Wish you were here? How live-streaming apps like Meerkat, Periscope can revolutionise your holiday experience

Creating and sharing live video broadcasts was all the rage on social media earlier this year when first Meerkat and then Periscope, became the must-have apps of the moment. Months later the initial buzz has waned; who really wanted to see a ‘tour of the office’ or a ‘meet the family’ video anyway?

It is among tourists and travel industry workers that broadcasting live video to followers on social media appears to have the most staying power. Why describe a place or review a hotel room in words or photographs when a live video is just as easy? Why read about a place when you can see it? Why look at an atlas when you can use a virtual map that shows exactly who is live streaming, and from where?

“Depending on my location I’ll use Periscope to show my readers how to do something,” says Erick Prince-Heaggans, a travel blogger who broadcasts on Persicope regularly from @minoritynomad on Twitter. “For example, how to negotiate in Siem Reap, or use the train system in Bangkok … I try to use Periscope to teach people, rather than have them just look at my life.”

WATCH an explanation of what Periscope can do

Since we’ve all got a smartphone in our pocket, shouldn’t there be a place to go to view live video streams from anywhere on the planet? “I’ve been using Periscope on @theflashpack account and on my personal account @snapperlee for the last three months,” says Lee Thompson, Co-Founder of tour company The Flash Pack (theflashpack.co.uk). “It works best for us when I act as an interviewer and we chat to the locals or shoot something interesting, like ‘see how long it takes us to cross the busiest road in Hanoi’,” says Thompson, who reckons he gets between 50 and 300 viewers per video when streaming from a group tour somewhere in the world.