In less than two weeks I’ll be returning to The Gambia in West Africa. I’m very excited about this particular visit as this time, I’m taking 6 fantastic travel bloggers with me for the very first bloggers press trip to this wonderful country. As well as writing ‘Travel With Kat’ I work for The Gambia Experience, so when they asked me to organise and host a bloggers’ press trip to The Gambia I was delighted! Actually, I was over-the-moon.
With Jenny, our PR manager, I compiled a list of bloggers we wanted to invite. We were looking for bloggers from the UK (or with a large UK audience), who write well, take fantastic photographs, and have strong and effective social media channels. My experience in blogging was invaluable, enabling me to advise Jenny about what we should be looking for in a blogger. Who would get as the results we were after and who would work well together as a team, promoting the trip across social media networks?
We then put our heads together to create an exciting itinerary for the bloggers that would give them plenty of opportunities to promote different aspects of The Gambia.
Here’s the final list of bloggers that will soon be joining me in The Gambia.
Iain is an ex-military man and served as a Warrant Officer in the Army Physical Training Corps. This enabled him to become highly qualified in a large number of adventurous activities. Participating in many expeditions to many parts of the World satisfied his wanderlust.
He now works freelance as a writer and photographer and enjoys finding adventure wherever he travels. He publishes the popular website Mallory On Travel, an adventure travel guide for the everyday adventurer by a former adrenalin junkie.
“I’m always excited about visiting an exotic new destination, but I cannot wait to explore The Gambia, the continent’s smallest mainland country, it promises epic adventures” Iain
“When it comes to stylish travel, I know just the place.”
This site is about travel for stylish, discerning and cultured urban folk who work hard and are short of time, so need to get the most out of their trips. Jaillan aims to help them cut to the travel chase by giving them some great edited ideas for interesting, cool and unique places to go.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be heading off to The Gambia with The Gambia Experience. I feel as though Gambia is my ‘one that got away’ as I’ve come so close to booking holidays to the country in the past and just not quite managed it. I’m most looking forward to doing some wildlife spotting. Last year I caught the Africa bug in a big way – and I have a feeling it will stay with me for life, so I wonder if The Gambia will be my latest addiction?” Jaillan
Jayne is a travel blogger on a mission to visit and blog about her experiences in 40 different countries before her 30th birthday.
“This trip to The Gambia will be my first visit to this part of Africa, and I am most looking forward to meeting the people, sharing their smiles and discovering the beauty of The Gambia’s coastline.” Jayne
The Travel Hack is a travel blog about adventurous and stylish travels all around the world. I love a bit of luxury but also love to get my feet dirty, meet the locals and explore a new destination away from the main tourist track.
The Travel Hack began as a way to document my two-year backpacking trip around Asia and Australia and continued as I returned to London to study multimedia journalism. I have a huge passion for photography and iphoneography, and I aim to show that you can travel the world, even with a full-time job.
“I love everything about discovering a new country, but I’m most looking forward to meeting the local families and finding out more about life in The Gambia. We’ll be presenting the families with new stoves for their homes, so hopefully, they’ll be able to share some local cooking tips with me too!” Monica
“I look forward to discovering an area of Africa that I’ve never visited before, to see the smiling kids, learn about the local culture and admire the scenery. It will surely be a wonderful experience, and I can’t wait to explore a little bit of The Gambia.”
Tom Warburton is part of the baldhiker.com team. Long, long ago (back in analogue days) he travelled the world extensively including a two year around the world trip. He is now rediscovering the world with a digital camera. He originally trained as an ecologist and is particularly interested in environmental and wildlife issues. Tom’s blogs can be seen on the baldhiker.com website.
Tom says “I’m really looking forward to the trip to The Gambia. I’m particularly interested in the wildlife, and the bird diversity in The Gambia is astounding. The Mandina Lodges in the Makasutu Forest look perfect for exploring both the wildlife and culture of The Gambia. I can’t wait!”
I really can’t wait to show my fellow bloggers this wonderful country, the smallest country on mainland Africa and, sadly, one of the poorest. Tourism is vital to the local economy, so anything that helps promote the country as a holiday destination is fabulous.
