G&T: Grabbing the tourism industry's eye with authentic travel content

Go & Travel directors from left: Dale Barrow, Sam Bradley, Duane Stacey

What is the G&T Hub?

The G&T hub is central to what we as a business would like to achieve. It is a place where the different role players within the travel industry can come together in the best collaborative manner we can envisage for the industry.

Readers, content producers, media publications, tourism boards and tour operators all benefit from this new form of collaboration in a way the industry has not seen before. Content producers (writers, photographers, and videographers) can display their work so that clients (media publications) can view it and make an adequate judgment on whether this contributor would be suitable to work with them on a required project. In the same way, those looking for exposure (tourism boards, tour operators, activity operators) can approach this hub and select where they would like to advertise and who they would like to do the work for them.

Tell us about Go & Travel magazine

We like to think of our quarterly magazine and weekly travel stories as the front door to our business, a place where different role players in the travel industry may be invited in to see what more we can offer them. So, whilst this area is a small part of what we actually do it does allow people to engage with us, view the quality content we produce and understand the way in which we want to turn the travel industry on its head. Weekly articles are released each Friday and a quarterly magazine is emailed to our subscribers in March, June, September, and December.

What are some of the brands you partner with and why?

It’s crucial to us that we only partner with brands that we believe in, as the trust our clients and audience place in us is critically important. For this reason, our contributors will always provide an honest assessment of their experience.

We recently did a very successful partnership with tourism boards in France and Switzerland, where three of our contributors did a ski trip and produced a range of videos and articles of their highlights. Their content was aimed at the South African and United Kingdom travel markets, and so far the results have been great.

Finding the freshest lines ⛷• • • �� @lox95 #ski #powder #goandtravel #goandtravelmag #schilthorn #switzerland #sunski #shadows #hike #skier #travel #explore #europe #topoftheworld #007 #bond #sunrays #winter #mountains #mountain #snow #adventure #pizgloria #high #sunlight #crampons #blueskies #cloudless

A post shared by G&T (@goandtravelmag) on Mar 1, 2017 at 7:44am PST

What kind of content do you feature?

So long as its travel related, anything and everything! In our short history so far we’ve had stories from people as diverse as professional big wave surfers to unicycle riders. We’ve featured content from all corners of the globe, and our contributors create stories in many formats - videos, articles, images, etc.

This has been something our clients have appreciated, as we are all aware that content needs to be fresh, unique, exciting and inspiring to engage with audiences.

Who reads G&T?

G&T started in South Africa and is still the home of our largest audience, but we are quickly picking up a decent following in Europe and America. We haven’t focused too much on just getting followers, but rather on gaining an engaged and responsive audience: we’ve done this by being as interactive as possible (competitions, feedback, etc.), as unique as possible (only high quality, original content) and as accessible as possible (we have dedicated employees interacting on each of the major social media channels).

Are any of the major travel publications making use of your services?

Yes, many of our media partners are based in South Africa and the United Kingdom as we seek to grow these areas first. These partners range from online publications to hard copy magazines and large newspaper houses. As our list of clients begins to grow, so the exposure for each story grows and each role player in the industry begins to benefit.

What is G&T’s content principles?

The art of storytelling is an age old tradition. A well-told story activates parts of the brain that allows the listener to turn the story into their own ideas and experiences. Each of our stories ends with a “know before you go” section which we hope might inspire readers to take action and plan their next trip. We want to make the travel industry as transparent as we can and promote brands we really believe in. This, in turn, has led large newspaper houses and popular travel magazines to buy and use our content as they have been exposed to the authenticity of each article.

Our social media channels cover a wide variety of services that we offer and are a great avenue for people to experience the magic of G&T. We have had some contributors send in photos and videos of themselves enjoying a G&T (drink) in some crazy parts of the world, we hope this inspiration will be enough to grab the eye of each and every role player in the travel industry and inspire a change that will benefit everyone.