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Friday, February 20, 2009

Twitter: 50 great travel tweeters

Did you see Donald Strachen's terrific list of 50 great travel related tweeters in the UK's Telegraph yesterday? Donald prefaces his list by saying "there are as many different uses as there are users, so any list of the ‘best’ tweeters is very subjective... here are 50 travel-related tweeters whose qualities I can vouch for. Each is either useful, entertaining, responsive or insightful - and the best combine all of the above." Nicely said. Personally, I think it's an outstanding and inspiring list. And not only because it includes me! (I had been wondering why my In Box was flooded with Twitter requests this morning - HI EVERYONE! - normally, they trickle in, which is nice, but today they teemed. Appropriately, considering the downpour we had here last night.) Donald has been writing quite a bit about Twitter and travel. Check out Twitter can help you plan your holiday and for those not yet signed up but keen to tweet, his Twitter 101 piece Twitter: How to set up your account. You can also read Donald's blog here where he posts about the media, travel, technology, Tuscany and other topics. You'll hear from me on Twitter and travel too. I mentioned Benji Lanyado from The Guardian's Twitter-directed Paris trip in a post the other day: What does it mean to be 'offbeat' in an age where everyone is so 'switched on'? and I want to reflect some more about that and hear your thoughts.

Pictured? Piazza San Marco, Venice, during summer, a time to avoid visiting (we had no choice we were working) unless you have Venetian friends who tweet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you liked the piece, Lara. I too think Twitter has genuine potential in travel, from the POV of travellers and obviously businesses, too. Whether it ever realises that potential is another matter. As I wrote, it's a tool. The real skill is in the hands of those who use it. We'll see...

Lara Dunston said...

Hi Donald - you're so right that it's just a tool - which to me says stop obsessing with what the technology can do and think about what you want to do with it.

I used to teach film and would always be telling the tech-driven students that the equipment was there to serve them and their ideas and stories, the most important thing was that they had to figure out what they wanted to *say*.

A lot of people are using Twitter as they might text a friend. I'd like to see more people thinking about how they want to use those words and what they really want to *say*.