I hope you will follow all the bloggers as I help them discover The Gambia. You can follow our Tweets and Instagrams with #BlogGambia.
#BlogGambia Campaign Update
The campaign generated forty-two articles from seven bloggers
Mallory on Travel
Iain beautifully captures one of the highlights from the trip in his post Dancing Haystacks in The Gambia. He wrote six excellent articles in all.
Girl Tweets World (previously 40 before 30)
Jayne also published six great articles showcasing different aspects of her visit. Here she shares her First Impressions of The Gambia.
Italian born blogger, Simon, shared four articles about The Gambia. When I first read her account of The Wise Man of the Makasutu Forest, it gave me goosebumps. Like me, she also fell in love with the barefoot luxury of Mandina Lodges.
Savoir There
Jaillan wrote two articles following her visit includingHow I became a Forest Chump and featured The Gambia in numerous round-up articles in later that year and in years to follow.
Bald Hiker
Tom Warburton wrote seven articles about his visit to The Gambia, which in total have been read over 144,000 times. In his photo essay, A Village Kumpo Dance his vibrant images convey the energy of the people of The Gambia beautifully,
Travel With Kat
My article, The Top 12 Things to Do in The Gambia on a Budget, was one of the most successful from the campaign. It has been read by over 25,000 people and still gets read on my blog every day. I published a whooping 12 articles in total from this trip.
Later that year, we organised a second bloggers’ press trip to The Gambia, which again was a great success. My favourite article from that visit brings back many vivid memories, A night on the river in Makasutu Forest.
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41 Comments
Paul
on June 20, 2013 at 11:33 pm
This trip looks like it’s going to be fantastic Kat. I must admit I’m quite ignorant when it comes to Gambia, and can’t wait to see what you and the other bloggers experience on this trip.
Hi Kathryn, I just came across your site through LinkedIn. Very interesting to see how a press/blog trip is organised, thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to see how your trip went.
Thanks Jean. Great to hear you enjoyed it. I posted my first story from the trip yesterday and you might find it an interesting insight into how things can sometimes go wrong!
On a further note, it really hadn’t crossed my mind that everyone in this group was from the same ethnic background, apart from Jaillan whose father is Egyptian. Also there are more bloggers going later that are not mentioned here. The ethnic background of a blogger really was irrelevant to me but now that you have mentioned it I can see that someone whose ancesters may have come from this area could have a different view point from say, mine, for example.
I agree with Monique. While I’m ecstatic that the Gambia is hosting a press trip (most people have never heard of the place!), for the inaugural trip it would have been nice to see some more diversity. The UK is one of the most culturally diverse nations on the earth and I think that having bloggers of more varied ethnic backgrounds would have greatly benefitted the trip, at least in terms of the stories and perspectives that are generated and shared.
If the Gambia is hoping to increase awareness about tourism in their country within the UK, it would have made sense to engage a broader audience by inviting bloggers whose readership represent a wider range of British demographics (South Asians comprise a large amount of the British populace, for example, and I’m willing to wager that the bloggers on this trip primarily have large Caucasian audiences).
Also, perhaps selfishly, I find it disappointing that an inaugural trip to West Africa wouldn’t include even one Afro or Caribbean-descended participant — as you note, someone whose ancestors may have come from the area could have a very different perspective than someone with no connections or familiarity at all.
Again, this is just my two cents and some food for thought! I’d be happy to discuss this with you at greater length if you’re interested (I happen to be based in London).
Firstly, I would hate to think that people do (or indeed don’t) read my blog because of the colour of my skin. However, as someone who is an advocate of multi-cultural awareness, I can understand your sentiments.
Although I haven’t written about it yet, Terry and more significantly with respect to this conversation, Sarah from Live Share Travel (http://livesharetravel.com/), will be joining #BlogGambia next week. So there IS someone of Afro-Caribbean descent going to #BlogGambia. The only reason they didn’t go out with the first group is that they couldn’t make the original dates due to prior commitments.
As with all the bloggers, I’m really looking forward to following their journey and I hope you will too.
I’ve never come across your site before so I now have you on my radar! And if you know of any other UK based bloggers that you would like to recommend please do let me know.
