When January pushes December off the calendar cliff, you know that cerebration should replace celebration. A good start to a new year always involves bidding a proper farewell to the old one. Thanks to the exceptional Hotel Jama’s Secret Rooms, my annual overview lost its traditional spotlight as the year’s first article. But that doesn’t mean that I deprioritized open reflection. Keeping secrets might have been UDBA’s hotel standard. Still, here, at least for avid readers and the travel blogging community, the 2024 year review should be the most transparent and best-informed dive into Pipeaway’s universe.
In October, Pipeaway was accepted into the Journey ad program by Mediavine. Already in the first month, the payout was 20 times larger than Google’s
After 2023, which brought relative successes to this website despite Google’s autumn algorithm ambush, 2024 didn’t quite deliver the recovery I’d hoped for. The year ended with traffic at just 43% of the previous year, with notable nosedives during April-June, and another plunge in August-September (both months having barely a third of March traffic, for instance).
Of course, it didn’t help that I stopped publishing new content from June to August. Seasonal hotel work stepped in as the breadwinner, while the blog took an involuntary summer break.
The good news is that, in October, Pipeaway was accepted into the Journey ad program by Mediavine. Already in the first month, the payout from Journey ads was 20 times larger than what stingy Google Ads were bringing, and that’s a huge difference.
Also in October, a certain amount of traffic recovery started happening, hopefully announcing brighter days behind the horizon.
We’ve already passed the horizon into 2025, so let’s not delay with looking back – here’s Pipeaway’s review of the year 2024!
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN PREVIOUS YEAR REPORTS, YOU CAN FIND THEM RIGHT HERE:
2023 YEAR IN REVIEW: IS EVERYTHING IN OUR HANDS?
2022 YEAR IN REVIEW: READY FOR RESTART
2021 YEAR IN REVIEW: GOODBYE TO A TRAVEL BLOB
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW: OVERTOURISM AS A DISTANT MEMORY
2019 YEAR IN REVIEW: DOES EXPLORING THE WORLD IN CRISIS MAKE ANY SENSE?
2018 YEAR IN REVIEW: HIKING MOUNTAINS, VOLCANOES AND CHURCHES
2017 YEAR IN REVIEW: 3 CONTINENTS, 14 COUNTRIES AND ONE BIG ADVENTURE
Highlights of Pipeaway’s 2024 – from alien PR to Virgin Lions
While we’ve explored some classic contenders for idyllic holidays (be it a south of France vacation or even day trips from Southampton), there’s no mapping the extraordinary without leaving the beaten path.
The year kicked off with some quirky tourism PR campaigns, starring horses, and even aliens, and proving that thinking outside the box can present travel as both fun and memorable.
But if you’re looking for a truly entertaining read, nothing can beat hilarious travel experiences gathered in our collection of destination mix-ups. Geography, as it turns out, is not everyone’s forte. And no, Australia is not named after Austria!
But the Virgin Islands are Virgin Lions, if you ask Journey Castillo, a pint-sized traveler who’s less than half the age of this website. She started her travels at just two weeks old and, by the age of three, she had already visited all 63 U.S. national parks! Journey was the youngest extraordinary traveler I’ve had the privilege of interviewing, 27 times younger, in fact, than those TikTok Traveling Grannies, still on the road.
If you want to meet more fascinating people, read the inspiring story of Shannon Coggins and her slow-travel family. They left their UK home, to attend a wedding in Australia, with the idea of never taking a flight.
Speaking of planes, if you do fly, don’t forget the importance of aircraft seat belts. And if you travel by ferry, buckle up your rabbit too!
Lost luggage scam – the article they tried to hide
For me personally, one of the most significant articles published on Pipeaway in 2024 was the one on the murky world of lost luggage sales. This elaborate scam thrives on fake Facebook pages promising unclaimed baggage from airports at ridiculously low prices. In the shadows, scammers steal people’s personal information, and money.
The article clearly poked a very active hornet’s nest. In October, a certain someone from Denmark (identity now redacted, as I wasn’t smart enough to screenshot it immediately) filed a bogus DMCA claim. It came through Tolas LLC, a Texas-based company with 10,000 active complaints to Google and counting.
According to them, my article about purchasing lost suitcases somehow infringed upon the copyright of an article about a serial rapist case. Despite the lack of any resemblance, the DMCA complaint was enough to temporarily banish Pipeaway’s piece from Google Search. It took me an entire month to reach Google and reinstate the article in search results so that it could keep travelers informed and scammers on edge.
Goodbyes and Hi’s of 2024
Septembers on Pipeaway now start to seem to be reserved for delayed farewells. Just like in 2023, when I wrote about the spring departure of a fellow traveler Fathin Naufal, the past September, I published an article inspired by the brief encounters with another departed creative spirit – Angela Laurier. More than just an “in memoriam” for a renowned contortionist (or less than it?), the post was my reflection on the pressures of performing and the importance of prioritizing mental health.
