India Travel forum

[Admin]

I am in the process of launching a new forum for travel in India which would cater to both foreign and desi visitors to different parts of India...

Does any of you frequent any such forum? Do you have any ideas how to create a better forum then there already are?

What should and should not be included? Has anyone ever studied this niche?

I have a good seo budget for this project but dont wanna rush into it atleast not untill I know that it will become huge in time to come

Your comments would be much appreciated.

[gaggan4392]

It is very good idea to launch such a website..
I have seen a website like that: India Travel Forum | IndiaMike.com

The main thing to include are hilly stations. There should be a photo gallery too so that members can upload pictures and the visitors can get much help on it like where to travel in that city or something like that. One more thing, it should have good theme with good layout..........

[meetdilip]

All the best admin. When I browse a travel forum first I would like to see some snaps of important sites, a city map and accommodation details.

[broadbandmessage]

its good idea.. but we need something more than a website for travel.
there are lots of college students and group of young working group who wana visit places across india.

We love escaping out on weekends. We dont look for luxury but basic stay and food is ok for us. If your website can bring such home provider at cheap rates for college students it ud be unique feature of ur website. hotels are too costly. We dont even mind taking our tent with us..

i am daily visitor of site travelblog.org and ghummakar. I found travelblog more intersting bcos there is vast content available. ghummakar has good interesting stories abt india. But some how the format or layout of travelblog is more apealing to me.

before we visit any place we want to know all the details about that place. If you can list down all the must visit accourding to importance for a city then it ud be great.. If you can mesh it up with google maps that ud be even better.. I personally many times find it difficult to find a tourist map difficult to locate on my gmap in my mobile.

If you have city volunteer members who could guide us throgh the roads and in which order we can visit the places in the city and the timings of the opening and closing of places and of corse the best deals it ud be more good.

instead of having a normal blog if u provide such customised service for travellers it ud be great.

if i could chat with person who has already visited the place or who stays there it ud be great.
booking a car at best rates is also a necessary.

[Admin]

A forum is the answer for all your expectations. Running a service with hired staff catering to millions of people would make me bankrupt within a few weeks... Unless there is a solid business model to support the costs and it seems very unlikely at this point and also I am not willing to sell anything to the visitors or even get commision from letting others sell which would be essential for hiring staff so that is out of the equation.

I have been working on this for some time now whenever I get time and have prepared a framework... More like an idea in my mind then on paper.

There is no forum targetted to Indians only as other forums I see are for forign tourists who want info about culture and stuff more then anythign else. I am trying to get more desi janta on this new site rather then lure the more lucrative videshi crowd as its going to be for fun more then anythign else... Although commercial viability is something which would effect some decisions as I am not planning to keep shelling money out of my own pocket for too long.

Here at India broadband forum people get instant resolutions from either older threads or for newer issues which are not already resolved they open new threads and our memberes very kindly try their best to resolve all issues. Travel forum is going to be on similar lines with some modifications..

I have got two domains for this already and will open a poll to choose one to use with this project

[zoooni]

wow travel forum sounds fun looking forward to it

[Preeti_20]

that would be good, something similar to this, and obviously there would be the same kind of crowd as we well I know I will visit the travel forum!

Keep us updated on this!

[itsmemad]

Great initiative! However, there are already too many India Travel Forums/Sites. Just searched in the google. Do we need another?

[Admin]

I agree there are a lot of forums running already and it will be an uphill task to make a new one succesful to an acceptable degree.. But I believe there is no Indian travel forum run by an India and is not dominated by a forigner controlling the opinions on the forum... Find one and I will drop the idea.

One forum is run by a Pakistani hell bent on killing the tourism industry in India.. another run by a Britisher who sees India from his own perspective and has no or very little interest in showing the brighter side of India.. Then there is another one run by an Indian who thinks threads posted by Indians will spoil the repo of his forum..

Find me one forum which does not have a negetive baise towards Indians.

[just4kix]

I think it will be a good idea.

The forum may take a little longer to be popular but with the right articles and content, plus ad's it should be able to make through.

I will contribute whatever I can.

---
Can borrow some ideas:

a) Divide India by regions
b) List all nice places to visit around those areas and how to get there
c) Where to stay, what to eat, local specialities
d) Experience by members
e) Photographs

[Admin]

We have got two options to choose from :

holidaytravelforum.com and www.Indiatravelforum.net

I personally feel www.Indiatravelforum.net would be a better bet but its a .net and the only drawback otherwise it would make a perfect domain name for such a forum...

