An Australian Travel Community For Travel Writing

By Author: Cindy Hudson
Total Articles: 29
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Planbooktravel.com.au is designed to allow unlimited users to create new content for Australian Travel by writing articles and contributing stories, photos and blogs. The site is pioneering in promoting the use of user-generated Travel Writing and cataloging content in a logical, usable way, by tagging every item to a relevant Australian town. This is done with the purpose of creating a vibrant Australian Travel Community.
As travel book publishers the site owners see the limitations in traditional publishing and packaging. Content is outdated before print and it takes exceptional Travel Writing to uncover the true spirit of a location. A task difficult to complete without local knowledge or having a personal involvement in the community.

The future for Travel publishing is to have an unlimited number of contributors from a diverse background. Only then can you properly and thoughtfully represent the Travel Information to a Broad readership.

The difficulty then, for such vast contribution, regarding so many locations, ...
... is how to present the information so it is easily found and logical to a reader.

Adding content to maps is one way, but that just makes for messy maps... and is not representative of the experience one has when reading a book, journal or magazine.

We believe we have got the mix right with this site for reader and contributor alike. Nearly every location in Australia (10,000) has a unique page and is associated with its Region and State. Locations are given map references, not content, making for easy to digest, readable and navigate-able maps. Readers can drill down to content via maps or through a logical sequence of pages: National - State - Region - Location, said Jeremy Baird, the spokesperson at www.planbooktravel.com.au.

With web 2.0 come the tools necessary for contribution. Travel Reviews, Travel blogs and photos are tagged to relevant location pages. Content carries personal or creative common licenses achieving a catalog of content that can be then called and syndicated by location, Region, State or key word.

The site is getting lots of interest from writers, writing clubs and associations, as a new resource to promote writers and their articles. The site recently received contributions from Max Walker with an excellent article on his home town of Hobart in Tasmania which shows that even professional writers are viewing the site as a great means to attract a new audience to their publications.

About the Author :
Cindy Hudson is an avid traveller and contributor to Travel blogs and websites. She enjoys writing travel reviews and is popular for her candid travel reviews in the Australian Travel Community.