Being a Travel Blogger in Times of COVID-19, Part II

In last week’s blog post, we talked to travel bloggers to see how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their professional lifestyle. As they literally travel for a living and cannot or are super limited in travel at the moment, we were curious to learn how they are handling the situation, and if they have come up with alternative content or business plans in these unpredictable times. In part two this week, we caught up with a few more travel bloggers.

Pilot Luana

Luana and her boyfriend Fred, two former pilots, are known as Pilotluana on Instagram. By now, they have gotten quite used to the craziness. “Of course, at first it was a shock. But then we realized that we needed to put ourselves together and find our way through it. We do our best to stay safe, always using masks and hand sanitizer. It’s really sad to see all these businesses closing doors and many people getting laid off. Challenging times we are living in.”

They are still traveling, but mostly focusing on travel within Europe and Portugal, which has been their home base since September 2020. As Portugal is currently under a month-long lockdown, they just did a PCR test to be able to travel to Brazil where parts of their families live. After Brazil, Luana and Fred have already booked a trip to the Maldives, and afterwards they are planning on visiting South Africa. “They state: “Flying nowadays is really secure due to all precautions the airlines are asking for.”

As far as content production is concerned, they also had to get creative, as regular travel updates had to be paused for a while. They kept themselves busy at home and started to share their ‘daily home routine’ with their followers. They did home workouts, cooked a lot, shared healthy recipes, and found their new favorite photo spot on their private balcony. Luana and Fred conclude: “You can still get creative even when you are not travelling. We hope all this comes to an end really soon and people get back to their normal life. We pray for a better year for everyone!”

SALTYLUXE

Sez and Chesh from SALTYLUXE are also keeping their spirits high and are doing the best they can to stay optimistic. “Being unable to travel has been challenging for sure, but we feel privileged to be safe and well when so many others are suffering.’’

As they usually travel around 90% of the time, they had to adapt and make the best out of their situation. Making good use of the time spent at home, they worked on expanding their technical skills on upping their game in videography and photography. Sez and Chesh also got creative in trying out new sorts of content such as Reels, and they put work into their sustainable brand SALTYLUXE, where they offer swimwear as well as art and electronic products like presets and photo filters.

Since they have both been ‘grounded’ for almost a year, they’ve done very little travel ­– just two local trips in Australia, where they are based. Right now, they are on their first international trip since the pandemic began. “This week we’re actually returning to the Maldives to finish jobs we were working on when COVID first broke out! We’re traveling for three months and had to get a travel exemption from the Australian government.”

Concluding, Sez and Chesh state that working on their brand SALTYLUXE is what kept them sane during those crazy times. “It’s our baby and has helped us through this hard time. We’re so grateful to our community for continuing to support us.”

Globusliebe

Julia from Globusliebe is a travel blogger based in Germany, and the pandemic has definitely taken a toll on her as well – the last year was like a rollercoaster. When COVID-19 first broke out, all her collaborations for the year were canceled, and from one day to the next she was left with no income at all. However, when the lockdown ended in May and some travel bans were lifted, the tide started to turn. Her work was suddenly in high demand again, and she registered solid bookings all summer.  “I was very happy to finally be able to travel and earn money again and had to cancel more jobs than ever before, because I couldn’t handle the workload in terms of time.’’

However, as Germany and most places in Europe are currently back under lockdown, her upcoming projects have been canceled again. Julia is still grateful though: “There is nothing we can do but wait and hope that the infection figures will eventually decrease. Slowly, I am starting to really get annoyed by all of this, but I say that with caution because I am aware that despite everything I am in a very privileged situation. I have a roof over my head, a beautiful and safe home, and enough to eat.”

Currently, Julia is not traveling anywhere. Although business trips would theoretically be allowed, she decided to stay home this time out of respect for others. “I am aware that we can only get a grip on this pandemic if we stick together as a community, if everyone abides by the rules, and if we limit ourselves for a certain period of time. I don’t have any private travel plans for 2021, but I do have some professional ones maybe later on. Which production trips will take place is uncertain at this point though.”

Julia has also shifted her content focus for the time being and focuses more on other aspects of her account. Since it’s not exclusively about travel but also about sustainability, mindfulness, and capturing everyday moments, she produces her content outside in nature or at home. She concludes: “At the moment, there are simply fewer travel tips. Everything else has remained.”

We hope your wanderlust has not gotten too bad while probably reminiscing about your last trips. As we mentioned in last week’s post, we are keeping our fingers crossed that all travel maniacs and travel-savvy folks are soon able to do again what they love most!

Featured image: (c) Pilotluana