He likes to fly and try out products. He can't justify buying a ticket business wise, as it will never pay off. It will not generate enough traffic to his website because of it.
So if people are willing to pay for it, good for him. Is it cheap to ask people to pay for his trip, yes and no...
Not to many people will gain anything from his report, but it's interesting and people are willing to pay. The same way people will pay for a magazin, that has pictures of villas interior designs