In 2010, Every Traveller is a Travel Writer
Had an email from this week from someone wanting to do an individual 4-day tour of the Mekong Delta, so we replied with a detailed itinerary and costing. The reply was “This is too expensive for me. I am a travel writer writing a travel guide to Vietnam for women travellers. As such it would be good for you to offer me a heavily discounted or free trip.”
Good for us, or good for you? A few hundred dollars off our bottom line in return for a no doubt brief mention in a travel guide hardly anyone will read? I think not!
In 2010, the notion that travel writers should get special treatment is somewhat passe. These days, EVERY traveller is a potential travel writer, and so every traveller should get special treatment, at least as far as we’re concerned. The rise of travel blogs, peer-to-peer review sites such as Tripadvisor and Fodor’s, and travel forums such as Tripadvisor, Travelfish and Thorn Tree, means that anyone who travels can write about it and, in many cases, get a lot of eyeballs. It’s also led to a sea change in where people get their travel information - people no longer trust journalists writing puff pieces about hotels who’ve given them a free stay in return for some publicity, they want to read real reviews and real experiences by real travellers.
The famous Cluetrain Manifesto, published in 1999, made the following statements about shifts in marketing created by the growth of the internet:
The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.
People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors.
There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.
Very prescient stuff, and definitely true of travellers in 2010. So why give travel writers special treatment when your next booking could be from a travelling member of the general public whose blogs, reviews or forum postings might carry a lot more weight than those of a journalist or guide writer?
Just to expand on this - I’ve worked as press officer for organisations where I’m glad to say that a blog mention or query were increasingly treated as just as important as a press call.
Journalism has been deskilled. For good or bad we’re all journalists now.
In that respect journalists can expect a great deal less special treatment on trips. And hopefully with free press trips off the agenda we can start to get more accuracy and honesty instead.
Thanks Steve - I wrote an article on a similar topic for The Word last year:
http://wordhcmc.com/component/content/694?task=view
If he would have mentioned that he is writing for a popular website, it may have changed your opinion
But yes, there is no need for travel books anymore (one reason is that most of this planet is already discovered), and then there is the Internez. People are looking for comments on trip advisers or reading wikitravel. If this journalist would be smart, he had a facebook page with 1000 friends or a blog with a high pagerank. That may help a travel company. But to mention in a book? Not anymore?
But if you’ve ever talked to a hostel owner, getting listed in the Lonely Planet book gets them a lot more business than great reviews on Trip Advisor. And you only have to kiss one person’s ass to get into Lonely Planet–to rank high on Hostelworld or Trip Advisor means constant ass-kissing.
I think it depends on your business type and target audience. Some businesses will do anything to get good reviews on Trip Advisor, others on Hostelworld or Yelp. For others, being in a guidebook is more valuable.
I agree that a travel writer seeking a discount is something of an unsavoury notion and that a blogger, willing-to-pay, may provide greater exposure for the brand in the long run.
Travel writers appear naive if they believe that there is a future in the industry. If they were to bring video or audio to projects their work surely they would carry further? Is there a possibility for a “journalist”, if representing multiple channels, to outsource their work in different mediums and gain a discount from travel companies?
“Is there a possibility for a “journalist”, if representing multiple channels, to outsource their work in different mediums and gain a discount from travel companies?”
Depends, Will. If I was sure that the journalist’s work would result in exposure for us that was across several media, positive, and, most importantly, measurable, I’d certainly consider offering a discount. But not for a guidebook writer - Thomas is right in that they’re dying out. People - myself included - still use them for reference about local culture, restaurants, places of interest etc, but apart from backpackers, no-one uses them to book accommodation or find travel agents/tour operators. And with the rapid growth of mobile internet, their usefulness will decrease even further.