Long before blogs such as this one came into being, before Facebook and Instagram, and even before the founding of FlyerTalk, there was a place on the internet for travelers to share trip reports. Started in 1997 by Canadian Luc Levesque, TravelPod grew to become a very popular and easy to use platform in the travel space used by thousands to share their worldly exploits.
TravelPod became so popular in fact that in 2007 it was acquired by TripAdvisor.
But as of next month, it will be no more. The company posted the following message on their website today and sent out emails to their members:
After 20 years of leading the travel blogging revolution, it’s time for us to sign off. It’s with heavy hearts that we must announce that TravelPod will be closing on June 19, 2017. In the meantime, we want you to know that you can now download a complete archive of all of your entries, blogs, photos, and address book information. It’s all on your TravelPod Dashboard when you sign in, and will be active up until our closing date of June 19, 2017. Thank you for going on this unforgettable journey with us.
They don’t really cite a reason for the closing, but I suppose we can guess it has to do with competition from Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms that also offer methods for chronicling travel. And of course, WordPress has made hosting your own blog incredibly easy as well.
Still, I wonder how they couldn’t at least breakeven on the costs, given the ad revenue that they presumably generate from the otherwise free content. That said, their SEO never seemed all that great, given that I rarely saw a TravelPod blog pop up, unless I was searching for some obscure place. So who knows.
For those looking for an alternative, TravelPod is recommending a community driven site called TravelArk.
My experience with TravelPod
Before Ben asked me to join him here at OMAAT, my wife and I would use TravelPod to write up our trips. It was convenient, had a straightforward interface, and some handy mapping tools available. Plus it was free.
We always kind of knew this day might come — and honestly I feared they might just shut down with no notice whatsoever — so I would urge her to back up her posts elsewhere as well. Though of course, we rarely did.
So I do very much appreciate the month notice they provided, as well as the archive backup tool they have available.
What will survive from our generation?
The closing of TravelPod causes me to pause and reflect on the seemingly daunting task of preserving the massive amounts of content that are created everyday. What will survive the test of time from our era that will allow the future generations to learn from us? What is the best way to preserve some memories such that our great-grandkids might have a chance of being able to read, watch, or listen to it?
The older I get, the more I think about this stuff.
At breakfast the other morning I was reading an article in IEEE Spectrum (yes, I’m a geek) about how our digital movies may not exist in 100 years. The scary part is that they aren’t talking about your home movies, but rather Hollywood blockbusters and the like. A Technicolor technician predicts that “there’s going to be a large dead period,” he told me, “from the late ’90s through 2020, where most media will be lost.”
If they can’t preserve their archives, what chance do we have with ours?
The amount of content that the world is generating on a daily and even hourly basis is just staggering. I occasionally ponder the future of blogs such as this one and wonder what will happen when technologies evolve and the way media is consumed changes — will anyone care about the millions of words that Ben and company have penned here over the years? I once figured that having a few of my writings published as part of a major blog has to at least improve the odds that they survive into the future, but is that just a fallacy? What will become of the BoardingArea archives in 20, 40, or 100 years?
It’s a sobering thought.
Bottom Line
TravelPod is closing down as of June 19, 2017. If you have trip reports hosted there, make sure you download your archive ASAP. And if you’re like me, take the time to ponder the longevity of your content, scattered as it may be across the web.
Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you.
Did you use TravelPod? Are you sad to see it go?
Is there any help section in Tripmii? They advertise with the possibility of keeping your trip private but I can't find it.
Hey there! Wow, that’s sad, but there are better state-of-the-art platforms now. The Travelpod App was pretty old ...
I traveIed a lot and use several platforms. So, I personally believe that “Tripmii” is the best alternative.
http://www.tripmii.vom
Check the free TravelPod alternative http://www.tripmii.com
My late wife wrote her first TravelPod blog on a four month journey around Europe in 2009. There followed two further journeys; the last was in 2013 when she became ill. She died shortly after returning home.
The loss of TravelPod is a real blow. While each of the blogs has been printed into book form, it was always comforting to see the blogs and pictures on screen. Many of her friends have told...
