COVID-19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting more than 200 countries across the globe, the tourism, aviation & hospitality industries have been massively hit. These industries are bleeding in an already challenging business scenario resulting in millions of people losing their jobs. There’s a segment of people like travel bloggers & influencers whose lives are solely dependent on travel and bear the brunt of this crisis. Being a travel blogger myself, it is one of the saddest phases when I’m not sure what future holds for our industry. Even if the COVID-19 cases decline, the recovery will still take at least 8-10 months.

Therefore, readout and know what some of the renowned travel bloggers across the globe are doing to keep their sanity alive and how their lives have been impacted due to COVID 19 pandemic.

Brian Cicioni of I May Roam

Brian is a travel writer & food/music tour guide from New York City, US. He has traveled to over 50 countries & contributed to platforms like Lonely planet, Matador Network, and USA Today. 

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Brian Cicioni

“For the first week or so, it was nice not having to catch a bus, plane, train, etc. I got back from Jakarta on March 12 and started my quarantine the following evening. I was getting writing assignments done in record time because I didn’t have to be anywhere. Then April 2 came, and I realized, ok, I’m supposed to be in Long Beach, California tomorrow. That wasn’t going to happen, and neither was my trip to Philadelphia the following week. By early April, all my writing assignments from Matador Network and USA Today were postponed. So, I started focusing more on my own blog. So, I’m currently working on the couple dozen posts I started over the past few years. 

My tour business in New York came to a screeching halt. I had tours lined up in New York the weekend after I got back from Jakarta, but my guests canceled while I was flying over the Pacific. As a traveler, you have to keep a positive mindset. Otherwise, you would just stay home like most other people do. With that said, my priorities during quarantine are to focus on my blog, my YouTube channel, and pitches for when the outlets I write for start accepting them again. 

Personally, I’m happy to say that I’ve started reading actual books again (as opposed to audio and e-books). Since I do a Ramones Walking Tour in New York, I’m currently reading I Slept with Joey Ramone and The Heebie-Jeebies and CBGB’s. I’m also reading Dominican Haven, which is about a Jewish refugee settlement in the Dominican Republic during World War II. I’m also learning to cook some of the dishes I’ve discovered during my many trips to Asia over the past 13 years. Gooay Teow Cuo Gai (Thai for “chicken with flat noodles”) is my favorite noodle dish, and I attempted it twice last week. Butter chicken is the next dish I plan to tackle. My friend, who took me to India for a wedding last year, will be showing me via video chat”—Brian Cicioni

Isabel Leong of Bel Around The World

Isabel is a digital nomad and full-time travel blogger from Singapore. She has been to 38 countries and 5 continents. She focuses more on an independent, adventure and experiential travel.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Isabel Leong

“As a full-time travel blogger, it is dismaying to say the least, the current situation we’re in now. I’ve taken this upon myself to use this downtime productively to work on areas of my blog that have been neglected. I’ve been fervently working with my VA (Virtual Assistants) to re-optimize my articles to make sure they’re SEO-friendly, guest posting on other sites, as well as work on my outreach. I’m also branching out into video – something I’ve put off forever because of the editing work and how camera-shy I am – to hopefully gain a new audience and to get myself out of my comfort zone and learn a new skill. Apart from that, I’m also taking this time to reach out to old contacts and re-establish connections, offering my help to fellow comrades also struggling, and taking this time read up more on self-help books (currently on the book The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris!)” — Isabel Leong

Shandos Cleaver of Travelnuity

Shandos is a travel blogger from Australia and travels with her cute dog Schnitzel. She has been to over 33 countries.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Shandos Cleaver

“In a way, I’ve been lucky with the timing of the COVID 19 pandemic. Originally, my partner and I were planning on heading off overseas again on a long-term trip, spending most of the year in Mexico, the USA and Canada, before possibly continuing on to Europe.  And we’d planned to take along our Miniature Dachshund, Schnitzel, sharing more stories and information about traveling with him internationally. However, late last year we had a sudden change of plan. After finding out our family was expecting not one but two babies in the early months of the year, we decided to postpone our plans by up to a year, and spend additional time with family. So, when the coronavirus quickly changed from being mainly a Chinese issue to a global pandemic leading to worldwide lockdowns, luckily we were at home in Sydney, Australia, rather than living it up somewhere in Mexico.

The hardest part about traveling with our dog is returning home with him to Australia. Just like many humans are now experiencing for the first time, it’s actually standard for all dogs flying to Australia to go into quarantine. Not to mention the testing and paperwork required in advance, turning the preparation into at least a five-week process. It would have been nearly impossible to get him onto one of the fast evaporating flights back to Australia.