Thanks for your reply! Strange as it may seem to you, many people from visible minority groups read the blogs of those who share their racial and cultural background (and by extension, skin colour). It is a reality. The girls who run the We Are Sole Sisters blog are prime examples of this; they are Filipino and they have a huge (huge!) Pinoy following.
What’s more, while my blog doesn’t focus on “black” travel, a large portion of my core readership is comprised of African-American and Afro-British females — many of whom read precisely because I am “like them” and my experiences, perspectives, and upbringing often closely mirror their own. I get lots of email from them asking what it’s like to travel as a black female, how I’m received in certain countries, and even mundane stuff like wear they can get their hair done or find makeup products for their skin tone while abroad. As such, this aspect of race and culture as it pertains to travel blogging with not negligible in the least. Representation is important.
All of this said, I’m definitely glad to hear that Sarah will be joining your next #BlogGambia trip! And I will continue to follow closely as I’ve know Monica, Jaillan, and Jayne personally and thoroughly enjoy their blogs.
Kathryn Burrington
on May 1, 2013 at 11:08 am
Hi again and no it doesn’t seem strange at all and I do wish I had considered this more fully. So I really do appreciate your comments. Again, if there is anyone else you can recommend from the UK please do let me know.
Monique
on April 26, 2013 at 2:07 pm
It looks like an amazing tour. Shame there isn’t more diversity among the bloggers going.
Nangadef? (I think that’s how you say it) How exciting! About 10 years ago while in graduate school, I travelled to the Gambia to conduct research with Medical Research International. I absolutely love this country! I can’t remember the name of it, but there was this great Indian restaurant behind the GRC. I miss Chicken Yassa and the mangos. I truly have wonderful memories of The Gambia. Congrats on landing such a great assignment!
There’s the Clay Oven down the side of the Medical Research Unit (off Atlantic Boulevard in between Fajara and Bakau)! That’s still there and still serving excellent Indian food.
There are so many great restaurants there serving almost every type of cuisine you can imagine!
And thank you. I feel very lucky and very excited!
What an exciting opportunity! I’m currently working on starting off my Spanish blog + getting more into photography. Hopefully, I’ll be able to score trips like this soon! Especially if they mix volunteering experiences 🙂
I would love to explore other parts of Africa, as I lived in North Africa for a year and a half (Egypt and Morocco) and absolutely fell in love with the continent. Can’t wait for all your stories from that trip to Gambia! 😀
I’m certain this will be a fantastic trip for all. I spent a summer in The Gambia years ago helping to build schoolhouses on a cross-cultural exchange program and have always wanted to return.
Wow, looks like a great group of bloggers you’ve assembled. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things you guys experience there! I hope to make it to Africa next year on my tour.
What an awesome trip! My dream is to someday be one of the bloggers you mentioned – “a ton of followers…and highly ranked”! The colours, the culture, the natural beauty – a great adventure! And the list of blogs looks great. I am adding them to my “must read” list. Thanks for all the wonderful information, Kat.
Hi Deirdre, Even very talented bloggers won’t get there without a lot of hard work and determination! For me, the first key to cracking it is how your bog looks. A great design and great photographs are really important to catch the viewers attention before they had off to another site. All the very best with your blogging. I’ll pop over to your site when I have a moment!
I am green with envy. One of my first trips as a writer was with the Gambia Experience and I fell in love with the country. Looking forward to reading all about the places I visited
Hi Ram, Thank you so much for organising this. I really can’t wait and I am looking forward to sharing our experiences with here and on The Gambia Blog. See you soon! Kathryn
Hi Liz, I’ve only ever been to countries in West Africa but I’m hoping to visit some other parts of Africa later in the year. I hope you get to visit Africa soon – The Gambia would be a great place to start!
The Gambia; A Press Trip to Western Africa - Mallory on TravelMallory On Travel - [...] Kathryn Burrington Twitter – @GambiaXperience Simon Falvo Twitter - @1step2theleft Jaillan Yehia Twitter – @SavoirThere Jayne Gorman Twitter –…
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This trip looks like it’s going to be fantastic Kat. I must admit I’m quite ignorant when it comes to Gambia, and can’t wait to see what you and the other bloggers experience on this trip.
