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Editorial: Press Trip Etiquette for Travel Writers

Destination marketing organizations host thousands of press trips each year. If you want to stay on their press trips list, here’s what you need to do to get repeat invitations.

Be Prepared

Your media hosts will send you an itinerary in advance of your trip. Do your homework and review it before you leave home. 

Stay Focused

Travel writers (and their hosts) put in long days on press trips. It’s not unusual to start the day and 7 a.m. and finish up at 10 p.m. or later. That’s a long time to stay alert, but it’s your job to do exactly that.

Bring Your Business Cards

You’ll be making a lot of stops each day - in restaurants, tourist attractions, and hotels.  Have enough business cards to present to each host along the route.

Be Punctual
Punctuality is an important etiquette behavior. A lot of planning goes into the FAMs, and local businesses are expecting you at a certain time. Showing up for all planned activities is also important.  

Attitude and Gratitude

A great attitude goes a long way. FAM trips are as much fun as they are informative. Bring your sense of adventure. Many of the hospitality and tour workers rely heavily on gratuities to make ends meet. A gratuity for that person who carried your luggage, cleaned your hotel room, and waited your table, or provided a stellar (and free) tour is much appreciated. 

Ask questions, take notes, be alert to something interesting about a stop on the itinerary. Be joyous. Be charming.

As a travel writer, how you act reflects back on you and the magazines you represent.

There’s an unwritten etiquette and behavior code for travel writers that should be followed. Here’s what's expected of you before and during your press trips and Fam tours . . .

This Week's Featured Post

Break into Travel Writing with Museum Stories

Since I entered the freelance travel writing arena in 2007, I’ve had more than 200 museum stories published in 32 paying print magazines. That’s 20% of my total number of published articles! If you do a search for “Roy Stevenson + museums” you’ll see a few of them online.

My fourteen-year museum writing binge started early in my freelance career. I love visiting military and history and cultural museums. I’d visit these museums even if I wasn’t writing a story.

If you enjoy visiting museums, there’s no reason why you can’t sell museum stories. And you can make some good coin while you’re at it. 

Why do museum pieces sell so well? And, more importantly, how do you sell museum stories, and to whom?

Read this post to find out . . .

Upcoming Posts

PitchTravelWrite.com Success Stories

Tim Cotroneo: My Story as a Golf and Travel Writer

After the workshop my wife and I planned a trip to the Turks and Caicos Island of Providenciales. I emailed the golf professional at the island’s only 18-hole course in advance of the trip and presented myself as a golf and travel writer. I thought to myself, “I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”  On the trip I met with the pro and played the course. 

My First Yes

During our stay in Providenciales, I noticed a glossy magazine on the coffee table in our hotel room and read it. Upon returning home to Minneapolis, I pitched this magazine a story idea about what I experienced at the golf course when I played there.

 The editor said yes! 

I wrote the story and got paid $300. I was officially a travel writer and have been writing about golf and travel ever since."

Here’s Tim Cotroneo’s exotic golf and travel writing journey so far . . .

Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links about Dreaming up Story Ideas

It takes some groundwork to become savvy at recognizing and mining gold nugget travel story ideas.  A huge factor in selling story ideas and getting them published is the quality of your idea. While this may seem self-evident, finding an interesting story to pitch is a daunting task for novice freelance writers. 



It takes some experience to know what constitutes a viable travel story.  And deciding whether a story idea is a dog or a shooting star is an important first step in the pitching process.
 


So where, and how, do travel writers start their quest for a salable story? Here are 6 tips to help you . . .

For novice freelance writers, trying to figure out what story to pitch to an editor is a daunting task. Because of inexperience, you have no frame of reference.  Often, beginners lack confidence in their story ideas. So where do you start?

If you want to boost your bylines, try my winning system. These seven techniques can be used to constantly generate salable ideas . . .

The beauty of travel writing is that you can write an article about almost every aspect of your travels and find a home for it somewhere. Editors get tired of being pitched the same kind of roundup story. They see it all the time and it’s not what they’re looking for anymore.  They are looking for new ideas and fresh perspectives.

There are some common themes for travel articles, there are travel articles that focus on "the best" that a place has to offer, and there are travel stories based on specific areas of interest. This might include things like luxury travel, adventure travel, beer and wine, just to name a few. This post will give you some idea of the types of travel stories you can write and sell.

Inspirational Travel Quote

RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERS

Featured Book of the Month: 100 PRINT MAGAZINES THAT WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR TRAVEL ARTICLES

This compilation is far more specialized than what you find in Writer’s Market. Compiled over ten years from a wide variety of on-line sources, field resources and book references, this comprehensive listing also includes international publications for the English-speaking market.

If you want to be a successful travel writer and get your articles published in paying print publications, you need to be highly proficient at finding travel magazine leads. 

Having a solid list of magazines makes it easier to find assignments that will help get you invited on Press trips.

You can get $5 off the price of the book if you use promo code MY5 at checkout: BUY THE BOOK

Here’s what professional travel blogger Chris Backe has to say about 100 Print Magazines That Want To Publish Your Travel Articles reference manual: “The title tells you exactly what to expect. Roy introduces the concept of a ‘distribution list’ early on, his approach to simultaneous submissions, along with the need for writers to research and add places of their own to the list.

The list itself is well-organized and offers a paragraph or so for every noted magazine (though some descriptions do look copy-and-pasted from a magazine’s own page ). Look for the website, a link to their guidelines, the editor’s name, and an e-mail address – note of course that you’ll want to confirm everything’s still up-to-date before sending off your pitches.”

“Writers will be hard-pressed to find a resource as great as Roy Stevenson's, "100 Print Magazines that Want to Publish you Travel Stories." This is packed with insider details and contact information that will help any writer winnow down markets by developing target-specific lists for publishing their articles.”
Karin Leperi, Award Winning Travel Writer/Photographer (USA)

Learn more and buy the book . . .

Group Coaching Mastermind Community

If you missed out on the opportunity to join this session, you can get on the waiting list for the next session starting in June . . .

Learn more and get on the waiting list . . .

Live Workshops

Here are the 2022 dates:
June 17-20, 2022, Travel Writing & Photography Retreat
June 22-24, 2022, Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers

We've had lots of interest already. You can sign up for our no-obligation interest list for these workshops and receive our substantial early bird discounts when we open registration:

GET ON THE 2022 LIVE WORKSHOP NO-OBLIGATION INTEREST LIST HERE

Did You Know . . .

You can access the list of the top ten travel writing workshops at the link below . . .

Travel Writers Exchange workshop list: #1 Marketing Master Class

Online Travel Writing & Marketing Master Class

Who's it for?

• If you’re a novice travel writer, or you haven’t had much luck selling your articles to print magazines, this Online Travel Writing & Marketing Workshop is for you.
• If you weren’t able to travel to our Live Master Class, here’s the opportunity to attend anyway - without any travel costs and at a substantially reduced cost!
• If you work a full-time job and can’t get time off to attend the live class – you can still attend on your own schedule after working hours.
• If you’ve wanted to attend our Live Marketing Master Class but can’t get your schedule to fit with the dates it’s offered – here’s your opportunity to attend at your own convenience.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER

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Expat Consulting

email: pitchtravelwrite@gmail.com

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Roy Stevenson
Pitch Travel Write
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