Welcome to the lucky 13th issue of The Cultured Traveler. We have been publishing our monthly online newsletter one year. As we expected three years ago when CulturalTravels.com went online, endurance and perseverance would pay off – and it has!
We survived the dot-com disaster by realizing that the only way to succeed was to earn a reputation, not buy traffic. Combine a realistic business model that has worked for centuries with staff whose members each have more than 20 years’ experience in their respective specialties (including our networking and web development department), and we have a company that I think will be the leader in the next wave of e-commerce and information technology.
Since the end of 2000, our user sessions and requests have grown more than 400%. User sessions average more than 10 minutes in length, with 30% of all users coming back at least once again within a given month.
Right now, we are far from being the biggest traffic generator online. But then again, our philosophy was always quality not quantity. We believe that we are achieving that goal and more. Forbes.com recognized our promise and named us in its “Best of the Web” travel issue (February 2001). Mountain Living covered us last October in print, and in its March 2001 online newsletter put us at the top when it told a reader, “Here’s a list of some of the best we’ve run into in our numerous searches on the World Wide Web.”
By striving to bring smaller tour hosts to public attention, we offer travel agents and travelers alike a central resource for locating the exceptional and unique in worldwide travel providers. As air travel becomes more of a commodity, and the Internet opens up possibilities, the planning of unique travel experiences will become easier. Cultural Travels the harbinger of the easy, accessible flow of information that most Web users have come to se as their right.
We’re not like sites that are transaction-based and directly profit from your purchases while pretending to offer you a wide range of choices. Instead, we are supported by advertisers who pay for ads, just like in magazines. And, as with magazines, nobody owns us simply because they buy an ad. You will never find us limiting your choices in a category or pushing you toward a particular provider.
We are thankful to all our readers and advertisers who make CulturalTravels.com so successful. We hope you will continue to share us with your friends.
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