Thanks Paul. It was fantastic! There a re lots of posts on here already about the trip and you can see everyones on Storify http://storify.com/TravelWithKat/blog-gambia-project
I’m actually going back next week for a friend’s wedding. Can’t wait!
Hi Kathryn, I just came across your site through LinkedIn. Very interesting to see how a press/blog trip is organised, thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to see how your trip went.
Thanks Jean. Great to hear you enjoyed it. I posted my first story from the trip yesterday and you might find it an interesting insight into how things can sometimes go wrong!
By diversity I mean bloggers of different races and ethnic backgrounds.
That would have been good. Do you know anyone from the UK that you could recommend please?
On a further note, it really hadn’t crossed my mind that everyone in this group was from the same ethnic background, apart from Jaillan whose father is Egyptian. Also there are more bloggers going later that are not mentioned here. The ethnic background of a blogger really was irrelevant to me but now that you have mentioned it I can see that someone whose ancesters may have come from this area could have a different view point from say, mine, for example.
I agree with Monique. While I’m ecstatic that the Gambia is hosting a press trip (most people have never heard of the place!), for the inaugural trip it would have been nice to see some more diversity. The UK is one of the most culturally diverse nations on the earth and I think that having bloggers of more varied ethnic backgrounds would have greatly benefitted the trip, at least in terms of the stories and perspectives that are generated and shared.
If the Gambia is hoping to increase awareness about tourism in their country within the UK, it would have made sense to engage a broader audience by inviting bloggers whose readership represent a wider range of British demographics (South Asians comprise a large amount of the British populace, for example, and I’m willing to wager that the bloggers on this trip primarily have large Caucasian audiences).
Also, perhaps selfishly, I find it disappointing that an inaugural trip to West Africa wouldn’t include even one Afro or Caribbean-descended participant — as you note, someone whose ancestors may have come from the area could have a very different perspective than someone with no connections or familiarity at all.
Again, this is just my two cents and some food for thought! I’d be happy to discuss this with you at greater length if you’re interested (I happen to be based in London).
Hi Oneika,
Thanks for joining the discussion!
Firstly, I would hate to think that people do (or indeed don’t) read my blog because of the colour of my skin. However, as someone who is an advocate of multi-cultural awareness, I can understand your sentiments.
Although I haven’t written about it yet, Terry and more significantly with respect to this conversation, Sarah from Live Share Travel (http://livesharetravel.com/), will be joining #BlogGambia next week. So there IS someone of Afro-Caribbean descent going to #BlogGambia. The only reason they didn’t go out with the first group is that they couldn’t make the original dates due to prior commitments.
As with all the bloggers, I’m really looking forward to following their journey and I hope you will too.
I’ve never come across your site before so I now have you on my radar! And if you know of any other UK based bloggers that you would like to recommend please do let me know.
all the best,
Kathryn
Hi Kat,
Thanks for your reply! Strange as it may seem to you, many people from visible minority groups read the blogs of those who share their racial and cultural background (and by extension, skin colour). It is a reality. The girls who run the We Are Sole Sisters blog are prime examples of this; they are Filipino and they have a huge (huge!) Pinoy following.
What’s more, while my blog doesn’t focus on “black” travel, a large portion of my core readership is comprised of African-American and Afro-British females — many of whom read precisely because I am “like them” and my experiences, perspectives, and upbringing often closely mirror their own. I get lots of email from them asking what it’s like to travel as a black female, how I’m received in certain countries, and even mundane stuff like wear they can get their hair done or find makeup products for their skin tone while abroad. As such, this aspect of race and culture as it pertains to travel blogging with not negligible in the least. Representation is important.
All of this said, I’m definitely glad to hear that Sarah will be joining your next #BlogGambia trip! And I will continue to follow closely as I’ve know Monica, Jaillan, and Jayne personally and thoroughly enjoy their blogs.
Hi again and no it doesn’t seem strange at all and I do wish I had considered this more fully. So I really do appreciate your comments. Again, if there is anyone else you can recommend from the UK please do let me know.
It looks like an amazing tour. Shame there isn’t more diversity among the bloggers going.
