Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 3rd Quarter 2016 | Page 14

SPOTLIGHT ON Elena Sergeeva Founder of Passion for Greece and Passion for Dubai

By Sharon Hirschowitz
Elena is both marketing guru and blogger extraordinaire , putting her extensive knowledge in the marketing and travel arenas to work assisting luxury hotels with varied business development and foreign market opportunities . She was the Master of Ceremonies at the ILHA ’ s European Luxury Hospitality Summit and facilitated the discussion on two panel sessions . Here she tells us how hotels can meaningfully connect to bloggers and sheds some light on effective travel blogging .
You have started two successful international blogs . What were you trying to achieve in Passion for Greece and Passion for Dubai ?
Storytelling is powerful and always has been . The Native Americans would use storytelling to pass on their customs , traditions , heritage and myths , so that the future generations could continue their legacy . Nowadays storytelling remains equally important with the only difference being that we have turned to digital storytelling . I first started with Passion for Greece with the purpose of promoting the visual trend in combination with storytelling . The famous saying goes — a picture is worth a thousand words , this is why there is a strong emphasis on photography on both of my blogs . Ever wondered why Instagram has become such a popular social platform ? It ’ s simple , people love to look at and to share photos .
Words have incredible power , and this is what travel blogging is all about – to use the right words to inspire others to travel and to explore this magical world that we live in . Think about it , we are all addicted to stories , whether it is the bedtime stories that we are told as kids , or sharing our news with friends and checking the recent updates from our friends and family on Facebook and other social media . Storytelling allows us to experience the thrill
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