Travel blog for honest holiday stories

Planning your next vacation but are stumped for fresh ideas? Do you have a destination in mind but have unanswered questions about its suitability? Enter TripStar.

The brainchild of travel agent House of Travel, TripStar is an online blog that helps travellers find new places to visit and hear of other travellers’ experiences of far-off places.

E-content manager Marc van der Putten says the blog is a travel community site where travellers can engage in honest conversation.

“It’s good to have a dialogue about where you are going and what you are doing,” he says.

“This is the people’s voice. They can tell their stories.”

TripStar was born out of a desire to support Kiwi travellers, says van der Putten.

“Travel can be stressful and people can see other people’s experiences and share theirs.

“It’s user-generated content.”

While TripStar exists under the House of Travel brand, it also sits apart from the company – the users decide the content.

“If you can get people to tell about their experiences, then it’s unbiased,” says van der Putten.

“People can go into it with their eyes opened.

“You have to understand that there are going to be some bad experiences [while travelling].”

Blogger Dee Morgan, who runs an online business, says a problem lies within the public perception of company blogs about whether or not they are run purely for capital gain.

“If they are only interested in sales, then it won’t work,” says Morgan. “People will pick up if it’s not genuine.

“But it can be used as a marketing tool for businesses if they are really interested [in making it work].”

Van der Putten says TripStar is not for profit, it exists purely for the consumer.

“It is not generating any revenue,” he says. “It’s not to generate sales, it’s to support dialogue.”

TripStar is, however, linked back to the House of Travel website – encouraging users to make plans with them online.

Online travel retailing is proliferating in the industry, but van der Putten says the internet site will never make retail outlets redundant.

He says booking online puts the traveller in the driver’s seat because quite often when face-to-face with a consultant, a traveller might wonder what’s in it for them.

However, he also says online booking is best suited for simple travel, like from Auckland to Sydney.

“As soon as you say ‘kids’ or ‘stopover’, a website will find it difficult to tell you the stuff a consultant can,” he says.

“It’s about service. Retail has people-to-people, rather than machine-to-machine.”

Flight Centre’s media spokesperson, Marie Pilkington, says despite the ease of online booking for travel, it is a common misconception that the internet has the lowest deals.

“The consultant gets the deal right up to the minute,” she says. “Consultants can re-route. They have more expertise and knowledge.

“If you book online and lose your baggage, you have to contact the airline. If you need to change your flight, you have to buy another ticket.”

In regards to blogging,  Pilkington says Flight Centre, House of Travel’s main rival in New Zealand, would not copy anything another travel company does but says that it is “out there” and that Flight Centre differs in its marketing approach to House of Travel.

Van der Putten says Flight Centre believes its best business drive is in-store, whereas House of Travel believe its own is both in-store and online.

TripStar currently has 2353 members online commenting on 1588 threads on topics ranging from a week away in Las Vegas to how best to travel from Naples to Sorrento