My late wife wrote her first TravelPod blog on a four month journey around Europe in 2009. There followed two further journeys; the last was in 2013 when she became ill. She died shortly after returning home.
The loss of TravelPod is a real blow. While each of the blogs has been printed into book form, it was always comforting to see the blogs and pictures on screen. Many of her friends have told me they used the blogs to keep her memory alive.
Not being computer literate, I have no idea how to move the material to another site. I have followed the download instructions and backed up to three different places to ensure at least one survives - now I have to work out what to do with them.
I will always be grateful to the TravelPod team for their help and understanding and for providing an avenue for a remarkable lady to spread her magic to a wider audience.
I am very sad about TravelPod - I have several years worth of family travel blogs on their site. I have downloaded them, and am trying to import them to WordPress, but it is tedious and not all that easy. Wish there was another site similar to TravelPod - recommendations welcome!
I've posted several trips on the platform and love it. Ahead of our first trip to Slovenia, it was the only source on places that were less traveled. Sorry to see it go!
I'm also greatly disappointed as I have used Travelpod for our families to let them know what we were up to during our trips. I have yet to find something similar. So I am also open for recommendations.
Really gutted that Travel pod is closing. I've been searching like many others and can't find a similar easy to use app/site! Please keep leaving ideas here for others to try!!
I've posted 14 trips since 2013 and found the site easy to use and update while away and it has suited my basic style of text and lots of captioned photos. I have exported my content safely ... but where to go next! None of the simpler sites I have found similar to Travelpod are quite as flexible and Wordpress is just information overload! Will check out journiapp as suggested above and hope I find a suitable home in time for my next trip in August.
We wished we would have known about this earlier. We got a few inquiries from TP users to import their data on journi. Now we reached out to the TA falks to evaluate if we can support here. Feel free to check out journiapp.com as a possible alternative. If you have any questions, let me know.
Very sad to see travel pod closing. It was a great site and a great way to save your travel blogs along with the neat way of getting your travel blog printed in book form. So easy. Loved following our kids and family members on their worldly adventures. Going o kiss it very much the next time someone travels.
NEver heard of it. There's a clue there.
Too bad about travelpod. I used it several years ago to research some areas before a big trip. You really felt like you were on the trip with the people writing the blogs.. Sad. :(
Simon and Garfunkel to finish? Stylish.
On the topic of old content that's gone, remember GeoCities? Do you still have anything on MySpace? Any old email on a provider that's gone forever?
There's too much data created daily on the web for all of it to pass the test of History! Heck, someone told me 400 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute! You won't ever be able to watch it all, and they won't be able to store them for very long either...
Exactly as you stated, travel blogs have become easier to setup with Wordpress and Tumblr. I've been hosting and maintaining my own blog for the past year. It's complicated, but worthwhile for flexibility. Migrated my servers across to another provider and that was fairly simple.
I think the future will still be forums and trying to make a sort of alliance/partnerships across blogs. As with how OMAAT refers to other bloggers or has scheduled talks,...
Exactly as you stated, travel blogs have become easier to setup with Wordpress and Tumblr. I've been hosting and maintaining my own blog for the past year. It's complicated, but worthwhile for flexibility. Migrated my servers across to another provider and that was fairly simple.
I think the future will still be forums and trying to make a sort of alliance/partnerships across blogs. As with how OMAAT refers to other bloggers or has scheduled talks, it's about being in a community across the internet. No longer is it where the community is only on Geocities or only on Travelpod. Authors need to maintain their presence by connecting and promoting with other blogs.
I'm not saying stuff like Boarding Area, but rather a much larger group who don't work under a single 'area'. It's the difference between the boarding area and the whole airport.... and the whole world.
Same here, been reading travel blogs and news for years and years and had never heard of travelpods either. Perhaps that's the real reason behind their demise!
We all get forgotten, and if in the incredibly rare instance we don't, the sun will burn up those who remember.
Don't dwell too much on it.
This is the first that I've ever heard of them, so I can't really be sad, and perhaps that in itself is the reason for it's demise?
I'm deeply concerned...Hot Tub Time Machine needs to be preserved for the ages...
Have been reading blogs, FT etc daily for 5 years and I've never heard of travelpod