Tourism Management 77 (2020) 104009 Available online 2 November 2019 0261-5177/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. The future of travel writing: Interactivity, personal branding and power Madelene Blaer a, * , Warwick Frost b , Jennifer Laing b a Department of Tourism, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, 888 Princes Hwy Service Road, Caulfeld East, VIC 3145 Australia b Department of Management, Sport and Tourism, La Trobe University, Plenty Road and Kingsbury Drive, Bundoora, VIC 3086 Australia A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Travel writer Phenomenology Online Blog Social media Interactivity Personal brand Power ABSTRACT Changes in technology and media in the twenty-frst-century have had signifcant implications for the travel writing profession. In the social media era, where information about travel is readily accessible for many au- diences online, both travel writers and publishers are altering the way that they function to succeed in this new environment. This phenomenological qualitative study, based on interviews with 47 travel writers, explores their experiences in the digital age. Findings resulted in three new conceptual models illustrating the different ex- periences of contemporary travel writers: (1) The Interaction Model, (2) The Personal Branding Model, and (3) The Power Model. The models refect the fact that the online environment has facilitated interactivity with readers and personal branding, created a change in power dynamics, and given some writers a sense of com- munitas with their peers. These experiences have implications for the profession and the depth of travel writing and writers’ travelling experiences. 1. Introduction The world is constantly changing, the way we travel is changing and the travel writers are changing too. We look back at travel writing in the 19th century, and it’s more about the destinations and people’s experiences in undiscovered lands. Nowadays … travel writing has become more about connection with your readers. Readers don’t just want information about the place - they can get that for free on the Internet … The point of connection is getting more and more important and travel writing is getting more and more personal. (Wibowo, 2015) Agustinus Wibowo, a leading Indonesian travel writer, highlights that the contemporary travel writer’s world is in fux. Over four years, Wibowo trekked across Central and South Asia and published his daily travel notes as an online column. Its popularity ultimately gave him the opportunity to rewrite the articles as three books. Wibowo’s experience of becoming a travel writer is quite different from his earlier counter- parts, who travelled without modern technologies, in that he transi- tioned from an amateur to a professional largely through his online presence and popularity. In an age where travel information is easily accessible online, travel writers fnd they need to react to this changing environment and construct new meanings and purposes for their work. As Youngs (2013, p. 178) observed: “travel writing, like all literature, responds to new technologies. The means and speed of motion affect the way people experience their travel as well as how they write about it”. Trends in social media in particular have had a signifcant infuence on travel writers. Lonely Planet was an early adopter of online interactivity with readers; since 1996, their online forum Thorn Tree has been used by a virtual community comprised of both readers and writers to share travel stories and advice. In their analysis of research on travel blogs, Banyai and Glover (2012, p. 265) observed that the “popularity of blogs has grown substantially over the past few years as advancements in communication technology have become more accessible, thereby enabling people to engage more easily in social commentaries”. In this way, both experienced writers and newcomers to the feld can voice an opinion and reach global audiences, with whom they can interact on- line. A small number of studies have begun to explore contemporary travel writers with respect to online technologies and there is scope for further empirical analysis in the form of an in-depth qualitative inves- tigation into contextual nuances and the range of their experiences. This article aims to contribute to this space and begins with a literature re- view, which frames the study, highlights the gaps and identifes the research question. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: madelene.blaer@monash.edu (M. Blaer). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104009 Received 19 October 2018; Received in revised form 24 July 2019; Accepted 30 September 2019