How to Support Grantourismo so we can keep creating inspiring food and travel content. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved. New Zealand.

How to Support Grantourismo So We Can Keep Creating Inspiring Food and Travel Content

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How to support Grantourismo so we can keep creating inspiring and informative travel and food content: you could make a one-off donation to fund our research, writing, photography, and recipe testing; become a patron of our cookbook on Patreon; buy travel insurance, rent a car, or book accommodation, transport or tours on our site; or purchase our products. We’ll be eternally grateful.

If you’ve arrived at Grantourismo for the first time and have liked what you’ve read or you’re one of the millions of readers over the last decade who have found inspiration in our stories and articles; have used our travel guides and itineraries to plan trips; and have enjoyed cooking our recipes, we would love you to support Grantourismo, so that we can keep creating inspiring and informative food and travel content.

We launched Grantourismo on New Year’s Day 2010, with a ‘slow, local, experiential’ travel mission. We departed on a year of slow and sustainable travel, a 12-month round-the-world trip inspired by the grand tour. Our aim was to inspire you all to travel more slowly, locally and experientially, forms of travel that are more immersive, engaging and interactive, more sustainable, ethical and responsible. After that trip ended, we continued our mission, until 2020.

Like so many working in tourism and hospitality – travel and food writers, photographers, creatives, and consultants included  – when borders closed, flights ceased, and the world stopped travelling in March 2020, we lost all our income: projects were postponed, consulting clients cancelled contracts, publications cut freelancer budgets, and editors stopped commissioning. Our income from Grantourismo plummeted when everyone stopped travelling.

Like so many others, we’ve survived thanks to the generosity of family, friends, strangers, patrons of our Cambodia cookbook project, and readers of Grantourismo who have donated funds or extended loans to support us and our work here on the site. It was a challenging few years to say the least, with the first year in particular testing our mental health, strength, resourcefulness, and resilience.

To continue publishing Grantourismo in 2020 without the pre-pandemic income the site generated through affiliate commissions earned from accommodation, insurance and tour bookings, car rental reservations, online purchases, sponsored projects, and brand partnerships, was unsustainable.

So when everyone began quarantine cooking and sourdough baking, and we were staying at home isolating here in Cambodia doing the same, we pivoted Grantourismo, which we launched way back in 2010, from a travel site with food stories and recipes to a food-focused site that just happened to be packed with ten years of travel stories and guides.

It was the best decision we made: readers flocked to the site, traffic grew, and after joining an advertising platform we finally had a reliable income again. After people resumed travelling again, our affiliate commissions returned, and that and the ads provide our main source of income, as we continue to stay close to home after two bouts of Covid seriously impacted our health.

In 2023, Grantourismo, like thousands of other smaller sites out there, was negatively impacted in two ways: firstly, early in the year, by new unethical ‘bloggers’ using generative AI tools to churn out copy-cat content to compete with sites like our own for traffic rankings; and, secondly, twice, by Google algorithm updates, which saw our traffic and income plunge during updates, before stabilising again. It’s been another challenging year.

As the year draws to a close we are figuring out how to move forward. Many of our recipes are at #1 on Google or on page #1 of Google, so we’ll continue to produce the recipes and food content that you obviously love, as much as we do. However, much of our travel content also still rank wells – from our accommodation guides to our itineraries, our road trip routes to our travel stories – so we are in the process of updating, well, almost everything.

One thing that we definitely do not want to do is to restrict your access to content by hiding it behind a paywall, but we do need to generate more income, so we’re currently developing a Grantourismo membership programme on Patreon. We’ll be sharing lots of behind the scenes content there that you won’t find here, and we’ll also be offering perks.

Until we launch that, we’d like to invite readers to continue to support our work here, so we can keep creating inspiring and informative travel and food content. Here’s how to support Grantourismo.

How to Support Grantourismo So We Can Keep Creating Travel and Food Content

Here’s how to support Grantourismo so we can keep creating inspiring and informative travel and food content.

SIGN UP TO OUR GRANTOURISMO NEWSLETTER

To say the pandemic was disruptive would be a massive understatement obviously, but one of the things that we initially stopped doing was publishing our fairly irregular newsletter. We’ve  now resumed that newsletter and you’ll find a sign-up box beneath this post. When you receive your newsletter, please do share it with your food and travel-loving friends.

BECOME A PATRON OF OUR COOKBOOK

The best way to support Grantourismo and the work we do here is by making a one-off or monthly pledge and becoming a patron of our epic, first-of-its-kind Cambodian cookbook and Cambodian culinary history on the Patreon platform.

This book has been our main focus during the pandemic, after seven years working on the project on and off. We’re documenting hundreds of recipes and stories from cooks across Cambodia for the first time and we’re currently in search of a publisher for the tome.

You’ll receive a credit of thanks in the published book, as well as other perks in the future. If you’re not in a position to make a donation or pledge, please tell your food-loving friends about it. You can get a taste of what we’re doing from our Cambodian recipes or click through to Patreon where you’ll find some posts open to the public.

SHOP ON AMAZON

You’ll find affiliate links throughout Grantourismo to Amazon products, from cookbooks and kitchen utensils to cameras and travel gear, and if you click through to Amazon from our site, we’ll earn a small commission on anything you purchase, but you won’t pay extra.

You could start by browsing our guide to the best cookbooks by Australian chefs , the best of the James Beard 2020 Award Winning Cookbooks, Terence’s list of Classic cookbooks for Serious Cooks (AKA his Desert Island Cookbooks), my recommended Cookbooks for Culinary Travellers – Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Travel Books to Inspire Wanderlust.

