Last week, a Dublin-based hotel banned bloggers and other influencers after a 22-year-old influencer broke down in tears when she was refused free accommodation.

UK-based social-media influencer Elle Darby emailed Charleville Lodge in Dublin to seek a free five-night accommodation in exchange for bringing attention to the boutique hotel. The hotel not just posted the email, but also provided a scathing response, ultimately refusing the proposal. This created quite a controversy, and both the influencer and the hotel received a lot of hate, which ultimately led the hotel to post a follow-up, banning all bloggers from their business.

The process of work in cases like these used to be very simple: the brand sent a free item to a blogger, and the blogger posted about it on their social media platform or blog. Depending on how influential they are, the business would earn new followers and in some cases, potential sales. This, however, was the mode of business many years ago.

Initially, there were two to three top bloggers in the country. Many aspiring bloggers followed suit and the numbers soon rose exponentially. Then came along the wave of content sharing apps like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, making competition stiffer and reducing the odds of getting noticed among the thousands of ‘influencers’ in the crowded space. What is then, an aspiring influencer supposed to do now?

Image source: Medium

For brands wanting to raise awareness about a particular product or feature, bloggers and social media influencers have undoubtedly become a more sought-after and affordable alternative than celebrities, for instance. For the bigger brands, it is quite easy to send free products as gifts and write them off as marketing expense. For many others, like in the case of Charleville Lodge, who already have ‘186k followers on two Facebook pages, an estimated 80k on Snapchat, 32k on Instagram and 12k on Twitter’, and a host of viral campaigns to their credit, it doesn’t even make much sense for them to get an influencer on board for promotions.

However, for today’s young brands and boutique startups, the same cannot be said. As soon as they launch, random bloggers start emailing them, asking for sponsorships and free items, offering to pay back with likes and shares on social media. What many influencers don’t understand is that likes won’t pay the tremendous costs that startups have to incur on positioning themselves in the already-crowded travel market. There is no doubt that the right influencer will give them followers, but most of the times, likes don’t necessarily result in sales, which is a prerequisite for any brand starting out and trying to sustain itself.

So, does that make it completely wrong for influencers to approach brands proactively for freebies? The answer is no. Just like brands, influencers are free to market themselves in any way they please or deem fit. When it comes to barter, influencers shouldn’t stop trying, although they must understand that it is not the only way to market themselves and that brands are not obligated to return the favour.

There are many brands out there who would be more than willing to sponsor posts, so it would be wise to do a thorough research and get back to the brand with a favourable pitch that would ensure both parties mutually benefit from the collaboration, both on social media and financially. Influencer marketing definitely presents one of the most rewarding opportunities for brands to leverage the power of word-of-mouth at scale, but as the old adage goes – money doesn’t grow on trees.

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Checking off must-see lists and referring to guidebooks in every destination is passe. The current crop of travellers is nothing like its previous generation, thriving on unique, local experiences, rather than pre-planned itineraries. Latching on to this insight, Airbnb recently came up with its #LiveThere campaign, urging travellers to actually live like a local when they visit their dream destination.

Coupled with the company’s recent Trips launch in the country, the Airbnb campaign helps travellers immerse themselves in communities through the eyes of locals, by showcasing authentic, curated experiences made possible through Airbnb and its people-powered community. Watch the ad here:

While the video is focused on the city of Paris, the voiceover resonates with every traveller across the world who is dissatisfied with standardized tourist offerings. It creates a more authentic guest-host relationship by urging people to break away from the regular travel experiences and seek new destinations in the homes of local residents, and through their eyes. In order to stick out, Airbnb is trying to appeal to nostalgia and the thrill of adventure. The core of the engagement is authentic to the brand and the campaign aims to create meaningful, honest experiences. It also aims to increase the daily relevance of the product in people’s lives. Right now, people only go to Airbnb when they look for places to stay in during a vacation. The brand is striving to become a daily app where people go to find experiences; making both hosts and guests long-term partners.

Airbnb in India has witnessed tremendous growth in the past one decade of its existence. Currently, 22,000 properties are listed on Airbnb’s India platform across 100 cities. According to the company, transactions on the platform in India has nearly tripled over the past year, with nearly five lakh Indian guests having travelled via Airbnb. All these numbers point to Airbnb’s crucial role in the Indian travel market, touted to grow to $40 billion by 2020. Previously too, Airbnb has tried to offer accommodation in new regions of India that are attracting travellers by signing an MoU with Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), where the company worked with the members of SEWA to help them share their homes and host domestic and international guests.

To boost its campaign reach in India, Airbnb partnered with Viacom 18’s entertainment channel MTV India to host the online #LiveThere contest. The contest required participants to log onto their Instagram or Twitter and submit image/video entries which best capture their ‘Live There’ moments. By collaborating with popular icons like Nikhil Chinappa, Anusha Dandekar and Radhika Apte, Airbnb aimed at establishing greater relevance with the young Indian traveller, based on their unique passion points. So, while trained Scuba instructor Nikhil Chinappa shared insights on how to best experience music and adventure in Thailand, Anusha Dandekar offered an insider’s view into the hidden fashion hubs in Milan, and Radhika Apte suggested the best way to experience art and theatre in London.

Overall, the new campaign throws out the notion that people want template experiences when they travel. By inspiring travellers to reimagine what it is to travel, including living in local neighbourhoods and enjoying the comforts of a home, the Airbnb campaign provides the perfect antidote to commoditized travel.

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Kerala’s new Tourism Policy 2017, includes creation of new customised products for attracting young travellers, professionals, students and artists to the state. The policy emphasises on the participation of the differently-abled and transgenders, while implementing the Responsible Tourism Mission across the God’s Own Country to promote the tourism sector.

The Department of Tourism has also proposed to establish a Kerala Tourism Regulatory Authority (KTRA) to ensure quality service for tourists and curb unhealthy practices in the tourism sector. An investment cell would be formed to help potential investors, especially NRIs.

Speaking about the objective of new policy, Kadakampally Surendran, Honorable Minister for Co-Operation, Tourism and Devaswom, Government of Kerala said, “There is an immediate need to improve the infrastructure facilities across various destinations of the state. The new policy aims to address the key issues of the tourism industry in cooperation with the local bodies such as waste management and renovation of roads. The state has immense tourism potential to attract travellers from all corners of the world.”

“Following the Responsible Tourism Mission, Kerala Tourism has guided all the regional bodies and authorities concerned to implement and follow the Green Protocol at all the destinations of Kerala,” he further added.

Keeping in line with travel trends, Kerala Tourism will also allow travellers to experience the rural life for a raw travelling experience. Following the lining up of new marketing strategies, the department has proposed to establish 1,000 new classified homestays to promote homestays and rural tourism.

Speaking about the development plans, P. Bala Kiran, IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism, and Managing Director, Kannur International Airport said, “With the aim to implement ‘Barrier Free Kerala Tourism’ this year, Kerala Tourism has planned to initiate new infrastructure development projects in order to create accessible and friendly spaces to the differently abled, elderly tourists and transgenders.”

The state has been actively promoting tourism through different campaigns. Tourism policies in Kerala have also evolved, with the introduction of more technology-oriented initiatives focused on the exclusivity of each destination.

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