There aren’t many industries that were affected by Covid-19 lockdown more than traveling. 2020 was a very tough year for us – travel bloggers, and we were wondering how other bloggers are surviving, therefore we have decided to interview ten travel bloggers we have recently cooperated with.
We have asked everyone these three questions:
| 1) | How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019? (No exact numbers, just percentage, and short explanation) |
| 2) | Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)? (if yes, please specify the field/subject) |
| 3) | How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans? |
In this article, you will find complete answers from all interviewed travel bloggers as well as our final summary of all answers.
Sophie – We Dream of Travel
- Blog URL: wedreamoftravel.com
- Country: England
- Type of blogger: Mostly full-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
While we initially saw a dip in our traffic, since May we slowly saw our traffic pick up as we started to focus on more general, inspirational posts rather than just itineraries and destination focused content. We’ve started 2021 with our traffic at over 1500% higher than this time last year. With this we’ve also seen a vast increase in our revenue too.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
Yes we have continued to work as travel bloggers. However, I have also had some part time work as I’ve been “stuck” in England so thought I’d make the most of it! We’ve also diversified our income and launched a few photography products this year too, including a calendar which was hugely successful. Now we’re trying to decide what to do next!
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
That’s such a hard question to answer. I’d love to see travel returning to some kind of “normal”, however with lockdown 3.0 here in England it seems difficult to imagine at present. My fiance, Adam, who I run the blog with is from the US and has been at home in Oregon throughout most of the pandemic. I hope that 2021 will see us back in the same country at least! Beyond that we don’t have any plans at present, but will be making plans as soon as possible.
Bryanna – Crazy Family Adventure
- Blog URL: crazyfamilyadventure.com
- Country: United States
- Type of blogger: Full-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Our overall page views dropped anywhere from 50-80% which in turn meant our affiliate sales did the same. From an income perspective we saw a smaller drop – as we made the decision to pivot and start to do more influencer work via our social media channels, but did not get close to the same income we made in 2019.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
Yes we continued as travel bloggers and plan to stay that way.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
It will be interesting! We travel full time in our RV and have been throughout 2020 so we will continue to travel anywhere we can drive in the US – and potentially Canada and Mexico when we can. As we saw RV travel, road trips and National Park trips pick up in 2020 I think we will see even more of that type of travel in 2021 and we are working on content that aligns with that.
Lee – The Travel Scribes
- Blog URL: thetravelscribes.com
- Country: England
- Type of blogger: Part-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Our website traffic to our travel site plummeted. And I mean fell off the side of a cliff. Our bookings and commissions disappeared overnight and our traffic is at less than 10% of what it was… on the flip side, we pivoted relatively early on (in March 2020), launching 2 new sites that focused on other niches – one performing relatively well, the other surpassing expectation and providing the same advertising income that we used to get from travel.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
While we still continue to update our travel content, and have also been on ‘staycations’ to create new content – the majority of our focus has been on two new websites. At the same time, we have both returned to full time employment in the marketing field.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
It’s going to be a tough year for travel. The vaccine rollout is great but we think providing false hopes to the travel industry. 2022 may start returning to a bit more normal. We’re hoping to do some local travel when restrictions lift, but always following the guidance to keep ourselves and others safe. We’d love to book some international travel for the end of 2021 but it’s very much watch this space…
Clare – Mudpie Fridays
- Blog URL: mudpiefridays.com
- Country: U.K.
- Type of blogger: Part-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
I am about a third down on earnings and my traffic reduced significantly down to about a quarter in late Spring and early Summer of 2020
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
We were in the parenting travel niche so I’ve focused more on parenting content and have just signed up with a well known AD network. My focus will be on continuing to improve my SEO and move reliance away from PR a paid work which has naturally been lower
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
I do we are planning a U.K. press trip in Easter. Plus I’ve rescheduled a one in a lifetime trip from Dec 2020 to Dec 2021. We were in the fortunate position of having several press trips arranged for 2020 which we are hoping to re arrange but at the moment until things are a little clearer we haven’t although in regular communication. I think it’s important that we support the industry where we can, to help it rebuild both through marketing support and press trips. If it’s not the right time for a business to host then I think there are many other ways we can support them. I do wonder if it maybe a while before we are the fortunate position of having multiple press trips throughout the year as we were in in 2019. And that’s okay because I believe it is very important to help the tourism industry right now to recover.
Martina – PlacesofJuma
- Blog URL: placesofjuma.com
- Country: Austria
- Type of blogger: Part-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Of course, the Corona crisis has also affected us. Most of our trips are long-distance trips. These are not really in demand at the moment. We estimate that our blog hits have decreased by at least 60%.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
We will continue to work as travel bloggers. Of course we are open for other projects and if something new arises we are of course open for changes.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
We are not planning any long-distance travel in 2021. Well, maybe at the end of the year. Before that, we’ll visit a few of our neighboring countries like Italy, Croatia and Germany. Otherwise, we will focus on exploring several regional destinations.
