Here & There | April 17, 2020
Well, mostly just *here* for now.
Here & There? is a weekly-ish email from Kyle Frost about travel, the outdoors, and other stuff. If you enjoy this issue, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).
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Virtual Tourism
Seemingly overnight, “virtual tourism” has become a buzz-word in the travel industry. With everyone at home, destinations and travel brands are looking for ways to keep people engaged.
Airbnb launched online experiences, quickly pivoting some of their Experiences products to be available via live streams.
A 5,000 year old Egyptian tomb is open for virtual tours, thanks to Harvard and the 3D mapping technology Matterport.
Take an interactive look at Machu Picchu, complete with an audio tour. Or, if you’re looking for something more zen, maybe this livecam overlooking Katmai National Park.
You've probably seen pictures of the Faroe Islands — incredible wild landscapes, waterfalls tumbling off cliffs directly into the sea, and magical "floating" lakes. This week they launched “Remote Tourism”, where you can "control" a local resident via the website, using a gamepad to move the person forward and back, left and right, and even "jump".
Short Term Rentals
I know I mentioned the perils of the hospitality industry in a previous letter, but it’s looking particularly bad. As it’s own segment, short-term-rentals are in a precarious position.
Many local governments have banned short-term rentals completely right now. Short-term rentals have been banned across the entire states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Delaware, Maine and Vermont, as well as a few other municipalities.
Places like Lake Tahoe have had to manage incoming visitors seeking to ‘escape’ the city by renting a cabin. They’re in a complicated position, as over half the homes in the Tahoe basin are second homes.
Skift estimates that global traffic to short-term rental sites (Airbnb, VRBO, TripAdvisor, etc) could be down as much as 70%. This comes after a long period of growth in the sector as incumbents and boutique options tried to compete with Airbnb.
Ok, fun stuff.
Gotta share other stuff.
REI is having an ‘Inside Outside’ sale. Might as well find some new gear for summer!
I’m working on re-jiggering anotherpuffyjacket.com to be a simple site for freelance creators and small businesses to share their covid stories and for others to find ways to help. I haven’t officially ‘re-launched’ it yet so it’s pretty vacant at the moment. Feel free to add yourself or share.
@erinoutdoors has been sharing some super creative scenes on her instagram — creating landscapes with random items from around the house and a few minifigures.
Cody Townsend’s latest video is skiing the Sickle in Idaho with his wife. She’s also one of the best skiers out there, but she’s never done much mountaineering. It’s a fun watch.
And I’ll leave you with this animal sanctuary that is letting people pay to get llamas, goats, and other farm animals to tune into their Zoom calls.
Stay safe, stay healthy. As always, feel free to reach out with ideas, feedback, or stuff you think I should talk about via email, Instagram, or Twitter.
If you liked this, it’d mean a lot to me if you’d share it with someone else you think might like it. Forward it to a friend!
Cheers,
Kyle