The Travel Business Goes Virtual

Posted May 04, 2020

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The world travel business is an $8.27 Trillion a year industry.

Or at least it used to be.

Not anymore.

Airlines are going broke, hotels are closed down, restaurants are shuttered.

No one is jumping on a plane to head to Paris or Rome or Japan.

In an instant, the virus has killed what was once a vibrant business.

But no one dies quietly.

The travel business is trying to reconstruct itself, using video and 'fvirtual visits' as a way to do that.

Will it work?

Probably parts of it will.

The virus is going to be with us for a long time and a vaccine is years in the future.

This morning, we got an email from Relais & Chateaux, offering us the opportunity to experience Provence in video.

It could work, but not the way they are doing it now.

It's beautifully shot, as befitting both Provence and Realis & Chateaux.

But what it is lacking in is characters and arc of story.

It is beautifully shot with lovely nat sound, but at the end of the day, it is nothing more than some lovely b-roll strung together, 

This is not going to hold anyone's attention for very long. 

Ever see Jean de Florette?

That's Provence

Ever see A Year in Provence?

That will hold your attention.

There's a real opening here for a new kind of travel based video, but not what Relais & Chateaux is doing,

And with iPhones (and a bit of instruction) they could do it.  

As it happens, we have a whole course on How To Make A Travel Video! 

They could make people fall in love wiht Provence (won't take much) but not with these slide shows.

Tell me a story.

It's as old as Homer

Who never made it to St. Paul de Vence.