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Editorial: Pitch Surefire Travel Stories

Why is my success rate so high?

One of the reasons I sell so many travel articles is because I go with best bets. I prefer to write about destinations that are well received and safe in normal times. (Yes, I know times are not currently “normal”.)

Germany, for example, has just been ranked first in the Anholt-Gfk Nation Brands Index (NBI), which rates the brand image of 50 nations worldwide.

And, conversely, I ignore places that tourists shy away from because of recent natural disasters or that are geopolitical hot spots. It doesn't matter how nice the people are at a destination, or how stunning their attractions.

If a place is undergoing turmoil, or an epidemic, or an active volcano, it’s difficult for us to sell stories about it.

Now, this might all seem like common sense, but sometimes travel writers let their “emotional resonance” with a place override their common sense. They love a place so much they just want to tell everyone about it. This response is natural enough.

But as a travel writer you need to temper your enthusiasm with some business sense to make your decision. What’s the point of pitching a destination story that is not likely to sell?

Tourists and travel magazine editors are, understandably, a fickle lot. Tourists don’t want to spend their annual two-week vacation and their hard-earned money visiting a place that has just been devastated by an earthquake or a landslide, for example. They don’t want to visit wine regions that have just been ravaged by wildfires. That’s the just way humans are.

A couple of years ago, hundreds of thousands of tourists cancelled their travel to Indonesia’s Sulawesi because of its’ recent earthquakes. Likewise, they cancelled their trips to Bali because of the Mount Agung volcanic eruptions.

Bali tourism dropped to about 25% of normal levels because tourists changed their minds. The want blue skies and sunshine. They don’t want to be in a place that could have a cloud of volcanic ash hovering over it, or get stuck there if they close the airport down.

Here’s another example of a hard-to-sell travel story.

Two years ago I declined an enticing 5-day boat cruise press trip around Myanmar’s beautiful and remote Mergui Islands. Editors aren’t interested in publishing stories about a country where minority people (in this case, the Rohingya) were being persecuted. It doesn’t matter that the islands I was going to visit were at the other end of the country. The whole country seemed tainted.

And, who really wants to visit Brazil or Nicaragua right now? There are no guarantees that things have settled down in either of those countries and we don’t want to risk being caught in the middle of political riots or an out-of-control pandemic.

Once a place becomes tainted by natural or man-made disasters, it’s very difficult to lure tourists back. And it generally takes a long time. It's difficult to sell travel stories about these places to magazine editors, no matter how much you personally love the place.

Conversely, places that handle themselves well in a crisis, such as New Zealand during the pandemic, will be receiving boatloads of tourists because they are perceived as “safe”. Of course, New Zealand doesn’t want any visitors at this time because they don't want to import any new cases of the virus.

Vacations are supposed to be “feel good” experiences that liberate us from the drudgery of our 9-to-5 existence. Travel magazine editors are well aware of this and they won’t buy stories about places facing any kind of strife. They want to keep us in a happy place when we read their stories.

It’s common sense. Pitch story ideas about places that are friendly, politically stable, and devoid of natural disasters. You’ll have better luck selling them.

This Week's Featured Post

Are Travel Blogs and Websites Becoming Irrelevant?

There are two main ways that travel writers earn income online: publishing and monetizing their own travel blog, or writing for other people’s blogs and websites.

The internet has changed the travel writing industry in many ways. But, so far, it has not developed to the extent that freelance writers can make a livable income by writing travel stories for blogs and websites.

Read the article for my take on the current state of travel blogs . . .

READ THE ARTICLE

Upcoming Posts

PitchTravelWrite.com Success Stories

Chuck Warren’s Exciting Freelance Writing Journey

Here’s how Chuck Warren used his knowledge and experience in the boating industry and made it look easy.

It’s an inspirational read for anyone thinking about entering the competitive field of freelance magazine writing.

"My travel writing journey over the past two and a half years has been nothing short of incredible and I'm trying very hard to continue moving forward.

Here’s my story on how I made the transition from unpublished wannabe to regular freelance contributor . . .

READ CHUCK WARREN'S STORY

Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links about Preselling Your Articles

Here are three articles about why you should always sell your stories before you write them . . .

Pitch Before You Write: Five Tips for Your Sales Pitch

How to Presell Your Travel Stories

Seven Travel Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Inspirational Travel Quote

RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERS

Featured Book: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO QUERY LETTERS for TRAVEL WRITERS

Well-written query letters convince magazine editors that you have an exciting travel story their readers will absolutely love.

In ten years of travel writing I’ve had more than 1,000 stories published in 200 magazines, journals, newspapers, in-flights, on-boards, specialty magazines, and travel websites – and they all started with a query letter. 

I know how to write killer query letters that work, and I wrote this eBook to show you how to do it.

This is different from all other query letter books because you get 20 sample query letters that worked for me. These are actual query letters I used successfully to get articles published in print magazines.

Each sample query letter comes with a clear explanation of the key things that sold the idea successfully. And you can use my samples to create a template for your own query letters, using the same words and layout.

BUY THE BOOK

Group Coaching Mastermind Community

Last week we studied "How to Write a Compelling Beginning to Your Travel Story" and this week we'll be discussing my Marketing Mastery system and how it works.

If you missed out on the opportunity to join this session, you can get on our no-obligation interest list for the next session starting in January.

Be among the first to hear when we re-open registration in early 2021. Learn more about what’s included and sign up for the interest list here . . .

Group Coaching Mastermind Community Interest List

Live Workshops

Here are the 2021 dates:
June 3-6, 2021, Travel Writing & Photography Retreat
June 8-10, 2021, 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 2021 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

At Your Service

Coaching and Consulting
Online Courses
Vietnam 1-1 Retreat & Consulting
Expat Consulting

email: pitchtravelwrite@gmail.com

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Roy Stevenson
Pitch Travel Write
www.pitchtravelwrite.com