Being in lockdown now is not dissimilar to our normal life when not traveling. I’m used to working on my laptop, writing blog posts, researching and spending time on social media. But just like all travel bloggers, my traffic has taken a big hit, which makes it hard to stay motivated. What’s the point of writing new posts when hardly anyone is reading travel blogs? How can you update old posts when so much is up-in-the-air? Instead, I’ve taken the opportunity to spend more time on social media, re-connecting with my regular readers. Looked into what blog posts still get traffic, re-sharing old posts and writing new posts on similar topics. I’ve taken inspiration from my dog Schnitzel, who is still as relaxed as ever, happy to sleep all day in a patch of sunshine. I’m focusing more on domestic destinations for my readers, and am looking forward to traveling domestically myself (along with Schnitzel) once the lockdown eases” — Shandos Cleaver

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Shandos Cleaver

Nicole Anderson of Adventuresome Nicole

Nicole is a travel agent and blogger from Colorado, US. Apart from satisfying her own wanderlust, she is pro in planning the ultimate dream vacations for her clients.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Nicole Anderson

“For me, it’s hard to stay positive. My side hustle is a travel blogger and Instagrammer. But my day job is as a travel agent. I’m used to planning people’s vacations and to me I love doing it because I get to look at all of the places I want to visit and get that inspiration of wanderlust every day. Now I’m forced to sit on hold for 5 hours a day or more with vendors and airlines to figure out the best move for my clients who need to cancel and rebook their vacations.  

It’s definitely hard to get up and do it every day and explain to my clients why they can’t do what they want. But that’s my job. Knowing that I get to take some of the stress away from my clients and knowing that they appreciate what I can do for them, makes it better. And even though it’s hard to focus on that sometimes, it makes it better.  But I think the most amazing thing is that so many people are still dreaming of travel and are still inspired by it even though we don’t know when travel we be back up! As travel influencers, it’s our job to keep the optimism up to let people know that we will travel again soon and that it’ll be better than ever!  I love posting my own photos and my own experiences to inspire people and keep people’s hopes up. It’s been amazing to see people’s responses and to just have them say that they can’t wait to travel again after all of this.  I can definitely see that this experience of social-distancing, quarantining, and staying at home has made people appreciate the little things and the fact that they have been able to travel in the past and that they’ve had that amazing privilegeIt’s hard to know that it had to come to this for all of us to realize that it’s been a privilege to see new places and be able to travel when many aren’t able to, but to know that it will be more appreciated in the future gives me so much inspiration and motivation to still get up every day, share my adventures, and hope for so much more” — Nicole Anderson

Jitaditya Narzary of The Travelling Slacker

Jitaditya has been a travel blogger since 2011. He has been to most parts of India but he prefers to focus on Indian Himalayas and Northeast India. He mostly travels solo, uses public transport, and prefers hinterlands over hotspots.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Jitaditya Narzary

“I am trying to keep myself busy like everyone else by focusing on work. Thankfully, I still have enough things to do. Small freelance assignments, updating old posts, few pending things from past tours, and some other projects are keeping me occupied. Nevertheless, I think it is also important to relax and not overwork to compensate for the losses. That is why I am also going back to some of the old hobbies that I used to indulge in before I started serious traveling. I am watching more films, reading vintage travel accounts, and making quizzes.

Also, what I have realized is that it is more important to maintain a positive outlook. The initial few days were more difficult and I found myself checking news all the time. So, I have cut down news consumption (all of them are discussing the same, repetitive stuff anyway). I have even temporarily snoozed many profiles on social media who were doing nothing but fearmongering. So, I am a bit more productive now” — Jitaditya Narzary

Sabrina Barbante of In My Suitcase

Sabrina is a digital nomad, travel blogger and multi-language copy writer from Italy.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Sabrina Barbante

“As a professional travel blogger, staying motivated in this period is challenging indeed. It’s not just because the blog views are decreasing, thus resulting in job issues. And it’s not even the impossibility or at least great difficulty in planning the next trips and projects that makes it harder. What makes me sad is actually the demotivation I see and read around me, in people, when it comes to planning their future discoveries and travel experiences. So I’ve found a way to keep my spirit high, in motivating other travelers, writing texts and producing formats that can push people to hold on hope, personal affections, daily life, recharging their batteries and re-thinking about their selves and their attitudes towards life and as travelers. 