We also have a series of Christmas gift idea guides including Christmas Gifts for Asian Home Cooks, a Guide to Asian Kitchen EssentialsChristmas Gifts for Travel Photographers and Travellers Who Love Photography, and Christmas Gifts for Picnic Lovers, and we’ll continue to post more guides.

BOOK ACCOMMODATION VIA GRANTOURISMO

Click on these links to book accommodation on Booking.com which has the world’s largest range of hotels, apartments, holiday houses, villas, B&Bs, cottages, cabins, and accommodation in caravan parks.

We’ll earn a small commission through our affiliate partnership, but you won’t pay any more than if you’d booked directly on sites. You’ll also find links to accommodation we recommend in itineraries and our best hotels and where to stay guides under most destinations on the site.

There are also booking site search boxes in all country and city destination guides. For example, here’s the Sydney travel guide where you’ll find a search box under Book Sydney Accommodation, along with guides to Sydney’s best boutique hotels and where to stay in Sydney for rooms with a view. You’ll find similar posts under most destinations.

BOOK LUXURY ESCAPES FOR LESS

Click through to Luxury Escapes for everything from heavily discounted stays at boutique hotels, resorts and villas, as well as holiday packages that include extras such as a bottle of wine, meals and spa treatments.

You’ll also find small group tours, luxury train journeys, expedition cruises, and scenic flights, and once again we’ll earn a small commission if you use the link above to book any of those. There are new jaw-dropping deals on offer every day that can be booked well ahead, as well as Last Minute Escapes. Learn more about those on the Luxury Escapes link above.

BOOK TOURS, ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES

You can book tours galore – from short city walking tours and cycling tours to cruises and multi-day small group tours – along with activities and attractions on both Get Your Guide and Klook and we’ll earn a small commission if you do.

Both Get Your Guide and Klook have a diverse range of experiences and tours across the globe, from Australia to the Americas, however, Get Your Guide is better when it comes for Europe (1,299 tours and activities in Rome, 753 in London, and 689 in Paris when I last checked) while Klook is your go-to for Asia.

Get Your Guide is good for day trips and multi-day tours, everything from Darwin to Kakadu and Alice Springs to Uluru, while Klook has a greater range of experiences, classes and workshops: Thai cooking courses in Bangkok, sushi making classes in Kyoto, Penfolds wine blending experience in the Barossa Valley, spritz time in Venice, tapas trails in Madrid.

You can also book spa treatments, massages, shopping excursions, and meals on Klook – from a Kaya Toast set at Ya Kun in Singapore such as a tasting menu at Luke Nguyen’s Botanic House restaurant in Sydney – along hire cars, scooters and motorbikes.

On top of that you can book airport transfers, buy city cards, tickets for museums, cinemas, shows, and sights, discount shopping vouchers and coupons, purchase SIMs and WiFi cards, and book transport – everything from hop-on hop-off buses around the world and trains in Japan and China to Eurail Passes, the Swiss Travel Pass, German Rail Pass, and BritRail Passes.

TRANSFER MONEY

Here’s how to support Grantourismo is you need to transfer funds. Click through to our Transferwise invite link and you’ll get a free transfer up to UK£500. After three of our readers sign up we’ll earn UK£ 50 and after you sign up you’ll get a link that you’ll be able to share.

BUY GIFTS AT OUR ONLINE SHOP ON SOCIETY6

We have a Grantourismo online shop on Society6 where you can browse Terence’s beautiful food and travel photography and buy prints in various sizes, framed and un-framed, as posters, canvases, and on wood and metal, along with lots of cool products that we’re creating there from his images.

From time to time we also curate selections here on Grantourismo, such as these reusable cloth face masks you’ll actually want to wear and Christmas gift ideas for food lovers. The quality of products is fantastic, delivery is fast, and we earn a commission from every purchase you make from our Grantourismo shop. You can learn more about our Grantourismo shop here.

HIRE CARS, CAMPERVANS AND MOTORHOMES

If you click on this link to rent a car for your next city break or hire a campervan or motorhome for that road trip you’re planning, we’ll also earn a small commission through that affiliate partnership. As with the accommodation booking sites, you won’t pay any more than if you’d booked directly on their sites. You’ll also come across car rental links in most of our destination guides and itineraries.

BOOK ONLINE LANGUAGE LESSONS

Book a few languages lessons or sign up to a language course with a tutor on the online language learning website Preply and we’ll earn a small commission when you do. I’ve had the greatest success learning languages over the years by doing language classes. There are few better ways to get beneath the skin of a place than speaking the local lingo. You’ll find more of our tips to learning a language during lockdown here. And if you’re a language teacher who would like to sign up to Preply to teach, please sign up here as we also earn a small recruitment fee.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT GRANTOURISMO

How to support Grantourismo if you’re not in a position to donate or book or buy something? One of the easiest ways you can support our work here is to tell your food- and travel-loving friends about Grantourismo.

Have a friend who is dreaming or planning a future trip or staycation, or just looking for something to cook tonight? Share a link to our site or share our recipes.

Grantourismo is easy to navigate, but if you or your friends can’t find what you’re looking for on one of the menus, use the search function, leave a comment on a post, or contact us here and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction and answer any questions.

Pictured: sheep on the idyllic South Island of New Zealand by Terence Carter Photography because who isn’t yearning for simpler times.

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AUTHOR BIO

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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