Which one do you guys suggest as this is the only thing that is keeping me from launching the new site.

[just4kix]

What is the drawback of the ".net" domain?

[Preeti_20]

We have got two options to choose from :

holidaytravelforum.com and Indiatravelforum.net

Well if you want to forum to be just about India destinations, then Indiatravelforum.net would be good, but if you want to include worldwide destinations or would think of including worldwide destination later on in the forum, then holidaytravelforum.com

[gaggan4392]

Then I think holidaytravelforum.com is good.

[Arnaud]

I would suggest IndiaTravelForum.net because it would be difficult to cater help on worldwide destinations, because there are already many sites/forums in the net for that.

But, the sites of our Tourism department are 'not so bad' to be discarded.

[Admin]

What is the drawback of the ".net" domain?

The only problem is it is hard to remember for most people as they tend to type in .com

[rajan1311]

I like Indiatravelforum.net .

Some suggestions:

Many of us in india don't really know what are the great places we can visit in our country. Articles about each destination would be great.There are many great place down south, but I have not seen many.


There could be a section for weekend holidays, where people near major towns can go to some nice place to relax over the weekend - I hope you got what I mean ?

PS: I would find such information very useful as my parents are looking for a nice time off to relax (dad not working anymore).

The only problem is it is hard to remember for most people as they tend to type in .com

Who owns Indiatravelforum.com ? Buy him out

[Admin]

No idea who owns the .com but what I know is it wont be cheap so that is not an option

Indiatravelforum.net is to the point except for the .net in the end but I suppose like we get repeat visitors on this forum we would create a name for ourselves on the travel forum as well if things go well.

[itsmemad]

I agree there are a lot of forums running already and it will be an uphill task to make a new one succesful to an acceptable degree.. But I believe there is no Indian travel forum run by an India and is not dominated by a forigner controlling the opinions on the forum... Find one and I will drop the idea.

One forum is run by a Pakistani hell bent on killing the tourism industry in India.. another run by a Britisher who sees India from his own perspective and has no or very little interest in showing the brighter side of India.. Then there is another one run by an Indian who thinks threads posted by Indians will spoil the repo of his forum..

Find me one forum which does not have a negetive baise towards Indians.

Hmmm... Then, it's time to kick some ass... I've full faith in your SEO expertise. We'll rock...

Indiatravelforum.net is good.

However, there are other website names available too. Like indiatravelspots.com

Domains like above don't have the 'forum' keyword. Still they are easy to remember.

[rsk11584]

I agree there are a lot of forums running already and it will be an uphill task to make a new one succesful to an acceptable degree.. But I believe there is no Indian travel forum run by an India and is not dominated by a forigner controlling the opinions on the forum... Find one and I will drop the idea.

One forum is run by a Pakistani hell bent on killing the tourism industry in India.. another run by a Britisher who sees India from his own perspective and has no or very little interest in showing the brighter side of India.. Then there is another one run by an Indian who thinks threads posted by Indians will spoil the repo of his forum..

Find me one forum which does not have a negetive baise towards Indians.

I am a not so old but very old member of india mike India Travel Forum | IndiaMike.com and I found that the reality is accepted there , many foreigners literally love india. And it is really a good site, that is my personal experience and opinion. And the mods in this site are very strong, and prompt in seeing that the decorum of this forum is maintained. And you will get all assistance regarding your travel and stay queries also.



So creating a new site like travel india forum will be uphill task, still you can do it, even though there are big big companies manufacturing products there also are small companies , so you can start at initial level and then depending on response and popularity move up. Best of luck

[Admin]

I have seen that site grow for the last 3-4 years and recently became a member as well and I agree it is the only "good" forum around in this niche.

[just4kix]

How about "IndiaTravelChannel.com"?

a) Probably not taken
b) Easy to associate
c) ".com" domain
d) Not just a forum

[Admin]

I have started working on India Travel Forum - The Front Page now just installed the script.

[meetdilip]

Lots of categories. Nice. Find a good theme.

When will we upgrade to V Bulletin 4 ?

[itsmemad]

I have started working on India Travel Forum - The Front Page now just installed the script.

I'm proud to be the first registered member (after you) there. Couldn't post because no forums are created yet.

Comeon guys. Register yourself. Be a part of the history!