Why Only Travelers Can Tell a Travel Story
Just my 2 cents about this whole business. Plus urgent call for pitches.
After attending the wellness retreat in Asheville and an insightful birthday week, I have slowed down naturally. I honestly question all the work I put in each day juggling balls and keeping up as a freelance writer.
And the shakeups in the travel media industry is not giving me much incentive to keep working harder. Getting assignments is more competitive than ever. The pay rates have not changed in a decade. Static Media offered me $.08/ word! *###* PR is getting more demanding about expectations from press trip travels. More publications are banning stories from press trips. Many editors don’t respond to pitches. Even when they do give an assignment, they want us to do more. One of my editors has sent a dozen follow up emails to one 500-word story, asking for sources, then not using them; asking me to add more information, then deleting it. My sources are so annoyed by my daily questions, they told me to not include them in the interview after all (and we are going to print next week). Ugh!
Well, most travel freelancers are not doing this for the money anyways. We do it because we truly enjoy traveling and it serves our lifestyles and barely pays the bills.
So when a publication says they are not accepting pitches from a writer who has accepted a press trip before, they are essentially only open to receiving stories from those who can afford to pay their own way to travel (aka rich people), or local experts (those who don’t travel).
Neither of these make sense. Here’s why…
People who pay to go on big trips don’t care about pitching, writing, fact checking and publishing, unless they just want their vanity name in print. They are not going to put in the hard work and the quality of writing will suffer.
Local experts look at things from a local standpoint, not from a traveler’s. Let me give you a good example of this. When I took my American friend to my hometown of India, she was overjoyed by everything she saw for the first time. “Look! A cow walking the street, a man getting his tooth pulled out, colorful hot jalebi, women with red tikka…” she kept reciting all the details she observed as a first time visitor. I honestly never paid attention to these things as they were second nature to me having witnessed them every day of my life. But for her, it was a new experience and thats what someone who has never been would like to know. I realized, that’s why it is important for travelers to tell a travel story!
To add to that, traveling is an experience on its own, which stimulates more ideas and thus, stories. You can’t write about what to pack in your carry-on unless you have lost your luggage a few times; the fears of solo female travel unless you traveled by bus all night through the Middle East; or drawn parallels between cultures and beliefs, unless you have personally talked to locals from different indigenous cultures across the world.
So, what can we do better?
I believe that all of us - PR, journalists, editors, clients - need to be more sensitive about “telling meaningful stories” rather than churning out articles. Let’s focus on the bigger picture of why travel truly matters and how it helps communities do better, and why we are in this business.
Sorry for the rant. Someone had to speak up.
Sucheta Rawal is a South Asian travel writer, columnist, author and speaker. She is a 3 time TEDx speaker and author of 5 'Beato Goes To' children's books. She has personally traveled to over 120 countries across 7 continents and speaks about her experiences from her firsthand perspective. She also founded the non-profit, Go Eat Give, to raise awareness of different cultures through travel, food and community service.
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I started writing ‘Beato Goes To’ children’s books to share stories about the kids I met in different countries who led unique lives. As seen through the eyes of my curious cat Beato these colorful picture books inspire kids to be curious, open minded and dream of traveling.
Great points you made here. What I personally don’t like about many travel stories I read, especially from well known magazines, are how direct and lethargic the prose comes out. It all revolves around facts with some abrupt pun thrown in to add a little “humor” to the article. A lot of these writers don’t get their hands dirty and you can tell it in the writing too. Their editors must be the biggest squares of them all. Hell, even an F bomb once in a while can add some life to a story.
I have just about finished my travel story from 20 years ago, on as a 50 year very inexperienced solo traveller, I had those memorable moments of seeing things with fresh eyes. In between my trip I did write about lesson learnt, but my subscribers are limited. Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm now a 70 year old semi-retiree who lives in Australia.