As the world becomes more connected and technological advances abound, niche travel is increasing and markets are being created for people of all stripes and backgrounds to travel. Travel agents now specialize in travel for the eldery, those with pets, and even "mancations", designed to help plan the ultimate testosterone-soaked trip.
In short, now is a great time for specialized travel writing.
"Put simply, having a travel niche means you put boundaries on what you sell," Stephanie Lee wrote in a 2012 Travel Host article. "It can be a broad niche (luxury travel) or a niche with a narrow focus (educational tours for ESL students). You can’t be an expert on everything, so narrow it down and decide what you will be an expert on."
For this class, my partner and I are focusing on offbeat travel in the High Country. This means finding the paths less traveled in an hour-drive radius from Boone. And as any high school senior required to analyze Robert Frost knows, the path less traveled can make all the difference.
The audience for our website might be millennial-aged college students looking for a unique experience to tell their friends about and some smaller attractions, hoping for more foot traffic, would benefit from the publicity. Funding sources could include grants or discounts from local tourism boards, advertisement revenue from small travel agencies and local businesses, and donations from loyal readers.
The site would include not only previews of destinations, but also tips, advice, and promotions for readers to venture safely and responsibly off the well-traveled trails of tourism.
Unless you’re a little unsure or a little threatened, any trip you take is unlikely to have a deep and lasting impact on your psyche,” Robert Evans notes in Vagabodish. “But, of course, there’s a fine line between healthy risk-taking and a death wish.”
In offbeat travel scenarios, mobile devices would be crucial for providing multimedia stories. Many places may not take kindly to large news crews storming in and, perhaps more importantly, filming on mobile creates the kind of intimate experience many hope to capture by avoiding well trodden tourist destinations.
Produced for COM4610 at Appalachian State University.