As Pipeaway turned seven in March, I unburied dangerous travel situations, some of which brought me quite close to that thin border the unlucky ones crossed. From rather benign, burning my soles in the Vietnamese desert, to fracturing ribs in a Finnish bathtub, and even a breathless scuba diving scare in Greece, I uncovered my personal heart-pounding and scarring travel moments.
But besides the personal section of the website, I started leaning into more subjective storytelling through the Pipeaway newsletter, especially since October, after a three-month silence made me rethink all of it. While I still believe the old newsletter format had much more to give, I wanted to be realistic, and, instead of curating others’ content week by week, on a level that I wanted to do it, I decided I had to put a pause on that system and focus on updates tied to my travels and stories freshly published on Pipeaway.
From “hi from frosty Zagreb” to “hi from Davao”, I greeted you with the “weekly” newsletter 38 times last year (the number was affected by the break between July’s goodbye and October’s hi-comeback).
The newsletter gained 89 new subscribers in 2024 (a 27.1% increase from the previous year), bringing the total subscriber count from 477 to 499 (4.6% growth). The final number reflects two simultaneous processes – some subscribers leave the service, while others are trimmed for inactivity (not opening the newsletter for months). I try to continue publishing it for real, engaged users, and not pump up misleading statistics.
Currently, Pipeaway’s newsletters’ open rate is 29.9% (the industry average, according to MailChimp, is 29.1%). There’s room for improvement in the click rate (1% vs. the peers’ 3.5%) and unsubscribe rate (currently, 0.51%, compared to peers’ 0.22%).
2024 Favorites
Favorite country of 2024 – Thailand
In 2024, I spent a total of 134 days abroad, wandering through Switzerland, Spain, Slovenia, Singapore, and – not only for the sake of alphabetic diversity – Italy, Hungary, Greece, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Add to that 88 days of summer, when I lived in coastal Croatia (splitting time between Ugljan and Bale), and worked as a seasonal worker in two luxury hotels.
That means I spent 222 nights “somewhere else”, and only 144 in my hometown. Well, what is home, anyway? For the first time ever, it seems I don’t have one. In Zagreb, now I only rent a storage unit for my belongings.
My favorite country from 2024 travels has to be the one where I had to pay a visa overstay fine – Thailand.
In two months and those misfortunate extra two days, I visited quite a few unforgettable festivals in this Southeast Asian country. I was counting Phuket Vegetarian Festival scars at Naka Shrine, and other local Chinese temples that I’ve yet to write about.
At the Lopburi Monkey Festival, I attended a banquet for long-tailed macaques, while in Surin, I followed an elephant parade, which became the most-watched video in my newly launched Pipeaway Walks series. If you want to stroll through more of Thailand, you can visit everything from One Nimman Night Market to Ban Nam Khem Memorial Park for the Khao Lak tsunami.
As I am spending January in Thailand too, you can expect even more content from this country throughout 2025.
Favorite city of 2024 – Singapore
The title of my favorite city in 2024 goes to Singapore – a city, a state, and a layover paradise all rolled into one. Fittingly, I rang in the New Year there, but not where you might expect. While others celebrated under Marina Bay Sands’ iconic skyline, I was at Changi Airport!
That’s right, on the longest night of the year, I endured my personal longest layover ever: 24 hours at the airport consistently ranking as the best in the world.
I love Singapore in general, but this jewel of an airport is not just a transit hub. It’s a destination in itself, with attractions that could put many actual cities to shame. From lush indoor gardens to entertainment zones, this is the airport where the word “layover” feels like an adventure rather than an inconvenience.
A full report on my day exploring this aviation utopia is coming up, so stay tuned!
Favorite accommodation of 2024 – Elvira’s Homestay
For my accommodation pick of the year, I wanted to put a spotlight on a humble yet heartwarming spot: Elvira’s Homestay on the island of Panglao in the Philippines.
There’s something undeniably restorative about finding genuine warmth in the hospitality of locals, especially when they treat you like family. I wrote about how travel can connect us with new tribes in the 147th edition of the newsletter.
In 2024, I found some unexpected kindness among the Wizz Air plane seats too. Read on to find out how a young passenger and two flight attendants went above and beyond to assist a fellow traveler.
In a world that often feels hurried and disconnected, these pockets of kindness and generosity deserve celebration. To Elvira, and everyone who offers a helping hand – take a bow.
Favorite food experience of 2024 – Vegetarian food in Phuket
As the day of lovers is approaching, you may be interested to consult Pipeaway’s guide through Valentine’s food gifts.
