Do you know the five stages of a journey?
The stages of the journeys
Before World 2.0 it used to be said that travel had three stages: Planning, Traveling and Remembering the experience, but connectivity has added two stages that cannot be ignored: Inspiration and Sharing.
Social networks have completely changed the concept of travel and how we enjoy and share it with the people we love most and this has a major impact on everyone's life. Do you want to discover these steps?
1- Inspiration
This stage begins long before planning. You may have seen your friend go on a trip to a cool place, or read a post about Hawaii that drove you crazy. When the people we follow start sharing their memories or vacations on Facebook or tell you about that wonderful caipirinha on Twitter, you start dreaming. And you start looking for experiences and places on YouTube, Instagram or Pinterest, because it's clear that a picture is worth a thousand words.
2- Planning
Here you start asking, asking your family, your friends and of course Google. You will probably make a list in Trello about what you have to organize: visa, things to buy, reserve the camping site... Now all this is much easier and you don't have to go to travel agencies or make endless calls to embassies: you have everything at a click.
3- The reservations
The moment of truth has arrived: you know where you are going, what hotel you want and you know what excursions you are going to do, and on top of that you have a wonderful list with all this that will make your life easier (or you don't have it and you are like us who go on a little adventure all the time!) You start to solve everything that needs to be solved and make reservations and buy tickets.
4- The journey
Here's your adventure. What you've been planning and dreaming about for so long is here. Surely you check all your reservations with your mobile, since according to the Technical Institute of Hotel Management 70% of users check them with these devices, wow! You'll enjoy the food, take thousands of photos and meet new people, go to a big city or the family's village, you'll have your mobile at hand so you never forget the experience.
5- Share
You get home, turn on your cell phone and then start posting. Pictures, videos, tweets, and if you have a blog you write a couple of entries at once. Watch out! This step doesn't just happen at the end, but can happen during all stages of the journey, because the grace of social networks is spontaneity. You want all your loved ones and also your more sporadic followers to know how you've been through it and what you've seen and learned. And then, someone reads to you and is inspired, to start this cycle again.
Have you recognized yourself in these stages of the journey? Which one are you more active in? Tell us in the comments!