Flickr as Trip Planning Guide

10 years ago, I was working as a travel agent and planning a trip to Thailand. As a travel agent, I had more resources than most people to assist in my planning.

I was able to search for my own plane ticket and get the best deal possible among SABRE, consolidators or special travel agent deals.

I also had brochures from adventure travel companies, as well as the advice from customers and co-workers who had recently travelled to Thailand themselves and could provide me with word of mouth information.

What I did not have back then, however, were very many pictures to help me figure out what kind of place I was going to.

Just this summer, I went back to Thailand, and the experience made me realize that the biggest advancement of the last 10 years to affect travel planning is the introduction of digital photography and sites like Flickr.

This year’s trip, I had a limited amount of time, so I wanted to make sure I made good choices. Koh Tao, sounded like it was going to be exactly what I was looking for: isolated, no partying, great snorkelling. The guidebooks, however, spent such a limited amount of time describing the beaches in any serious detail that it was hard to know if it was going to wind up being disappointing once I got there.

Then I found on Flickr, a set of photos taken by a person who spent 2 weeks on the island 1 year prior to my planned trip. By looking at the photos, I was sold on the location in a way I never would have been had I solely relied on my books. With the confidence of having seen the place I was going to, I knew it would be OK to spend a full day of travel to get there.

And when we got there … I was thrilled to find that it was even better than it looked on Flickr.

Now, if they would only make buying airline tickets easier, but that is a story for another day.

Tuesday August 7, 2007