travel

August 30, 2005 – 12:20 pm

everyone ‘travels’ nowadays. its the thing to do, isn’t it? so there are lots of resources out there for ‘travellers’ - to tell people where to go, how to get there, where to stay, buy your tickets online etc. etc. blah blah.

There are also niches in this marketplace -e.g. resources on how to travel ‘differently’ to the ‘masses’; [not that soon that won’t be a mass phenomenon anymore..there’s an article in the Guardian that had a giggle about how some of these women ‘backpackers’ now carry three different kinds of tongs and hair straighteners and of course at least 10 pairs of shoes. ( where do they pack ‘em is what i want to know!..) ] websites on ‘eco-travel’, best gap year locations - blah blah - etc. you get the general picture.

generally these sites all have one thing in common though - they are nationality focused ( though they may not all realize that..) in the sense that they don’t usually have any information for those of us with ‘difficult’ nationalities. ( it’s hilarious how so many people really dont realize that global travel depends heavily on the passport/s you carry) i mean difficult here in the sense that those of us with a nationality which impedes global travel to the extent that you have to get a visa everywhere you go. Yes, generally the masses ( except when they decide to go to india or sth) dont really know anything about visas and the world the rest of us inhabit which is full of hassle - you can’t take off anywhere, you have to have x amount of money in your bank, you have to DOCUMENT your existence for the judgement of some bored, harassed overworked visa official in some crummy embassy that not only do you have to make an appointment to even get in the door nowadays you have to still queue for blocks… anway, nice for those to don’t have to think about visas.
but like i said, there are those of us who have had to deal with bureaucracy all our lives and continue to do so in order to travel about, and there aren’t a hell of a lot of resources on the net for us lot. ( which is silly, since we need more resources and thinking before we go anywhere!)

now i know most people will say well since people who run these travel resources dont need a visa, they arent really bothered about it and why should they give a fuck about those of us who do? ( specially since they probably didn’t realize we exist in the first place!)

Well perhaps rightly so - why shouldn’t they be self-centred? Point is - i guess that leaves it up to us lot who do have to deal with the reality of ‘imaginary lines’ into consideration when we want to have a nice break- to sort out sth for ourselves.

clearly a big gap in the market.

  1. 7 Responses to “travel”

  2. well needless to say clearly its a hurdle for some more than others. either which way…thats a pointless rebuttal anyway. if everyone has to deal with them then travel websites are being even more ridiculously short-sighted in not dealing with the issue, so you’ve just highlighted that my point is relevant perhaps not to just only me but everyone.

    By sonia on Sep 9, 2005

  3. The general objection was not that your point was irrelevant - there has long been an intention to publish visa and red tape information on the site… if you go back to 2002, you can probably find a very old Japan page somewhere which does exactly this.

    The objection was to your accusation of why such information might be omitted:

    “I guess we’re not important enough for those who can swan about as they like. the reason it annoys me is that it says to me ‘basically if you’re from the third world..fuck off cos we’re not interested. we’d like to travel in your countries if we can, but we’re not interested in your travel contraints.’ ”

    Might it not have been a much more likely explanation that - given that the site is under construction - a visa information section hasn’t been put together yet?

    Of course, I can’t speak for other travel websites…

    By Ibn-Battuta on Sep 11, 2005

  4. well thats fine of course, but clearly by that admission its not sth you yourself are putting high on the list. Fair enough, it isn’t as important as low-cost flights then?

    By sonia on Sep 12, 2005

  5. In information terms it’s no less and no more important.

    To date the low cost airlines guides have taken two years to properly develop and everything else has been held back as a result.

    I am grateful that you highlighted this issue though - it’s much easier to plan the site development when readers actively indicate what they would like to see developed next.

    By Ibn-Battuta on Sep 13, 2005

  6. what site(s) are you both talking about?

    By tav on Sep 16, 2005

  7. free publicity - check out http://www.attitudetravel.com/

    now bear in mind please that “my rant” wasn’t specifically targeted against this particular website - it was really very much more of a general rant. I am afraid the author took my comments rather personally: i tried to indicate this on a second posting on the forum though later i realized my typos made my meaning not very clear. in any case i’d like to make that clear now so i don’t get further embroiled in detailed comments re: site development! i’m really the last person to make petty comments about such stuff since i havent the foggiest idea what goes into it.

    By sonia on Sep 19, 2005

  8. misguided my foot!!

    sonia’s media empire rocks
    sonia’s media empire rocks
    sonia’s media empire rocks
    sonia’s media empire rocks
    sonia’s media empire rocks
    sonia’s media empire rocks

    bit of self-spamming why not?

    By sonia on Jun 26, 2006

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