NYC Couple on a Quest to Create the Largest Collection of Personal Travel Stories

  MANHATTAN, NY - 06/13/2017 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

A Manhattan couple has just launched a new website seeking to curate a collection of personal stories on living, traveling and growing up in cities, villages and towns in every corner of the world. It will foster a democratic forum that is open to as many writers as possible while also ensuring that the content is well-written, engaging and interesting.

The couple said: “Our initial thought had been to create a blog to document our travels, but we came up with a better idea. It struck us as an interesting project to start collecting personal stories from around the US and the world that highlight both the everyday and extraordinary experiences of real people. Ultimately, we hope to create the largest collection of personal travel stories online.” They further said: “Our hope is that our website will be a small window into life in other parts of both the USA and the world for all those who are interested in expanding their horizons.”

Currently, the biggest challenge for the project is to maintain quality as the number of submissions rapidly expands. Stories include:

1. Reminiscing on childhood while traveling to Laguna Beach, California;

2. The answer to the question, “why should you live on a sailboat;”

3. The gossipy little secrets of New Delhi, India;

4. Tips on how to really haggle from a professional;

5. The best place to find BBQ rat;

6. Life as a U.S. military diplomat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;

7. The different aspects of corporal punishment in Okene, Nigeria; and

8. Growing up in the beautiful small town of Cleveland, Texas.

This project comes at a time of widespread success in the travel blogging industry. Most of these travel blogs document the spectacular adventures of a solo traveler who shares his or her experiences abroad. These bloggers have helped many travelers explore the world by sharing the tips and tricks they have learned in their travels around the world. Several examples of these inspiring sites include The Blonde Abroad and NomadicMatt. The Blonde Abroad is the blog of Kiersten, a California native, who left a career in finance to become a world traveler. She has since traveled to over 50 countries and now offers travel tips and advice to her readers to help inspire them to lead their own adventures. Matt, of NomadicMatt, founded his site after getting hooked on travel to provide advice that will allow his readers to travel better, cheaper and longer. He currently has over 1,000,000 visitors per month and has also written a series of eBooks on how to travel better.

Although inspired by them, the couple decided to go a slightly different route from these successful bloggers. They chose to use their site as a platform to host a variety of different authors from all over the world, most of whom are amateur writers with regular (and not so regular) day jobs. The goal of the couple's project is to share the adventures of ordinary travelers with the world in an effort to show that everyone has extraordinary stories to tell.

For anyone who has an interest in learning about the world and watching the project grow, the couple's website is available at erikawithak.me