An Englishman has flitted his way around the world, flying top airlines and rubbing shoulders with scintillating people, for practically nothing. He used the social media phenomenon Twitter to obtain free travel from fellow users.
The man, Paul Smith, has written a book about his journey called Twitchhike. Smith came up with his scheme “while suffering post-holiday blues after spending his honeymoon in New York”, according to British media. He set his sights on reaching Campbell Island, about 320 km off New Zealand’s coast, within 30 days.
Social media provided the means to achieve it, but Smith first had to decide what to call himself. Would he become the world’s first Globe Twitterer? Or Globe Tweeter? Or Twit Tripper? In the end, he settled on the term Twitchhiker and proclaimed his plan via Twitter about a month before his projected departure. At first, Smith’s grand world travel scheme aroused little interest. His big breakthrough came when high-profile actor and TV personality Stephen Fry, an avid Twitter devotee, learned of Smith’s plan and sent a flurry of tweets to his vast army of Twitter followers.
After the call by arch-tweeter Fry, twitching twitterers deluged Smith with tweets and freebies. They offered him everything from a one-way flight from Frankfurt to New York (a donation of frequent flyer points from a tweeter called Owen) to a ferry ticket from Newcastle to Amsterdam. Smith enjoyed free stays in the US and then, reportedly, a free flight from LA to Auckland courtesy of Air New Zealand. Not only that, Smith also managed to arrange for the Good Morning America television breakfast show to interview him – and in Hollywood he didn’t forget to party with actresses Liv Tyler, Eva Mendes and Jessica Alba.
Smith’s amazing odyssey underscores the awesome power of social media. It also testifies to the importance of being first. Subsequent twitchhikers will lack novelty value. Air New Zealand is hardly likely to dish out free flights to travellers simply because they use Twitter.
In the 1960s (long before the adoption of social media, mobile phones, the internet and even fax machines) a band of intrepid explorers journeyed all the way from Britain to Australia in a London taxi. They wore British-style bowler hats and braces, proclaimed themselves “British goodwill ambassadors” (or something similar) and were greeted, feted and given free food and petrol all the way through Asia and Southeast Asia. Once again, it worked only for the first couple of buses.
Even so, the effect of social media on travel shouldn’t be underestimated. People in the developed world now spend more time consuming media than they spend sleeping, according to one study.
A recent survey of over 1000 Australians by online travel agent Expedia.com.au has found that 53 percent of Gen Y Australians (people born during the 1980s and early 1990s) update their Facebook or Twitter status when on holiday. A further eight percent keep their Facebook friends updated with their holiday news at least once a day.
Marketing manager at Expedia.com.au, Louise Crompton, comments: “It is fascinating to see how many Australians enjoy keeping their friends up to date with their holiday news, when traditionally a holiday was seen as an opportunity to take a break from our busy work and social lives.” Indeed. But what better than social media to fill those empty minutes at the airport as you twitchhike your way round the world for free?
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| Words: Peter Needham |
Originally published in Vacations & Travel Magazine August 2010
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