Traveling is one of the most popular industries to occupy on YouTube. This makes the competition for newcomers tougher, as well as the current state of world tourism due to the pandemic of COVID-19. But there are still opportunities for squeezing in your content. The potential for traveling niche is actually endless. But for better inspiration, we have gathered the top 10 popular travel channels that have many YouTube views with high retention. We highly recommended looking through that content to get fresh ideas to your head and achieve some useful insights on traveling blogs.
1. Fun For Louis
This British guy is well known across YouTube. Louis is an experienced traveler who has visited many places and seen practically everything. But the main feature that characterizes his success on the platform and many video plays is the fact that Louis has tasted different weird local food, without sorting out is it dead or alive, and without minding how gross it can be.
His motto is living the adventure, while you are tripping, and Louis is demonstrating this philosophy as he goes. He provides high-quality content, and tries new formats like 360-degree videos, and so on. Fans also love him for consistency – Louis is posting videos daily.
2. Ben Brown
This channel is a huge inspiration for cinematography enthusiasts. Ben Brown often films his travels from his own perspective, and the goal of each video is to take your breath away with the beauty of the world around us. Also, Ben shares with his viewers a more dynamic experience. He goes skiing, hiking, riding a bike, and magically takes viewers with him. He started his channel in 2006, so it is rightful to say that he is one of the oldest influencers in the niche of tourism, hence, you will have a lot to learn from his channel’s growth history, and as he uploads videos every day, there is much to gather and bring him more high-retention views.
3. Vagabrothers
These guys are attracting the attention of the audience with their wit and cultural content. In their channel, two charming hosts are showing a funny and adventurous side of traveling, and historical and cultural points of interest that can educate you and widen your mind, as well.
Vagabrothers are often collaborating with other YouTubers as they have a lot of video views. They film their videos using drones and action cams, so the content looks dynamic and personalized. So, join their trips each Tuesday on YouTube.
4. Hey Nadine
This girl is considered the number one female traveler who is also a blogger on YouTube. Nadine Sycora definitely knows what she is doing. Her travels are intertwined with local fashion, entertainment, and food. As Nadine visits the destination, she explores it thoroughly, discovering the lifestyle of its dwellers. She also provides useful content for people who also want to travel and shares her experience good enough for other bloggers to learn from it. See Nadine revealing her lifestyle and travels twice a week.
5. Migrationology
One of the original channels that receive a lot of views and concentrates on one of the most popular aspects of traveling – food. His videos embrace the power of foodie content that makes you drool. The author of this channel, Mark Weins, travels to discover the iconic dishes of every location he comes by.
Also, Mark explores local culture and its connection with the food industry. His high-retention viewers will also find tons of useful information about traveling and organizing, so Migrationology is a goldmine for people who want to see the world. Mark shares his content on Wednesdays and Sundays.
6. Woltersworld
This channel has an impeccable feature beloved by tons of people. “ Loves & Hates travel guy” depicts authentic features of each city that will impress travelers in different ways. The authors tell the story of each destination as is, so their viewers get a real opinion about each location. Honesty is why users love this channel, hence increasing their popularity progressively. Watch Woltersworld to understand how to be ready for traveling to many places – each Saturday and Wednesday on YouTube.
7. Hopscotch The World
Another remarkable channel to see and find ideas from. The author of the channel is a young girl named Kristin Sarah. She combines informative travel content with her original comedy sketches and talented acting, creating lightweight videos that will amuse you and encourage travel as she and her husband. Kristin doesn’t limit her creative potential with solely traveling. She dilutes her channel content with recipes inspired by different national cuisines, cultural parodies and sketches, and vlogging. Kristins videos are an example of good travel content that is served from a different angle and shot with an impressive touch of the author’s personality. Kristin reveals new content every week and deserves your views.
8. Psychotraveller
This YouTuber is dedicating his content to the love of backpacking. This channel is born for backpacking enthusiasts and is full of useful information about organizing and living the best time of your life as you travel with your backpack. Here you will find tips on food and budget, hostel choice, and it all is salted with lively vlogs filled with humor. Watch the new experience and opinions weekly.
9. GRRRL TRAVELER
In case you have doubts about traveling alone, Christine Kaaloa is here to encourage you! This girl has created a channel that shows all the fun of traveling solo. Sometimes, it is not an easy experience, but with Christine, you will see the solutions that help out in different situations. She films her adventures, accenting local culture and lifestyle, food and entertainment, mixing it with shock content like squat Asian toilets, having a sickness when abroad, or taxi problems she encounters on her way. The beauty of her content is that it is genuine and honest, and Christine uses her charm and wit to make it an interesting experience for her viewers as well.
10. The Food Ranger
If you are fond of Asian food culture, this channel is right for you. The host, Trevor, explores Chinese cuisine, which is known for delicious dishes that are appreciated around the world, and for authentic gross local foods. He also mixes in a personal experience and meets interesting people who make his content interesting and lively. The only problem of Trevor being an expat in Sichuan is the regularity of video upload. By now, YouTube and Google are banned in China, which makes the process difficult, but as Trevor’s influence as a foodie blogger grows, he tries to maintain a stable schedule and post his videos once a week.
A Few Tips For Beginners
Travel blogging is one of the hardest niches to embrace, as it has a high level of competition and it is tough to come up with something completely original. But as it was mentioned before, there are ways to get there. Here are some tips to get the right start and a lot of high-retention hits.
- Look through popular travel bloggers of your region and see what are they missing in their content
- Analyze the preferences of the audience and define who is your target group
- Try to come up with at least one unique feature that will distinguish your content
- Learn from top YouTubers how to film and edit your videos
- Define what is the specific of your channel, so users will be motivated to subscribe and follow your videos.
- Invest in good gear if it is possible for you
- Visit videography courses and learn how to use editing programs
- Try different styles and manners of shooting, so your videos look fresh and lively
- Experiment with new formats of content
- Renovate your older content once in a while, so the information about prices and other details will remain actual for viewers
- Educate yourself constantly. When you are discovering a new destination, make sure you know enough about local habits to avoid uncomfortable situations
- Think beyond your limits. Beauty is everywhere and cultural heritage can be found even within the smallest town.
- Begin with what is closer to your location, and build your content progressively, as your channel grows.
- Work on your speech and manners. Your public image has to be consistent and confident.
- Involve your family or friends if they don’t mind. First of all, other people are adding colors to the video, and secondly, dialogues and more personas in the film are attesting more viewers.
Conclusion
Although tourism is not at its best state right now, there are still destinations that you can reach and start creating your traveling content. Watch other influencers to catch up on the interests of the audience, useful features to use for your own ideas, and simply inspiration.
