CAN'T BEAT EM, BOOK YOUR OWN FLIGHT

Travel blogging has been popular for some time, but it wasn’t until recently that we started to see Black travel bloggers and a New Jersey Black travel blogger at that.

According to blog site Oneika the Traveller, nearly one-fifth of African Americans take one or more international trips per year and spend about $48 billion on travel within the US alone and yet there is still an underrepresentation when it comes to mainstream media travel blogs.

The lack of representation in mainstream travel is detrimental because it then leaves for people to believe that you have to look a certain way to be able to travel. Per Oneika the Traveller, Oneika admitted that she herself believed that “travelling was only for white people.” This is the impact of representation.

Today, we see more and more Black travel blogs become increasingly popular. This increase is owed to Black travelers taking matters into their own hand and creating their own space to blog and share their experiences while traveling. It has become such a strong community that we are also starting to see more and more sponsorships!

See when you become a travel blogger then you build relationships with different travel agencies whether it be with an airline as a part of an ad campaign, a resort to draw more clientele or even a sponsor to fund your vacation for advertising a product. Up until recently, you didn’t see any Black travelers being funded for trips.

Now we have people like Ernest of Fly Brother who, according to The Sophisticated Life, is a travel blogger, hosts his own TV show and podcast. He actually speaks at travel conferences now!

We also have The Global Ghana Girl, New Jersey based Black travel blogger Melissa. She created her blog to not only share her advice on traveling but to also share her experiences on her trips and highlight other Black travel bloggers who are doing it big! If you check out her blog she even has tips on how to balance a 9-5 career and adventuring the world.

You could check out Melissa and her travels/travel advice on her blog https://theglobalghanagirl.com and Instagram theglobalghanagirl.