Do you want to read about some lost ballerina shoes in London? How about the latest testimony in a sexual harassment suit in New York City? And, oh yes, there’s a free Earth Day block party in Washington, D.C.
You can find out about all of these things in blog posts on Travel Onion, an aggregator of local travel-blog content, which announced its launch April 15.
Emphasizing local content — as so many are doing on the Web these days — the idea behind Travel Onion is to make it easier for consumers to find this local expert content by picking the best blogs and plunking them down on one Web site.
Travel Onion is launching with aggregated blogs from New York, London, Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Paris, but hopes to feature blogs from 50 cities soon. The idea is for the content to be hip, expertly written, informative and entertaining.
Sometimes, the content’s usefulness for travelers is open to question, but, at the least, the content enables readers to absorb the local vibe.
The aggregated blog posts appear in their entirety on Travel Onion. At the top of each Travel Onion post is a small link back to the original post on the aggregated blog.
Curiously, the aggegated blog posts on Travel Onion have no other links within the text.
Travel Onion Managing Editor Dana Rosenzweig says the website doesn’t display blogs’ images or links via its aggregated RSS feeds.
“This is something we will be adding in the very near future for those featured blogs that do provide HTML-rich RSS feeds — not all blogs do,” Rosenzweig says.
There is no commercial relationship between Travel Onion and the local bloggers.
And, Travel Onion’s current revenue model is based on advertising and sponsors, Rosenzweig says.
Meanwhile, NileGuide, which has been building its Local Expert content for more than a year, gave local editorial contributors a little more star power with the launch of a Local Flavor blog.
For example, here’s Tokyo Local Flavor by NileGuide local expert Jmon Sonmiller.
The Local Flavor posts are integrated into Snapshot pages within the NileGuidance blog.
“We’ve been building out our Local Expert program for the last year or more, recruiting and training a bunch of great people around the world,” says NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz. “However, we’ve really ramped our efforts here since the start of the year and we’re actively looking to hire 50-100 more Local Experts in many of the world’s top cities and regions.”
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Tnooz: Thanks for mentioning the roll out of Travel Onion. We’re very excited to be coming out of development and sharing with the world all the great travel bloggers we have discovered.
Cal Simmons, Publisher, Travel Onion.
This is awesome! Definitely unique to some of the cookie-cutter travel websites/guides/blogs out there. The internet’s way too big of a place sometimes, hopefully sites like Travel Onion will help folks navigate a little better.
hmmm this will be perfect for when i study abroad in siena this summer
What a great idea for a travel site! Hello free events and foreign festivals!!
Let us know as more cities are published.
This is a great idea! Question about Travel Onion: As foreign cities are added, will all blogs still be in English or will there be a way to filter for English-language blogs?
Sounds like a great resource! I will be sure to use it for future travels for an experience off the beaten track. Can’t to see the cities they add next!
Travel Onion sounds like a cool idea, but not completely formed? Will there be a rating system implemented some time in the future? Seems like a great idea if content was broken down better, maybe into categories, like where should I find great local fare in NYC, festivals, etc. Great selection of blogs, but it would be even better if they were more intuitively organized rather than just a listing of blogs about each city.
Look forward to seeing the end result!
This idea of niche travel, which I would group this in, is quickly gaining momentum. Not that there’s anything wrong with large, general travel websites, but I think many travelers are turning to more insider advice type of content. I remember stumbling across Travel Onion a while back and thought they were on to something. I wrote briefly for Nile Guide and they have a great team and community of locals. It’s a lot of work at first, but the local experts seem to be content. I expect many more to follow suit.
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