Sarah – Exploring Auckland
- Blog URL: exploringauckland.com
- Country: New Zealand
- Type of blogger: Part-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Traffic on our main blog dropped to 30% of previous levels and have not recovered.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
We have created new niche sites, allowing us to focus on local travel and lifestyle. Initially we created a site about the city in which we live called Exploring Auckland (which is already doing better than our main travel blog) and have begun working on a new site called New Zealand Sorted. We believe there to be a real case for focusing the content on a site to become an expert in the eyes of Google.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
At this stage we’re planning to travel locally and are quietly hoping safe travel might open up with some of our neighbouring countries. We’re feeling positive about 2021 – whatever may happen.
Chantell – Travel for Your Life
- Blog URL: travelforyourlife.com
- Country: It varies, currently in the U.K. but spend a lot of time in Asia
- Type of blogger: Hobby blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Traffic is still down about 80%. But a lot of my content was about a region that hasn’t opened up much again yet. I’ve therefore started writing more content about other locations to try to counteract this
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
I’ve continued but it’s disheartening as the traffic isn’t growing in correlation to how it usually would despite articles ranking well
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
No travels plans yet. I think it’s going to be a long time before travel gets back to normal but there are some great flexible deals around at the moment.
Nancy – enSquaredAired
- Blog URL: ensquaredaired.com
- Country: Canada
- Type of blogger: Hobby blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
80% drop in traffic and revenue
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
I stopped blogging. I felt like it was a sensitive topic in the beginning to talk about travel given the pandemic and it just didn’t feel right.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
Travel will work for those who can fly out and have the time to quarantine in the country they are visiting. I have no travel plans, I plan to only travel in Canada
Joel – In My Korea
- Blog URL: inmykorea.com
- Country: South Korea
- Type of blogger: Part-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Traffic dropped a lot from March onwards but recovered by the summer as I shifted my focus towards life overseas. I’m an expat in South Korea and so wrote more articles for local audiences as opposed to travellers. That’s helped, but I can’t help imagine how much more growth I would have seen from my blog if there was no virus. My page views between last January and this January are up about 75% thanks to a greater number of posts more seasonal posts.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
I work full time and write in my free time (which is quite a lot as I work at a university). I still plan to continue working on my travel blog, but want to diversify into other areas including expat life and working overseas.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
I honestly see things mostly going the same as the last half of 2020 with some travel opening up towards the end of the year, possibly from September onwards. A lot depends on how countries handle vaccines, certification (proof of vaccination) and whether they open their borders to those who are vaccinated. As an expat, I’d love to return home to see my family as it’s been a couple of years since I was last in England. I’d also like to travel somewhere for a beach holiday. I need a break!
Matěj – Czech the World
- Blog URL: czechtheworld.com
- Country: Czech Republic
- Type of blogger: Full-time blogger
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
Our traffic and revenue completely fell off the cliff after the world went into Covid lockdown. And I mean – completely fell off. Suddenly we were on about 10% of our previous traffic and revenue. We have decided to focus on different topics other than travel and it found out that it works. December 2020 was our by far the best month in revenue. However, about 90% of the income comes from non-travel articles.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
We still continue working full-time on our blog. However, we have focused much more on non-travel topics. We plan to write again about traveling after the Covid lockdown ends.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
It’s really hard to envision anything. The situation in our country is very bad because of incompetent politicians, who care more about elections than about people’s safety. However, we would love to do some shorter trips during Spring and Summer – Albania, Portugal, Bosnia, maybe Norway. And in the Autumn, we would love to go for a long (4-6 months) road trip to South America, however as of now, we don’t know if that would be possible. Otherwise, we take advantage of the lockdown and work hard on our blog.
Summary – The Key Takeaways from the Survey:
Let’s have a look at the key takeaways we have curated from all the answers:
1) How has your website traffic and revenue changed in 2020 in comparison to 2019?
- All of the interviewed travel bloggers saw massive traffic and revenue loss. Most saw about 30-80% traffic drop and some even 90%.
- 8 out of 10 said that the traffic and revenue haven’t recovered, yet.
- 2 out of 10 said that their traffic increased because they started to focus on different travel topics
- 1 out of 10 said that their traffic increased because they started to write non-travel content.
2) Do you still continue as a travel blogger or did you start working on some other project(s)?
- 3 out of 10 continue as travel bloggers but started to diversify income with new products and areas.
- 2 out of 10 continue as travel bloggers as before.
- 1 out of 10 continue as a travel blogger but focuses on non-travel content.
- 2 out of 10 have started new niche sites about local travel.
- 1 out of 10 said that they returned to full-time employment.
- 1 out of 10 focused more on parenting instead of travel.
- 1 out of 10 completely stopped blogging.
3) How do you envision the year 2021? Do you have some travel plans?
- 5 out of 10 plan to travel locally or neighboring countries.
- 1 out of 10 would like to return home as an ex-pat.
- 1 out of 10 rescheduled their once in a lifetime trip from Dec 2020 to Dec 2021.
- 1 out of 10 would love to at least meet their fiance from a different country.
- 1 out of 10 doesn’t have any plans.
- 1 out of 10 plan shorter trips in Spring and Summer and a long trip in Autumn.
The Bottom Line
Year 2020 was tough for all travel bloggers, however as it is with any crisis, there is always an opportunity to be found. Some travel bloggers were able to start new sites and switch niches and can now enjoy traffic and revenue increase. Let’s hope together that this crisis will end soon and the travel industry will return back to its previous normal.
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