I think COVID-19 pandemic is, like all great crises, also a good opportunity to become better people and, most of all, best travelers. We must all think about how much every single person is connected to humankind and to the world; in these weeks we can learn, now more than in any other time of our lives and history, that there is nothing that will ever be far enough from us not to be our business. If a disease happens in China, it becomes our business too. If a fire destroys kilometers of wood on the other part of the world, this will also affect our atmosphere, quality of life as well as our lives. The social and human history of every single country is, somehow, connected to us and all travelers must be aware of it, and be interested in all local aspects of the place they visit.  At the same time, as soon as we are able to travel again, I encourage my readers and my fellow citizens to discover the areas that are close to them.  I’m inviting Italians (I live in southern Italy) to travel around Italy with a different perspective, searching for a different point of view. I invite Italians to give a chance to the smallest and less known destinations, to rely on tour operators that have travel sustainability in their mission, to explore the sea and the woods with expert environmental guides, to join camps with tourism and geopolitical aims, such as civil struggle against mafia, illegal hunting, illegal industrial wastes. If the pandemic taught us that nothing is never too far, the post-pandemic can teach us that no place is too close to give us big surprises. As soon as possible, I’ll start traveling with caution, care and respect for laws and regulations, in southern Italy, and I’m currently figuring out on foot and bike itineraries. A trip is, in the end, a connection between the self and the world around” — Sabrina Barbante

Barbara Weibel of Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel Blog

Barbara is a solo traveler, an expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand from the US, and she has traveled over 100 countries and covered all the 7 continents across the globe.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
Image Source: Barbara Weibel

“Last December I achieved my lifelong goal of visiting my seventh continent (Antarctica) and 100 countries. Strange to think it’s only been four months since then; it seems like such a long time ago. How our world has changed! Had the COVID-19 pandemic not occurred I would be happily roaming around Spain at this moment. Instead, I’m sitting in my apartment in Chiang Mai, Thailand, fighting restlessness and boredom. My feet are growing ever itchier. Yet, if I have to be stuck at home, I can’t think of a better place to be. I love Thai culture, have wonderful friends here, and my favorite restaurants are still delivering delicious Thai food to me. I look forward to the day when I can travel again and am preparing my wish list: Canada, Bhutan, Nepal, and Namibia top my list and I’m hoping I can make my annual visit to Pokhara, Nepal this year. It’s only a matter of time till I hit the road again” — Barbara Weibel

Ana Ojha (Me) from Ana’s World

About Me – Read here.

COVID 19 Pandemic | How travel bloggers lives are impacted?
©Ana’s World

When I heard about the Wuhan outbreak, I was on my trip to Goa and never thought that it will impact the rest of the world. I came to India last October on an assignment to explore various states in India and other parts of South East Asia in 2020. However, with this COVID-19 pandemic, some of my projects are put on hold and I’m not sure how long it will take us to move forward in the post-corona world!

I also had to postpone my long-awaited trip to Sri Lanka earlier this month. From blogging and creating the travel-related content perspective, I’ve stopped promoting luxury getaways from my past trips on social media as I guess, this is not the right time to promote luxury when millions of people have already lost their jobs. All my Instagram paid campaigns for this month are either canceled or have been postponed. I’ve also seen a decline in my blog’s traffic.

With over 4 weeks of India lockdown as of now, I’m trying to keep myself positive and occupied. I’ve been working on a few writing assignments plus a part of the team making travel apps unlocking various destinations in India & Asia. I’m also loving my time working from home along with my husband as we hardly used to get enough time staying together. I’m also spending my time catching up with family and old friends through virtual Zoom parties every week. In my free time, I’m watching some of my favorite travel shows on Netflix and satisfying my wanderlust.

As no one can predict how long it will take when we will be in the post corona world, we all can dream of a day to come soon when we will start traveling again!

Till then, stay home & safe!


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33 Comments

    1. Well, as a travel blogger myself, I have slightly changed the focus. I am more focused on travel photography and expat life, rather than international travel. Not sure what destinations would look like when the virus is away.

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    1. I loved reading your post as travel industry is hard hit during this Covid 19 pandemic. I agree what travel bloggers are going through. I agree during this time, travel bloggers can utilise their time to create more writeup and reading material to their followers. I also agree with you Ana that promoting luxury this time sounds very inhumane as many have face severe job loss and we as a humane cannot selfishly promote luxury to them. I loved reading all views from very different perspectives.

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    1. I am so glad that you shared these views – makes me feel better that I am not the only one. I too, am keeping positive by staying focused on work – plenty to do as Jitaditya says. No point mulling over what can’t be. Best to look forward and hope for good days

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