Has the Pandemic Killed the Freebie Trip for Travel Influencers?
Skift Take
The comped influencer trip has long been a divisive idea in the travel industry, but in the context of the pandemic, some are asking if it should exist at all.
It's not uncommon to hear people in the travel industry criticize influencer freebies. The idea of online content creators asking for free or compensated stays in destinations or at hotels in exchange for posting content from that place has become a commonplace, if uncomfortable, phenomenon in the past half decade. But the last person you might expect to hear a critique from is a blogger herself.
Ana Silva O'Reilly, who has run the travel blog Mrs. O Around the World since 2011, is calling on her peers to temporarily give it a rest. In a blog post earlier this summer, she launched the #PayingOurWay campaign, calling on travel-focused bloggers and influencers to help the travel industry recover by not asking for free or comped trips.
"When travel does reopen and it is safe for us to travel again, I am encouraging bloggers and influencers — who have benefited from many press trips, freebies and support in the past — to help out the industry by booking their own hotel stay, holiday, city tour," she wrote. "If you love it, then creating content about the experience free of charge, without asking for any compensation or freebies."
Silva O'Reilly's campaign touches on a divisive issue in the travel industry: Is it worth offering free trips to influencers, bloggers, and other travel writers when the return o
