking down 

as I lose myself

in the hustle

and bustle 

of the working city  

pushing past

all the insecurity 

in a leap of faith

that's turned more

into a dive

except I land

in jetwashed portaloos 

and sodden toilet tissue 

with no seat to rest

feeling trapped 

in the middle

of nowhere with

only a smeared mirror 

and a run down sink for company

Do I battle through or just walk away?