My precious, chocolate, has been a sour topic in 2024, as the world witnessed cocoa prices skyrocketing. I hope my AI-generated creations were a better experience than the catastrophe that was Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow, an event organized by the House of Illuminati. They promised a magical Willy Wonka-like wonderland but delivered a disastrous nightmare instead.
However, my dearest gastronomic experience of 2024 has to be vegetarian food in Phuket, home to Thailand’s vibrant Jae Festival, a nine-day Taoist celebration where the entire town takes meat off the menu.
Pipeaway’s top articles of 2024
Pipeaway’s stories that resonated the most with readers in 2024 were diving deeper into movies, images, and music that made us think. These were the blog posts that captivated our audience this year:
1. Society of the Snow Survivor Lessons: How Did They Survive?
Pipeaway’s most-read article published in 2024 covered the harrowing true story of the 1972 Andes plane crash, which inspired the Netflix film “Society of the Snow”. It recounted how 16 out of 45 passengers endured 72 brutal days in freezing mountains, relying on extreme survival tactics. There are some priceless lessons here, even if we hope never to need them!
2. AI Fools: You Know These Facebook Pictures Aren’t Real, Right?
In the second place of 2024 articles that grabbed most attention was the one that tackled the rise of AI-generated images on Facebook, and how they are increasingly confusing users, or even fooling them into believing they’re looking at real photos. Image generators have become a solid partner in crime, so you have to double up your vigilance when clicking on that thumb-up. Otherwise, you might be exposing yourself to fraud and deception.
3. Divided by Music: Eurovision, From Euphoria to EU-phobia
This article discussed the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which highlighted the divisions on the continent. The event, held in Malmö, Sweden, was marked by controversies, including protests, bans, and disqualifications. The slogan “United by Music” seemed ironic as political and social issues dominated the competition.
Pipeaway’s Facebook posts connected with the Eurosong went viral, with this one reaching 765 thousand users, and gaining 13.9k likes, 501 shares, and 383 comments.
Pipeaway’s timeless hits
Among the oldies but goldies, Greek nudism articles from 2021 and 2022 made a triumphant return to the top, reshuffling the rankings. These are the readers’ favorites among Pipeaway’s classics in 2024:
1. Clothing-Optional Resorts in Greece for Your Best Naturist Holidays
2. Top 5 Jjimjilbangs in Seoul
3. 7 Best Nude Beaches in Greece’s Cyclades Islands: Naked and Unafraid
4. Fat People on Planes: How to Survive Flying While Fat
5. Selecting a Plane Seat: 5 Reasons Why Last Row Should be First Choice
Social media in 2024
While organic search (68.3%) and direct visits (14.4%) continue to be the primary sources of traffic for Pipeaway, we saw a slight drop in their percentages in 2024. However, a notable shift occurred in the organic social channel, which grew substantially from 3.3% in 2023 to 13.8% in 2024. Diversifying traffic sources has proven to be a smart survival strategy.
Among social media platforms, Pinterest led the charge, bringing in 81.1% of Pipeaway’s social traffic, up from 61.4% in 2023. Pipeaway’s Pinterest account now boasts 1,024 followers (a 19.3% yearly growth) and 141k monthly viewers, which is 2.5 times more than the previous year. In total, Pipeaway’s pins were shown 1.7 million times, with 94.6k interactions. One of the top-performing pins is related to the article on how to become a pilot.
Facebook follows Pinterest, now accounting for 13.6 % of social media traffic. The number of followers on Pipeaway’s Facebook page grew to 12,201, with 474 net follows (a staggering 4.6k% increase). Largely fueled by those viral posts, Facebook reach has grown by 2.8k%, to a total of 1,030,949. Content interactions also grew by 1.4k%, totaling 23.3k.
Ex-Twitter continued showing a decline in relevance and now contributes only 1.7% of social media traffic. The Pipeaway Twitter account currently has 1,413 followers (up 16 from 2023). At the end of December, I started Pipeaway’s Bluesky social account, which currently has 10 followers.
Instagram’s contribution to social media traffic has become minimal, dropping from 2.7% to just 0.7%. Pipeaway’s Instagram followers base decreased by an additional 4% last year, now at 5,366. But despite fewer followers, Instagram’s reach was 20,065 (33.1% yearly growth), and there were 899 content interactions (100% growth).
In fifth place, this time we have Flipboard. It brought in just 0.6% of all social media traffic. As it only uses automatic postings, I don’t engage much on this platform, making it a passive traffic source. Pipeaway’s Flipboard profile has only 17 followers.
On the other hand, Pipeaway’s YouTube channel had 20.1k views in 2024, 66% less than the year before. Viewers spent a total of 521 hours watching videos. The subscriber count grew by 10.1%, from 248 to 275. The most-watched video was a quick peek into the world of Khanom A Pong, a Michelin-recommended street food stall in Phuket (6,626 views).
