Following news of Guardian travel writer Benji Lanyado’s planned trip to Paris recently, the day has arrived for his departure for Paris from St Pancras, London.

For those new to the story, Benji’s actions in Paris will be influenced solely by suggestions given by his 321 or so Twitter followers.

@benjilanyardo #TwiTrip Updates on Twitter

You can follow his updates here, here, here and via this blog.

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Note: You can read the latest on Benji’s Paris #TwiTrip travels here.

In an interesting Guardian article posted yesterday, travel writer Benji Lanyado asks whether the recent adoption of Twitter as the micro-blogging site of choice among the celebrity elite, tech-geeks and marketing gurus could become the solo traveller’s best friend.

Twitter - Latest Tool to Revolutionise Online Travel?

Stephen Fry has been championing the usefulness of Twitter, claiming he is always using it while on his travels. Already ranking 3rd in Google search for the term ‘Blog‘, Stephen Fry is now one of Twitter’s most followed users (85,000 followers and counting).

And so, having researched the stories having broken via Twitter before even the local media knew anything about them (Denver runway plane crash and the Hudson river emergency landing), Benji - Twitter profile benjilanyado, announced how he planned to run an experiment. At some point in the not too distant future, the Guardian travel writer will be departing for Paris. Very little pre-planning is going into his travel schedule. In fact, the writer will be relying wholly on tweeted tips from his twitter following.

Interestingly, while road-testing the system, he asked yesterday whether anyone could suggest a ‘cool/cheap hotel for Paris next week. challenge mamashelter - its story of renovation posted here back in October 2008. Hotel Particulier De Montmartre was another hotel listed on Benji’s feed, along with hotel price comparison site hotelly and Oops Budget Hotel. The Paris camp site idea would perhaps end up buried under later tweets. A real stroke of genius came only two hours of the original hotel request tweet… Brillliant Tips posted a blog entitled ‘Travel via Twitter - Looking for a Cool Hotel in Paris?‘ aiming the post squarely at the travel writer.

Paris Boutique Hotel, mamashelter

I am looking forward to establishing if Benji’s plans to tour Paris, guided solely by user’s tweets will succeed. I am putting faith into this little endeavour and believe it will provide further evidence of Twitter’s emergence as the tool to revolutionise online travel.

I will be reporting back here regularly, updating you on Benji’s progress.