Not only will this year’s World Traveler Interns – Chris Danner and Lindsay Clark – be shooting photos and videos and blogging at statravel.com/wti, they will also be using Twitter to update everyone on their trip from around the world.

You can follow the Interns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/statravelwti.

You will hear the latest from them as they depart later today for Fiji and then updates from Australia to Scotland. This will also be the place to get the lastest updates when new photos, videos and blog posts are added to statravel.com/wti.

The Interns start their journey in a few hours, so make sure to send them a few well wishes.

Before we started this blog, some of you may have known me as the guy behind the STA Travel Twitter account (@statravelers) who shared links to some crazy travel stories and answered a bunch of odd questions.

Now that we have a blog, we share even more crazy and informative travel stories and offer some great travel tips from our experts.

However, we haven’t forgotten about our Twitter friends.

Last week, we gave away an adventure trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco (with stops in the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas) to one lucky person who retweeted a specific message. A winner was selected at random, but that person decided to decline the prize, so it is back up for grabs this week.

Here are the details:

From 1 p.m. central  (2 p.m. eastern) until 3 p.m. central (4 p.m. eastern) on Thursday, April 16, send a retweet of STA Travelers original tweet, which will be tweeted around 1 p.m. central:

Get adventurous with STA Travel & Suntrek RT to win adventure trip across West Coast incl Grand Canyon http://bit.ly/statwt

At 4 p.m. central on Thursday, one person who retweeted that tweet will win a free adventure trip courtesy of STA Travel and Suntrek.

Make sure to check out the details and the fine print here.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter or just getting started, consider this your starter kit. We’ve compiled a list of 30 of our favorite travel-related Twitter users. From bloggers to food-related travel friends, we’ve got you covered.

30 Awesome Travel Twitterers:

Travel Blogs:

• Wall Street Journal Middle Seat Blog (@middleseat)
• Jaunted (@jaunted)
• Gadling (@gadling)
• Boots ‘n All (@bootsnall)
• Matador Network (@matadornetwork)
• World Hum (@worldhum)

Travel Newspapers,  TV Channels and Magazines:

• Glimpse (@glimpseorg)
• Los Angeles Times Travel (@latimestravel)
• New York Times Travel (@nytimestravel)
• Budget Travel (@budtravel)

Travel Bloggers and Journalists:

• Kara Williams (@karasw)
• Sarah Nassauer (@sarahnassauer)
• Harriet Baskas (@hbaskas)
• Darren Cronian (@travelrants)
• Christopher Elliott (@elliottdotorg)
• Kelly Goodman (@kag2u)
• Kevin May (@travolution)
• Nomadic Matt (@nomadicmatt)
• Jen Leo (@jenleo)
• Wendy Perrin (@wendyperrin)
• Matt Gross (@frugaltraveler)
• Julie Blakley (@whygofrance)
• Soul Travelers 3 (@soultravelers3)
• Travel Channel (@travelchannel)

STA-related Twitters:

• Lindsay Clark (@nomadderwhere) – One of the 2009 World Traveler Interns
• Scott Hyden (@scotthyden) – President of the U.S. Division of STA Travel

Food and Travel:

• Anthony Bourdain (@noreservations)
• Tanya Steel (@epicurious)

Travel Business:

• Elliott Ng (@elliottng)
• Nicole Lerner (@nlerner)

Let us know in the comments your travel-related Twitter favorites.

Last week, Travel Weekly, the industry standard for travel news and information, published a story about travel companies and social networking. From Twitter to Facebook and LinkedIn to YouTube, the article is all about how and why travel companies are getting involved in social networking.

Here are a few excerpts from the article by Dennis Schaal (follow him on Twitter):

“We don’t have a choice but to participate in these spaces,” said Kristen Celko, vice president of marketing and e-commerce for STA Travel, a student and young adult travel operation based in Lewisville, Texas.

Citing data that showed a decline in traffic to traditional travel websites in 2008, Celko said, “We certainly need to get in front of customers in the places where they are spending their time.”

-

“If you are going to approach Twitter as strictly a way to wring money out of people, you are not going to be successful,” [Morgan] Johnston [of JetBlue] said. “If you are going to approach it as building engagement with your customers and working to turn your customers into brand advocates for you, then there is a great deal of value in it.”

-

Whether using Twitter or Facebook, a company has to strike a balance between the commercial and the personal, [Shannon] Schiner [of Nevis Tourism Authority] said.

“You have to become part of the community,” she said, “although you probably are not going to talk about your boyfriend’s proposal last night.”

-

You can check out the full article on the Travel Weekly Web site.

After you read the article, let me know what you think.

How are we doing on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube? How are other companies doing on those platforms? Are there certain aspects you like and don’t like? What can we do better?

Feel free to reply in the comments or send me a tweet – @statravelers.

I’m looking forward to what you guys have to say.

Photo Credit: Orange_Beard on Flickr

Too bad the new President isn’t under 26 – or at least still a teacher. Reuters published an article today about the “travel bug” President Obama has caught since he took office at the end of January. (Imagine all the money he could save with STA!)

So where is the President today? None other than Ottawa, Canada.

The interesting part of our neighbors to the north is that just shy of 15 percent of the population in Ottawa speaks French as their first language. So before you head north of the border, here is a short video on 10 essential French phrases to know before starting your trek…

Let’s hit the links….

Menu Decoders from Budget Travel – Have you ever been at an Indian or French restaurant and not been able to read the menu? If you follow us on Twitter, you know I had this exact problem today. Budget Travel’s menu decoders are a great reference for these confusing situations.

Do I Have “Study Abroad” Tattooed On My Forehead? from College Candy – Kathryn S. offers tips from her unique perspective on going to school abroad for students planning to study abroad. My favorite -  “Don’t Get Wasted and Yell Things That Would Be Funny at Home.” Wise words, Kathryn, Wise words.

Tips for Spring Break from College Jolt – Lauren offers her top ten “do’s” for Spring Break, like do wear sunscreen, do budget and do cherish your time on vacation.

My Favorite Travel Companies from Nomadic Matt -- Woot! One of our favorite travel bloggers named STA Travel among his favorite travel companies.

Ryanair introduces in-air mobile phone calls on select routes from Gadling.com – Put me in the “no way” camp on this one. I love my BlackBerry, but there is no way I want to be stuck in a giant metal bird several thousand feet in the air with everybody gabbing on their cell phones. High prices and limiting the amount of users should help for now.