Online and On the Road: Redefining Leisure Travel in the Age of Mobile Media Technologies

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On-line and On the RoadRedefining Leisure
Travel in the Age of Mobile Media Technologies
Photo by Kinga http//www.geocities.com/kingachopi
n/main_eng.html

• Jennie Germann Molz
• Department of Sociology
• jennie_at_globalivity.com

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Round-the-world websites and round-the-world
travellers

• 200 round-the-world websites surveyed
• 15 interviews with web authors 40
  round-the-world websites studied in depth
• 80 travellers
• 45 male/35 female
• aged 7 - 60 (most mid-30s)
• most from US, Australia, Canada, UK, Europe

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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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www.geocities.com/big_trip_2000 accessed 13 April
2004
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www. wired2theworld.com accessed 13 April 2004
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www.2goglobal.com accessed 13 April 2004
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I can be where I want, when I want, even
if Im not.
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Interactive travel and mobile social relations

• Internet cafés and websites
• Collective travel
• Constant presence
• Redefining travel
• Conclusion

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Internet Cafés and Websites
Photo by www.blazingatrail.com
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www.e-lopers.com accessed 13 April 2004
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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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Collective Travel

• Mariesworldtour.com is a live, online virtual
  trip in progress, following
• traveler Marie as she travels around the world
  in 2001 without using
• any airplanes! Interact with Marie (and each
  other) through this website,
• and give her advice as she goes. Interact with
  Marie
• Sign up here to get regular Marie-mail
  dispatches delivered to your e- mail. If you
  don't want to sign up, you can still read the
  dispatches on the site.
• Go to the message board to vote on Marie's
  route and tell her what to do when she
  encounters difficulties around the world. Advise
  her on what to order in restaurants in
  Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Post important medical
  advice for snakebites and malaria!
• Bring home a souvenir from your virtual trip!
• (www.mariesworldtour.com accessed 14 February
  2002)

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www.mariesworldtour.com accessed 13 April 2004
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I think doing the website also kind of
encouraged us to do things that we might not
have done. For example, the balloon trip that we
did while we were in Turkey that was really
expensive, but in the backs of our minds we were
thinking ... would our readers want us to do
this? Yes, they would. So a lot of the things
that we did I think were influenced by
the fact that were not just
travelling for ourselves, were
doing it for the readers out there.
(Hilary, interview
extract 12 July 2002)
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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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Constant Presence
We are Geoff and Lauren, and we quit our jobs,
sold the house, ... and disappeared without a
trace Well, actually, not really, we did quit
our jobs and we did sell the house, and have left
to travel But as you can see from this web
site, we haven't exactly disappeared off of the
face of the earth. (www. http//www.madriver.com
/users/rtw2vt/travelers/travelers.html accessed
19 July 2001, my emphasis)
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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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www.watchuswander.com accessed 13 April 2004
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Redefining Leisure Travel
What does it mean to travel away from home?
Photo by Séan www.gonewalkabout.com/got/got.htm
Interactive travellers are nomads who are
always in touch (Benedikt 1992 10).
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Conclusion

• Directions for future research
• new kinds of on-line texts (travel blogs)
• new kinds of connected spatiality (hot spots,
  wi-fi, wiMax, etc.)
• implications for mobile methodologies