Beyond Pinterest, which brings the majority of social traffic without me even being engaged on it much (I should really focus more on that!), other platforms seem to serve more as branding tools than substantial traffic drivers. Despite regularly posting across these channels, I’ve started to realize that platforms like Pinterest, which provide more passive value, might deserve more of my attention. Meanwhile, networks that demote links seem to be draining valuable social media energy, making me reflect on how I spend my time on them.
Press highlights of 2024 – from USA Today to The Sun
As of January 2025, 1,497 domains are referring back to Pipeaway. That’s 200 more than the same time a year before.
Among the strongest links obtained in 2024 was certainly a feature in USA Today, where I was interviewed by Kathleen Wong about the impact of gun violence fears on a decline in travel to the United States.
For both their printed and online issues, Daily Mail licensed my AI images of fat people on planes to illustrate a write-up stemming from Finnair’s travel policy of weight.
Speaking of images generated by artificial intelligence, the fact-checker Snopes linked to our report on AI Facebook pictures when they debunked the image of the Scottish railway line on the mountainside.
My article on DND signs in hotels caught the attention of The Sun which linked to it from their own article. There were other media also republishing this story.
Beyond just scamming mafia, Pipeaway’s piece on lost luggage scam reached Slovenia, where the country’s oldest news portal Siol.net linked to it in their own investigative report. Even companies specialized in cybersecurity, such as Guardio, sent some backlink juice toward Pipeaway’s original piece of content.
Not exactly a backlink (because, well, Intagram!), but a mention worth mentioning in 2024 was artist Azi’s illustration featuring the last northern white rhino and its caretaker, inspired by our interview with Slovenian photographer Matjaž Krivic.
Despite our growing media mentions, Google demoted Pipeaway’s rankings for many keywords, and our once-growing domain authority fell from 39 to 31 (MOZ). According to Similarweb, our global rank in December 2024 was #1,452,413.
Thank you to my global support system
In 2024, hotels, hostels, boats, airports, and even massage schools generously partnered up with me, enabling many experiences that wouldn’t be possible without them.
While I always acknowledge these partnerships in the articles themselves, the support of people who help me behind the scenes and without fanfare remains somewhat in the shadow.
So I am especially grateful for the continuous backing from my friendly hosts around the world, namely Mladen in Sion, Nikos in Lanzarote and Kythira, both Christos in Athens, Corrado in Trieste, Kris in Khao Lak and Phuket, Kong in Bangkok, Mark and Ryan in Manila, and Dan in El Nido.
Thank you for making my travels smoother, my stays more enjoyable, and my adventures more meaningful! Thank you for being there for me!
Miles to go – Where’s my next destination?
I always feel predicting one’s whereabouts is ungrateful, as life is known for throwing unexpected curveballs.
But since I am already on the move, at least I know some parts of my 2025 itinerary. After spending January in Thailand, I plan to cross over to Malaysia in February, catching another edition of Thaipusam, this time on the island of Penang.
From Kuala Lumpur, I’ll swing by Italy on my way back to Croatia. After handling some car registration matters (I’d prefer to sell it – anyone interested?), I might take to the road or even the skies before summer hits Europe.
You see, I had to change some of my current Asian plans because flights I counted purchasing with miles turned out to be no longer available. So I ended up reaching into my wallet instead. But this means that I still have over 50,000 miles that will expire next summer. And I better use them.
Looking at the mileage bargains, it seems I could easily snag a return flight to destinations like Seoul, Delhi, or Johannesburg. Or should I head back to China? Canada?
Do I need to post a shirtless selfie in one of those ridiculous travel buddy Facebook groups?
Hmm, I kind of feel I’ve been mentioning a return to South Korea too many times, so maybe I indeed end up grabbing that Seoul ticket for zero dollars.
Come summer, I’ll likely be in or around Croatia, doing seasonal work I love to hate (at least it comes with accommodation). Remember, I have no bed anymore! So probably it will be a European hard-working summer (which hopefully won’t affect the blog as much as last year did).
I’d love to catch up with friends in Ireland, Greece, and Switzerland. And then, maybe autumn brings me to countries I frequently mention in this section of the review, and yet, I don’t end up visiting them. Right now, I’m thinking of Maldives, Sri Lanka, or perhaps a return to Japan…
What do you think? Got any suggestions? Or do I need to post a shirtless selfie in one of those ridiculous travel buddy Facebook groups filled with scams and… odd proposals? 🙂
Feel free to share your plans and travel resolutions!
Also, hey, just a random thought: if I were to organize a group trip to any of the countries, would you be interested in joining? Let me know where you’d like to go!
Wherever you are, stay safe!
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