Arrived this evening. It’s been a very long day! By more diversity, do you mean in the types of blog or where the bloggers come from? Thanks, K
Nangadef? (I think that’s how you say it) How exciting! About 10 years ago while in graduate school, I travelled to the Gambia to conduct research with Medical Research International. I absolutely love this country! I can’t remember the name of it, but there was this great Indian restaurant behind the GRC. I miss Chicken Yassa and the mangos. I truly have wonderful memories of The Gambia. Congrats on landing such a great assignment!
There’s the Clay Oven down the side of the Medical Research Unit (off Atlantic Boulevard in between Fajara and Bakau)! That’s still there and still serving excellent Indian food.
There are so many great restaurants there serving almost every type of cuisine you can imagine!
And thank you. I feel very lucky and very excited!
Fantastic! Great to see press trips heading to the Motherland. 🙂 Looking forward to all the posts.
HI Lily, You can follow the #BlogGambia on Twitter and Instagram. I can’t wait to share this wonderful country with the other bloggers and all of you!
What an exciting opportunity! I’m currently working on starting off my Spanish blog + getting more into photography. Hopefully, I’ll be able to score trips like this soon! Especially if they mix volunteering experiences 🙂
I would love to explore other parts of Africa, as I lived in North Africa for a year and a half (Egypt and Morocco) and absolutely fell in love with the continent. Can’t wait for all your stories from that trip to Gambia! 😀
– Maria Alexandra
Good luck with your new blog and do send me a link when you are up and running!
I’m certain this will be a fantastic trip for all. I spent a summer in The Gambia years ago helping to build schoolhouses on a cross-cultural exchange program and have always wanted to return.
That must have been interesting, Greg, I do hope you get to go back one day soon! I bet you’ve some cracking photographs.
Wow, looks like a great group of bloggers you’ve assembled. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things you guys experience there! I hope to make it to Africa next year on my tour.
Thanks Adam, great to hear your be following along.
What a fantastic opportunity for you and the rest of the bloggers! Looking forward to reading more!
Hi Katherine, I do feel very lucky to be a part of this. Hopefully, if it goes well, it will be the first of many!
This looks fantastic! I can’t wait to read all about the Gambia and looking forward to photos, tweets and blog posts 🙂
Thanks Suzanne! I’m counting the days until we go 🙂
What an awesome trip! My dream is to someday be one of the bloggers you mentioned – “a ton of followers…and highly ranked”! The colours, the culture, the natural beauty – a great adventure! And the list of blogs looks great. I am adding them to my “must read” list. Thanks for all the wonderful information, Kat.
Hi Deirdre, Even very talented bloggers won’t get there without a lot of hard work and determination! For me, the first key to cracking it is how your bog looks. A great design and great photographs are really important to catch the viewers attention before they had off to another site. All the very best with your blogging. I’ll pop over to your site when I have a moment!
I am green with envy. One of my first trips as a writer was with the Gambia Experience and I fell in love with the country. Looking forward to reading all about the places I visited
HI Gordon, Sorry to make you so envious but I hope our posts will bring back some happy memories.
We are so excited about the news. Can’t wait to see you guys on the road :)Safe travels Kat and take us with you next time 🙂
Oh Agness, I’d LOVE to show you The Gambia! Who knows? One day maybe!?!
Hi Kathryn.. Looking forward to welcoming you and the rest of the bloggers.. To The Gambia, To Kanuma as well as the Vineyard… See you all soon. Ram
Hi Ram, Thank you so much for organising this. I really can’t wait and I am looking forward to sharing our experiences with here and on The Gambia Blog. See you soon! Kathryn
Wow this looks great! Cant wait to see what you all get up to over there – I’v never been to Africa, but it’s definitely on my To Do list!
Hi Liz, I’ve only ever been to countries in West Africa but I’m hoping to visit some other parts of Africa later in the year. I hope you get to visit Africa soon – The Gambia would be a great place to start!
Sounds like a great trip with a nice group of writers! We look forward to reading about your experiences…
Thanks guys. Great to hear you’ll be following along.
Juffure, Lamin Lodge, the Madiyana Bush Camp … fond memories; I hope I’m going to read about them!
Hi Keith, You’ll just have to follow and wait and see. There are so many wonderful places! 😉