Around the World: Inside the Business of Travel

I am a new participant to the blogosphere and aspire to provide relevant information in my area of proficiency and interest. I am a college student with a passion for travel and a skill for marketing. I will analyze consumer trends in traveling by using marketing research techniques. An assortment of destinations will be explored with reference to current local issues of each destination. In order to provide relevant, credible and influential information, I began scouring the internet for blogs and sites that focus on travel and current issues. These have been posted under the linkroll for further reference and serve as the best possible assets in my area of inquiry. To create this list I used a variety of blog-search engines including, Google Blog Search, BlogCatalog, BlogScholar, and Best of the Web: Blogs. As a technique, I used various search terms related to travel and business. For the current event aspect to my linkroll, I chose to include sites such as, The New York Times: Science: Environment and The New York Times: Travel Index. The majority of the items in my linkroll consist of blogs related to traveling. BidonTravel Travel Updates, Tips, & Commentary is a blog that provides updated information regarding travel. For current events one of the sites I chose was The New York Times: Science: Environment. The reason I chose this is because new environmental and scientific discoveries are written about which can lead to new ways of traveling and new destinations. For example, there is an article published on that site explaining the new features of Google Earth which can help in planning a oceanic vacation. When assessing the adequacy of sites for my linkroll, I applied the Webby Awards criteria. The criteria includes: content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, overall experience, and authority of the author. Since all of my sites meet these criteria, they may be seen as quality according to Webby Awards. In addition, when considering blogs for my linkroll, I used the IMSA criteria to test for quality. The criteria includes: who the blogger is, the types of materials the blogger is reading and citing, if the blog has influence and whether it is an established part of a community, and depth and authority of content. I look forward to providing my readers with interesting and insightful information regarding the business of travel.