In the 1990s, many popular travel blog websites such as www.travelblog.org were created (Akehurst 54). Today, travel blogs account for approximately 20% out of the hundred million blogs (Banyai & Glover 267). It is important to note that travel blogs differ from posts made on virtual communities, such as Facebook, and review sites, like TripAdvisor, based on their communication scope. Virtual communities promote the exchange of information through networks, whereas review sites promote qualitative and quantitative reviews of travel products. However, travel blogs “are online diaries and stories meant to provide information and engage the reader in the travel experience" (Banyai & Glover 268). This observation illustrates how digital platforms can have distinct effects on writing and its distribution of information since they provide different spaces for writing as well as layouts of the information. The focus of Facebook is on status updates and photos. I use this platform to document my own travels through status updates on my current location, where I am able to ‘check in’ at a variety of locations, or photo uploads with the occasional short blurb for a subtitle. Thus, Facebook has transformed travel writing to remain as short fragments and to rely on other multimedia to chronicle our travels. In regards to review sites such as TripAdvisor, I also used it during my travels but more so for the comments about restaurants or to add additional places to my itinerary. I believe this platform is used more for the quantitative aspect of travelling where you can write posts about your own travels but in terms of hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Websites such as TripAdvisor has transformed travel writing in a way where it can solely focus on tourism and products, as well as a way to promote particular destinations to other travellers. However, websites such as WordPress, which can be used for travel blog purposes, is a place that allows me to write an extensive amount of information about my travels in a variety of ways. Not only can I show all of the places that I have been to through status updates or photos, or the restaurants and museums I have frequented because of reviews, but I am able to incorporate all of these things as well as philosophical thoughts and other miscellaneous details about my trip.

Travel blogs differ in their content, target audience, and approaches (Chen et al. 788). For instance, my travel blog is personal therefore all of the content is user-generated, whereas corporate blogs are created by professional bloggers for commercial purposes. Nonetheless, “travel blogs reflect the linear nature of travel itself. There is a beginning, middle, and end to any trip" (Pudliner 54). The blog content reflects the traveller’s interaction with objective tourism products and the kind of meanings that they assign to them (Banyai & Havitz 235). These characteristics can also be found in travel writing books and this shows how travel writing online still holds true to the foundation of travel writing as a genre. However, there are characteristics possessed by travel blogs that differ from traditional travel writing, especially in its intent to form communities and to be interactive while also informal in their use of language, and thus are more geared towards creating a collective knowledge rather than an isolated personal expression of experience, which travel writing tends to associate with (Panteli et al. 366).