YouTube launched Vacationer, a travel channel with video inspiration and tips from experts like the Lonely Planet, National Geographic, the Travel Channel, and…you. With the new “Vacation You” application on the channel, anyone can now create a personalized vacation montage and share their fabulous trip with friends.
With the “Vacation You” application, users can browse through a number of freestyle video clips of vacation spots and activities and select a combination to produce a customized video of their ideal vacation. The six-step process can always be skipped by clicking on “Finish my experience for me.”
Norwegian Cruise Line powers the application, which is located on the bottom half of the page. The clip will be limited to 60 to 90 seconds and can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.
The expert videos are arranged across four major vacation hotspots: the Caribbean and Bahamas, Europe, Exotic, and US & Canada. Exotic features a mix of off-the-beaten path destinations and activities (belly dancing, anyone?). Often humorous, the video topics range from how not to look like a tourist, how to treat sunburn, and getting a passport. Norwegian Cruise Line has their own area with video clips, which are used in Vacation You clips.
“The YouTube Vacationer channel brings the best of our partners’ travel videos into a single destination to help users explore, plan, and dream about their next vacations,” said YouTube’s Mark Day, in a statement.
With Vacationer, YouTube combines user-generated videos with “expert” (and paid-for) videos to help users research and plan their next vacation. When asked, “How did you plan this amazing vacation?” someone may answer, “I saw it on YouTube.”
