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Travel Social Networking: Becoming a Digital Ambassador Being a digital ambassador is like leaving a trail for other people to find the comments and tips about a specific place

By Ahmed Alzalabani

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The advent of technology and social media has made a traveler's journey different from what it used to be. Today don't rely on books compiled by travel experts with out of date information or paper maps to help them navigate through their destinations. Instead of all the hassle, the travelers today have the chance to access information directly from the internet from different sources about their destination.

Ease of Travelling in the Age of Google Maps

The outdated guidebooks have no place in travel today. One only has to take out their smart phone and get on Google Maps, and everything else is sorted out. Travelers had the challenge of accessing different places using guidebooks and paper maps because of change. The change in architecture and growth of a certain area often confused people who used paper maps or the outdated guidebooks.

The traveler today has an easy time accessing any place they are visiting since the information is directly and readily available through the internet. To make things much better and easier, people today have social networks. Through these networks, most travelers are able to document using images and location stamps their destination and anything else that is interesting about them. You can now easily find a picture online of Paris through a social network with detailed information about the specific place and even photos.

Have you ever noticed that if you searched Google or other social media networks, for travel content today something is still missing? You will find many photos and videos from any city or country around the world, but there is no content from someone from your own country or culture. For example, a person from the US wants to visit Dubai. The person will want to see Dubai through the eyes of a person from their own country or culture.

Leave alone the outdated guidebooks now. Does Dubai have people from Dubai becoming digital ambassadors of other countries and their own too? The traveler often asks themselves, how is Dubai or any other country through the eyes of a friend, relative or colleague who is from my own country?

Trip advisor is one of the best sites where you can find this information from but having it right under your fingertips on your smart phones and with pictures uploaded and few people tagged is much better. Getting travel inspiration from people who are from your own country is much better and a new way of inspiring. The world today, however, is missing travel ambassadors even with all the tourist information available today.

Requirements of a Modern Traveler

Becoming a travel ambassador today is easy. All you need is a smart phone, install some apps, and you can inspire people from your country to tour places that you have been to before. People find travel inspiration in so many things but seeing the world through the eyes of someone from your own culture makes such a huge difference.

Apart from adventure and sight-seeing, most people travel to experience different cultures. As a digital ambassador, you need to showcase your culture and that of your destination to other people for travel inspiration. Other travelers would wish to see their destination's culture and how that culture relates to their own culture. Travelers need to be able to connect to their destination of choice.

Ever heard of Cambassadors?

These are people who are digital ambassadors for their country. They represent their country through travel and help people and travelers from their own country see the world through them. These simply travel ambassador with a camera. They upload photos tips and comments about their destinations and their trip and leave them behind for other people to find. The detailed information on the photos then guides other travelers when they visit the same city or country.

If by any chance there were changes in a particular area, the number of people who visited that place the last will not the difference in the picture uploaded by a person who was there recently. Real-time access to tips and crowd sourced information has changed the way a traveler accesses information concerning a trip.

With travel social networking, planning a trip has now become easier. All the challenges a traveler expects to experience during the trip can be planned for before the trip. People are now turning to their friends, influencers, and co-workers within social media to find vacation and travel inspiration and even offers to support their destination of choice.

What are some of the advantages of travelling in the social media age? What does the ordinary traveler expect to gain from travel social networking?

  • Makes travel easier

When travelling, mobile apps and social networks are your closest companion. You can get to know how to book the cheapest flight when the bus comes to the station and many other things without hassle.

  • Saves time

When you travel with a companion like apps and social media, travelling becomes fast since you can easily access help from the apps. You don't have to spend time trying to look for a place when you can pinpoint it on an app.

  • Keeping in touch with friends and family

Travel social networking has made this so easy and much fun. You can WhatsApp your friends or even FaceTime with them and share the best about your trip. It's like you never left but you are on the other side of the world.

  • Makes the experience more fun

When visiting a country or city, getting inspiration from someone who comes from your country makes it worth the while.

With all that said and done, what is travel social networking and how do you become a digital ambassador for your country. The only difference between you (the person with a social network profile and a smart phone) and an ambassador is that you can showcase your country to so many other people in a better and easily accessible manner.

Have you ever travelled to a country and wished someone else would see the same place through your own eyes? That is what being a digital ambassador is all about and its possible today thanks to the social media networks and the internet.

Most people today don't spend a lot of time travelling. They instead spend a lot of time planning to travel trying to look for a particular destination and all the information they can find about that specific place. What about finding information from people from their own country or culture. The experience now becomes wholesome and more fun. The traveller is inspired to see what the digital ambassador experienced during the trip hoping their trip will be the same or even better.

Being a digital ambassador is like leaving a trail for other people to find. The best people to use this trail of pictures, comments and tips about a specific place are people from your own country. You give them a chance to see and experience the world through your eyes. You have the same culture and the description you give about a place or destination with pictures available now becomes more relevant since you share the same culture.

Ahmed Alzalabani

Founder at Cambassy

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