Look out for a few epic partnerships on the blog

Quick Read: Read further on our newsletter to find out more about the partnerships coming next and the travel insights planned for the year.

At the beginning of the year 2020, many things have happened across the world.

I also began to worry if whatever that’s happening, would affect my trip to Finland.

I had great plans for 2020, and things were just getting excited for my young blog.

Picking up travel filming on-the-go has been very fun and experiential. The coming videos will help better illustrate the beauty of a location.

There are exciting travel partnerships with tourism boards, travel bloggers, video filming and juicy travel insights to be made this year.

While some pieces of it are still possible to make, others may have already been disrupted. Read on to find out more!

March was a very eventful month, yet tragically sad for all of us too

Early March, it was probably the most anticipated and exciting time for me.

I thought that it was the best way to start the year with a big trip to the North again.

The trip was really good, that I was very certain of. But yet at the same time, the world sank deeper into the pandemic and everyone’s struggling just to keep our mind sane.

And with all the travel restrictions – and bans or border closure later on – it’s really sad for most of us who had planned to travel to different parts of the world in the March school holidays.

The impact to the travel industry is mindblowing and we’re in it together.

I heard it first hand from the Finnish local marketing folks on what it does to a city like Rovaniemi, that’s dependent on tourism.

And I saw it first hand in Santa Claus Village, of what was one of the most populated tourist attraction, now stood quietly empty for the most part of the day.

Imagine this, in 2017 it was almost impossible to take a decent photo without having people in the background. There’s no clear shot at all. Now, the front of Santa Claus Main Post Office almost felt like you woke up at 4am to come here and shoot. But it’s not. It’s 11am. Close to the peak timings of the day.

But March was awesome for me.

Because it was also this time that I was given the opportunity to work with Rovaniemi’s tourism board, to help create content and promote the locations.

And it was also the month where it had been a successful conversation with two other travel bloggers to collaborate in future.

All these were great news and exciting for me. But the issue that the world is dealing with, and also back home in Singapore, it all just got worse.

Eventually, I felt an absolute wanting to be back home sooner. Something of which I would never have thought I would feel when on a trip.

Because every trip we make, we almost never wanted it to end that soon. It’s always a good indication of just how much you enjoyed your time there.

But nevertheless, I was very thankful that the trip ended well, with all of us safe and sound, and myself being able to document and create materials that I’m supposed to deliver.

We’re all healthy and strong!

The partnership with Visit Rovaniemi will see more powerful content in the coming months

In my March newsletter I had revealed of a partnership collaboration while I’m in Finland. And I’m excited to announce that, Visit Rovaniemi has kindly extended the opportunity to me to collaborate in creating more content!

Check out: Visit Rovaniemi website

Visit Rovaniemi is the official website for all things in Rovaniemi. From accommodation to activities to local cuisines, the website also shared the best ways to enjoy your trips during specific seasons.

If you’re looking to travel to Rovaniemi soon, always be sure to take a look at their website for new and upcoming things to do, eat and see.

While we’re there to enjoy the trip and various attractions, it’s also a great time to connect with the locals and understand the predicament we’re all caught in.

On a reversed situation, thanks to the lesser crowd I was able shoot all the various scenes, clean. No waiting, no passerby.

The end result, was a really good set of images, videos and insightful conversations that will help create these useful travel notes to share with the community!

Collaborations with fellow travel bloggers

There’re so many travel websites and large communities out there, with plenty of those useful content scattered across the web.

And sometimes, we missed out on those good stuffs.

After a few email exchanges, it became clear to me that there’re opportunities for us to work together to create more visibility for our content in future.

Perhaps you might have come across their travel blog before, if not please support them by visiting the links below.

The Lost Passport: https://www.thelostpassport.com

Nomadic Notes: https://www.nomadicnotes.com

Unfortunately though, because of the travel disruptions, the plan I had made for these collaborations may very well have to change.

But that’s ok. Travellers like ourselves, are accustomed to changes aren’t we? I embraced them and faced challenges, in hopes that they all lead to better endings.

More importantly than those plans, it’s for all of us to stay safe. At times like that, I strongly encourage everyone to stay put and not travel for the greater good.

Travel and holidays can wait. Your health and safety can’t – it’s in your own hands.

Anyway, back to the point. So, it certainly looks like I will be changing the plans and see where that leads us to. But I will be in touch with these travel bloggers very soon.

An upcoming signature photo album

I’ve received pretty good feedbacks for my past few albums and I’m very excited to start working on the next one soon!

These signature images were mostly taken In New Zealand, South Island.

If you haven’t seen them yet or wish to download them – yes, for free! – you may check out those albums below.

Photographing The Remarkable Mountains: View the album here

While I haven’t thought of the theme nor the design yet, it will likely continue to be an odd number set of images in the album. 

My recent trip had also allowed me to do a bit of research on photo album design and gave a couple of inspirations on my future albums.

Unfortunately I’ve not started working on it yet, so there isn’t any preview I could share.

But! Stay tuned and subscribed to my blog to be the first to know when the album is released!

Subscribe to my blog now: https://graytravelnotes.com/subscribe/

Stay safe and take a travel break for now

I hope you would enjoy reading the short-and-sweet letter I’ve made for you.

And if you stay around for the next few months, you’re sure to see more content and travel related notes that will help you in your future travel plans.

I certainly hope you’d enjoy these content that are made for you.

But for now, let’s all stay safe, plan ahead but travel later.

Cheers, and I’ll see you guys around. Very soon. 

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