# What are Travel Brands Looking for When Working With Bloggers *By James Hills — Updated October 2026* As a travel blogger at ManTripping.com, this is something I have wondered about for a while - what exactly are the travel brands looking for from me and why are they sending me on "free" trips, sending swag, and inviting me out to dine at fancy restaurants. It seems like a strange question to ask since I simultaneously represent brands as a PR and Social Media representative doing exactly the same things I wonder why others are doing for me. The simple answer is that we want to build a relationship between the brand and the blogger. In today's relationship based economy there are things that you can do as an invidiual that even a journalist at the New York Times can't. That's leverage your own personal network to share the highly engaging content that you yourself experienced but want others to do so as well. To help extend this, we asked four brands a simple question: ### What Do Gen Z Travelers Think About Cruising And Where Do They Want To Go Next? Gen Z cruisers seek affordable, sustainable voyages with digital connectivity, favoring Caribbean and European destinations while prioritizing unique experiences. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/R-oAzbk_gruDmsJ1MuWK8w.654) ### Great Lakes Cruising Is Booming - And the Industry Experts Who Dismissed It Were Wrong Great Lakes cruising doubled since 2015 with $300M projected for 2026. First-hand Viking Octantis experience plus analysis on why skeptics who dismissed Milwaukee got it completely wrong. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/R-oAzbk_gruDmsJ1MuWK8w.652) ### Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly Why AI-built software needs checks that can fail, processes that stop on bad input and synthetic users walking the app before a human reviews it. FlowMediaMarketing [Read More](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/go/R-oAzbk_gruDmsJ1MuWK8w.2489) Promoted by FlowAds ***What are you looking for when you pick people to work with on Social Media campaigns?*** ## Carnival Cruise Lines: We look for bloggers/influencers with strong and solid social media followings that produce great content. Numbers are important, but you can have a great niche blogger that might not have a huge following with a solid and reputable voice in their area of expertise. Quality is also a big factor, no matter how big an influencers' numbers might be, if the quality of their work is poor, not many brands will want to work with them. Also, "bought" followers are a big no-no, brands can spot bloggers who partake in those types of practices and it only hurts the bloggers' chances of working with a brand then help them.  ## San Diego Tourism: Three things: Reach, Tone and Professionalism! Of course we want to work with people that have as big of a reach as possible, but we also consider whether or not the tone/audience is the right fit. And if you are professional and easy to work with, that's incredible important too. Be upfront about your stats and what your needs are, but also understand that we have our own needs and they might not always match. ## Costa Cruise Lines We look for journalists who have a cross-media presence. Not only do we want journalists who maintain a blog, but who are also active on social media including Facebook and Twitter. We also take into account the average unique visitors per month their site draws, page views and average time on site. We bring together all of these elements to form a global assessment of the R.O.I. for cooperating with a journalist or blogger. Given no one knows the worth of a tweet or post, we gather as much statistical information as possible and make a decision taking into account our instinct and experience. ## Visit Scottsdale: Outreach. We want to ensure that the people we work with are considered social media influencers. We'll be expanding this article in the future with more feedback from additional travel brands but we'd also love to hear your thoughts and feedback as to what you are looking for as a brand. - --- ***Thanks for reading. We hope this was helpful!*** --- Written by: [James Hills](https://flowmediamarketing.com/james-hills.html) Pro-Blogger James Hills is the founder of FlowMediaMarketing.com and runs a network of travel and lifestyle publications including ManTripping.com and CruiseWestCoast.com on a stack of publishing and site-management tools he built with AI coding agents. For media inquiries on AI tooling and process design for small businesses, contact James at FlowMediaMarketing.com. ### Related Articles #### Five Things Every Travel Blogger Wishes Destinations Would Do To Make Writing About Them Easier [Five Things Every Travel Blogger Wishes Destinations Would Do To Make Writing About Them Easier](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/what-every-travel-blogger-wishes-destinations-would-do-to-make-writing-about-them-easier.html) #### Five Tips for Planning an Awesome Blogger Fam Trip [Five Tips for Planning an Awesome Blogger Fam Trip](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/five-tips-for-planning-an-awesome-blogger-fam-trip.html) #### How To Plan Impactful Local Blogger and Influencer Events [How To Plan Impactful Local Blogger and Influencer Events](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/how-to-plan-impactful-local-blogger-and-influencer-events.html) ### Latest News Updates: #### Speaking at Great Lakes AI Week: How I'm Using AI To Build A Publishing Platform [Speaking at Great Lakes AI Week: How I'm Using AI To Build A Publishing Platform](https://flowmediamarketing.com/news-and-media/james-hills-speaking-great-lakes-ai-week.html) #### How I'm Transforming My Blogging Strategy To Develop, Currate and Publish Original High-Quality Content [How I'm Transforming My Blogging Strategy To Develop, Currate and Publish Original High-Quality Content](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/gathering-original-high-quality-content.html) #### Not Just "Intelligence" - Why Building Tools To Unlock The Power Of AI Is Essential To Success [Not Just "Intelligence" - Why Building Tools To Unlock The Power Of AI Is Essential To Success](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/building-tools-to-unlock-the-power-of-ai.html) #### Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly [Building Checks That Can't Fail: Why You Need To Direct Your AI Agents To Test, Debug And Fail Loudly](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/checks-that-cant-fail-ai-agent-testing.html) - - Flow Media Marketing is based in Southwest Michigan. Learn More About Our People and Brands: - [James Hills](https://flowmediamarketing.com/james-hills.html) - [Heather Hills](https://flowmediamarketing.com/heather-hills.html) - [Flow Media Marketing](https://flowmediamarketing.com/flow-media-marketing.html) - [Flow Voyages](https://flowmediamarketing.com/flow-voyages.html) - [Cruise West Coast](https://flowmediamarketing.com/cruise-west-coast.html) - [Couple Places](https://flowmediamarketing.com/couple-places.html) - [MenWhoBlog](https://flowmediamarketing.com/menwhoblog.html) - [ManTripping](https://flowmediamarketing.com/mantripping.html) - [The Grape Stomp](https://flowmediamarketing.com/the-grape-stomp.html) --- *Source: [What are Travel Brands Looking for When Working With Bloggers](https://flowmediamarketing.com/blog/what-are-travel-brands-looking-for-when-working-with-bloggers.html)* **Tags:** Influencer Marketing