- In ‘Top 10 Travel Couples on YouTube’ by Ceylon Travel Paths
Kiwi Lankan Couple is a popular travel blog on Instagram featuring travel couple Dulith Gunasekera and Nishi De Silva. The Lankan duo, currently residing in New Zealand, started their travel journey in 2019, when they travelled to Perth in Western Australia to visit close family.
While in Perth, they had the opportunity to document the many beautiful places they experienced, taking photos and videos in an attempt to capture all the magical moments. On their way back from this trip was when it first sparked the idea to start an Instagram page.
While originally it was mainly to share everything with their friends, since they both loved adventures and travelling, their online presence via this travel page continued to grow. They eventually launched their “Kiwi Lankan Couple” YouTube page and then the Facebook page, which has since grown into a community of travel enthusiasts.
Brunch spoke to Nishi about the journey so far and what we can expect from the duo as they continue to explore the world together.
Following are excerpts of the interview.
You had the idea to start ‘Kiwi Lankan Couple’ to share your memories with your friends. How has the content continued to grow since then? What inspires you guys?
Since Dulith comes from a filming background, we wanted to give our audience a cinematic experience from videos we post as well as unique, eye-catching photos on Instagram. With the latest technology and the creativity we have, we always wanted to post content that stands out from the usual travel content.
When it comes to travelling, our philosophy is to simply be ourselves and live the moment. We don’t always plan trips or destinations. Most of the time, our trips are totally unplanned, and unplanned destinations always become a hit amongst our followers. Travelling is a hobby and a passion for us, so the best moments always come when you live in that moment.
How would you describe the experience so far? Any special highlights?
We absolutely love travelling and we don’t want to ever stop discovering beautiful destinations. We have so many favourites, but one of our favourite destinations was visiting the Black Diamond Lake in Perth, Australia. The water was crystal blue (like New Zealand’s crystal water) and it was just so beautiful to see. We also loved going to Adventure World (theme park in Perth). Not a lot of people like to visit Perth, but there’s actually little hidden gems in this beautiful state.
Apart from Australia being one of our favourites, we absolutely love New Zealand and it’s definitely one of our favourite destinations. We have covered most areas in the North Island of New Zealand. Our next plan is to cover the South Island, including Queenstown (a well-known tourist destination).
What is your ultimate goal with the online content page? Do you wish for it to be a creative outlet or do you hope to one day be a full-time content creator?
Our ultimate goal is to keep sharing unique travel experiences, both locally and internationally, in the future and to become well-known travel couple influencers amongst the travel community.
One of our achievements as a travel couple was being one of the “Top 10 Travel Couples on YouTube”, awarded by Ceylon Travel Paths on Instagram. Our name was amongst the most popular Sri Lankan travel couples, along with Travel with Wife, Binario, and Nomadic Lobsters.
It’s great to have this recognition and know that our videos are being admired by others.
When the right time comes, we definitely want to become full-time content creators and full-time travellers. However, with our current full-time jobs and other commitments, we want to keep growing our social media platforms and continue travelling as a hobby.
For this kind of recognition, what do you think sets you two apart from the rest and attracts your audience?
The use of technology is definitely an advantage. Also, having a good knowledge about our target audience, having in mind what people like to see on our page.
It was challenging at first to grab people’s attention. But I think our way of sharing travel experiences and places we visit captivated people in some way. We also posted a lot and became active on Instagram, which helped a lot with engagement. Good camera composition and couple poses also helped us to stand out a bit more.
Surely the pandemic has not been not easy, especially for travel enthusiasts. How were things for you during that time?
It was really tough. New Zealand went into lockdown late August and the relaxation of restrictions only happened a few weeks ago. This made travelling around New Zealand even harder. Our YouTube channel was inactive for about two months and Instagram for a few weeks before we were able to post new content. We kept our Instagram family engaged by posting our past travel photos (a lot of throwbacks!). As soon as we were able to travel, we began to get more attention from people and continue growing.
Since things are somewhat back to normal, what are your plans for the future and your travel content?
Future plans include travelling overseas and ticking off our bucket list dream destinations. We especially want to travel to Sri Lanka and cover most parts of our beautiful motherland.
We definitely want to grow our social media platforms, especially our YouTube channel, and become full-time content creators in the long run. We hope we will be able to continue our travel experiences with our wonderful supporters.
YouTube: Kiwi Lankan Couple
Instagram: @kiwilankancouple
