Travel blogging is nothing strange to young people who love traversing places and sharing their experiences with the community.
But it requires more than just enjoyment for those who consider it a job, some popular Vietnamese travel bloggers tell Tuoi Tre News.
Quit job and start ‘wandering’
After three years working as an engineer, Dinh Vo Hoai Phuong realized that doing a job with “repeated numbers and rough standards” would only tire him.
He eventually made up his mind that this kind of occupation was not for him.
After quitting his job as an engineer, the young man from the southern province of Ben Tre founded a YouTube channel called Khoai Lang Thang / Food and Travel, where he shares videos capturing his food adventures in and outside the country.
Phuong has so far attracted 380,500 subscribers to his channel, along with nearly 239,000 followers on his Facebook page Khoai Lang Thang.
Most of his YouTube videos reached thousands of views each, including one featuring his experiences with the southern region’s rare specialties, which garnered more than 2.1 million views.
Using a rustic way of narration, Phuong led his viewers through his experience of tasting different mouth-watering foods at a variety of places he passed by.
Meanwhile, Pham Quang Tuan, founder of the travel blog cuongchan.com, also quit his full-time job twice to become a freelancer and concentrate on his trips as well as private travel projects.
Currently, Tuan works in digital media, and is willing to start a new trip whenever he has spare time.
Visiting Tuan’s blog, readers can easily find plenty of information about travel tips, visa application, hotel booking and more.
The man, from the central province of Quang Tri, also cherry-picked interesting destinations and activities from his trips for readers’ reference.
Another ‘wanderer,’ Tran Viet Anh, founded his blog dulichbui24.com several years ago, with a simple goal of making it a place where he can share his experiences and make friends with people of similar interests.
As Anh started to receive his first advertising contracts, he realized this could be a way to afford his travel.
The longer he travels, the more burning his desire of pursuing this job grows.
Up to now, the young man from the northern city of Hai Phong has considered traveling and blogging his full-time job.
He cooperates with tour operators and accommodation companies to offer reviews on their services, a job from which he earns enough to afford his life and travel.
Not just a bed of roses
As their life looks full of freedom, travel bloggers have become role models that many people, especially the young, dream of.
However, experienced travel bloggers said there is no bed of roses.
According to Viet Anh, challenges are always part of his journey to pursue the job he loves.
Besides difficulties that arose during the trips, Anh also faced financial problems for a short time when he switched from his ordinary job to following travel blogging.
He also had to convince his family to support the path he has chosen.
“I think people should not have a one-sided view on the benefit of working as a travel blogger,” Anh told Tuoi Tre News.
“We should see them as those who are pursuing the job they love, and that job could be cooking, baking, writing or others.”
Sharing his view, Pham Quang Tuan said all the beautiful things people see on his website, the inspiring pieces of writing, great photos or high-quality videos of his trips, did not come out of thin air.
“These pieces of content require a painstaking working process with many different steps,” Tuan said, giving out a general description of his job.
Phuong also said there is no road full of roses, and travel blogging is no exception.
“Beside luggage, we’d better well-equip ourselves with knowledge and health before every trip we make,” Phuong added.
A female representative of the Vietnamese travel blogging community, Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, popularly known as Rosie Nguyen, said travel blogging has recently drawn much attention of young people but not everyone has a proper understanding of the job.
Rosie Nguyen is the author of the renowned backpacking travel guidebook “Ta Balo Tren Dat A,” or “Backpacking in Asia,” and has ten years of experience in traveling and blogging.
However, she does not consider it her job as she does not earn a living from it.
“People often only see the benefits of this job, like we have chances to travel a lot while having free meals and staying at luxury places,” she said.
“There’s no denying that this job brings us those privileges which are not easy to get, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.
According to her, this job at the same time requires responsibility along with pressure, not only from clients but also from the public.
“Pressure from the public is terrible,” she insisted.
“For instance, if you post something which is not ‘correct,’ in other people’s experience, you’ll be criticized,” she added.
“It’s not rare for bloggers who are not good at managing their words or photos to be boycotted.”
According to a report on Tuoi Tre News
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