Should we be paying our own way as travel writers?
Steph discusses whether we're too beholden to the press trip
Missed our latest webinar? Lottie and I joined Meera Dattani and two experts to discuss mental health and travel journalism and was described by one attendee as “like a warm hug”. You can watch it for free, plus other webinars discussing the logistics of travel writing for £6 a piece, here.
Taking hosted trips is one of the only ways that it can seem possible to make a living in this industry. Rates we can expect to earn for our work are low and, unless you can land multiple large and well-paid commissions off the back of each trip then it’s nigh on impossible to balance the books.
However, taking a press trip comped by a tourism board or company can affect which publications we can write for. Some of the world’s biggest, including BBC Travel, Washington Post, CNN and Insider, won’t accept articles written off the back of comped travel, while the New York Times goes further and only commissions writers who haven’t been on such a trip in three whole years (although, there have been repeated mutterings within the community about NYT writers being seen on press trips). The latter, at least, provides expenses to cover travel costs, but, if you’ve travelled recently on someone else’s dime, it’s a long old time of footing the bill before you become eligible to write for them.
This tweet from Insider requesting luxury pitches — which would be remunerated with a laughable $200 per article — was widely pilloried recently. The editor shared articles about a writer who had spent $840 per night at a Trump hotel, plus another about a writer’s $6,000 luxury cruise experience as examples of previously successful pitches. Both look to have been written off the back of the journalist’ holidays, but given the majority of travel journalists earn less than £19,999 per year through travel writing, it seems unlikely that many of us have the funds to foot these types of bills and subsequently be paid such a dismal amount.
Even for commissions featuring more affordable travel experiences, when you add in transport costs, hotels, food and other expenses, the amount being paid for these types of articles is rarely enough to cover the cost of travelling for them in the first place — let alone remunerating you for writing time.
Publications with no press trip rules argue that comped travel can compromise your ability to write about a destination — the ethics of which we’ll be discussing next month. For me, however, the only argument that bears any weight is that writing about destinations that can afford to provide a hosted stay is only fuelling an industry where the same places get coverage because they’ve got the biggest budgets and can host the most journalists.
It’s a point that Amy Virshup, an editor at The New York Times made a few years ago in this AMA thread on Reddit: “I also think taking freebies creates a herd mentality,” she says. “Why do so many articles suddenly appear about a certain destination? Could it be that the tourist board has offered a press trip? I'd rather have someone who is breaking away from the crowd rather than going with it writing for Times Travel.” I don’t disagree with her arguments, per se, but I do disagree with the fact that, in most cases, it’s the freelancer who has to pick up the bill.
When working on guidebooks and articles across the years, I’ve learned what I suspect many of you have too: if you want to be hosted, contact the most expensive, often internationally-owned property in the area. They’re significantly more likely to offer you a free stay than a locally-owned B&B. Beyond the fact that large, international properties have PR teams and are well versed in the value that media coverage can provide — something that many smaller properties haven’t necessarily experienced — they have the budgets to cover media stays. Most small businesses don’t.
But, as we continue to grapple with the urgent question of how we can justify travel in a world where aviation is a direct route to climate destruction, focusing on how our industry directly benefits local communities and their economies is something we should all be doing more. Independent businesses are those that merit coverage; they’re the ones where tourism dollars are more likely to be feeding back into the economy rather than leaking out of the country and being fed into the coffers of multinational companies.
Travel publications are facing dwindling readerships and increasingly looking at branded content to keep their budgets out of the red. As a result, the landscape of travel has become one where the countries and companies with the largest marketing budgets are those that gain the most exposure in the media. But we all need to be asking ourselves a simple question: is this the type of travel writing that is of most interest or service to our readers?
However, as they say, money makes the world go round, and typically drives most decision-making. And, as much as small businesses don’t have the cash to comp us, neither do we necessarily have the money to pay our own way. Turning a holiday experience into a paid article is an avenue some journalists take, but I can’t imagine anything worse than a busman’s holiday. If I’m going somewhere to disconnect, that most often means I leave my camera — and my journalistic eye — at home.
For others, existing wealth or having a partner whose income is enough to support self-funded forays into travel journalism is a way to write for the world’s biggest publications and make the numbers stack up. But, an industry where only the rich can afford to write about travel is a terrifyingly elite and problematic place, and one where diverse and often marginalised voices are shut out.
If you’ve got stories to tell that you can’t get supported or want to secure a byline in what are highly respected publications, then this month’s series will be of use. We’ll be talking to travel writers about how they’ve made the financials of paying their own way work and dive into the publications that give expenses.
Tweet of the week
Who to follow
Francesca Donovan has temporarily taken up the helm at The Great Outdoors, so she’s the person to pitch if you’ve got ideas for adventure and hiking features then she’s the person to pitch.
Industry must-reads
We were on a webinar about mental health for travel writers with the brilliant Meera Dattani in February — it’s completely free to download so give it a watch if you want to learn about protecting your own mental wellbeing while doing this slightly unhinged job. There’s also a backlog of brilliant webinars here — including on pitching and writing travel features — and they’re just £6 each.
Yesterday, they released the shortlist for the Inspire Global Media Awards. Yours truly is in there alongside some very brilliant company. Check it out here to read some of the best sustainability-focused writing in the industry right now.
Now this is less of a must-read and more of straightforward gossip, but we did watch in horror as Narratively introduced (and, following outcry, subsequently dropped) the batshit policy of charging writers to pitch.
Set aside some time for this somewhat intense and damning long read by Henry Wismayer on how tourism became so toxic and musings on where it’s headed.
Finally, this new book by Ash Bhardwarj could be an interesting read and insight into how and, mainly, why the consumer sets out on their adventures — and it goes beyond just having a nice little holiday.
This was the first in our series on paying your own way. Know someone who’d like this newsletter? Share it now.
Well said. I have thought about doing freelance travel writing, but questioned the payment for the effort of writing the story and the pitch
All very well getting off the track and writing about something different but often the outlets want to run stories about places that advertise with them (cruise lines, the tourist boards, package holiday organisations).