So which travel pubs pay expenses? | Interview: Which? Travel turns 50
Find out how it all began at Which? Travel — and how they work with freelancers now
This email finishes off our series on paying your own way. We’ve explored how other writers make it work, but how does an entire magazine do it? As British travel magazine Which? Travel turns 50 this month, we've interviewed editor Rory Boland about how it began, where they are now, and how they work with freelancers.
Which? Travel is 50 years old. But where did it all begin?
The early seventies was when holidays abroad became affordable for tens of millions of people, but there was little or no information at the time about where they were going — no Google, of course, but in most cases no guidebook either. Instead they relied on the brochure, which often resembled a work of fiction when you found your ‘seaside hotel’ was in the middle of nowhere, and that the town had no roads or telephones and no one spoke English. It could be quite frightening.
So in 1974, a small team of journalists at Which? set up Holiday Which? to provide ‘information holidaymakers could trust’. In their own words they wanted to apply the same in depth and rigorous research Which? was famous for so readers could choose a holiday destination and provider with confidence.
The first magazine had destination reports on Rhodes, Corfu and the Algarve, where staff were sent on inspections to hundreds of hotels to check everything from whether there was really running water and lifts to whether the pedalos were in working order.
Campaigning journalism was fundamental from the start. It’s difficult to imagine now but health and safety on holidays was a big problem in the 70s and 80s. Holidaymakers often faced food and water poisoning, while deaths from carbon monoxide or drowning at pools were too common. The magazine would regularly dispatch environmental health inspectors and heating engineers abroad to highlight the issue and pressure authorities to act. It fought bitterly, and successfully, for improvements to regulations and laws after several disasters.
What impact has the magazine had since its inception?
It’s hard to overstate the impact the magazine has had on the travel industry. From the introduction of a national flag warning system on UK beaches to mandatory safety inspections of children’s activity centres, we’ve been involved in almost every significant change to UK travel legislation in the last 50 years.
We still make hundreds of interventions every year on behalf of travellers. The pressure we put on companies regularly sees them improve their policies.
Over the past decade we have become more recognisable in national media and TV. Several of our stories will usually be picked up by other publications every week — and that’s a reflection of the trust they place in our research. I think we are probably (and proudly) best known as a consumer champion; challenging an airline over a dodgy carbon offset scheme we have uncovered or an accommodation platform for listing known racist hosts. But our destination content is hugely popular too. Good Morning Britain once moved its weather forecast to broadcast from the winner of our UK’s best seaside town feature.
Travel has changed a lot in five decades, but editorially, have you seen any major changes?
I think what has been striking in looking back over the archives in preparation for our 50th-anniversary issue is how little has changed.
Holiday Which? was launched in 1974 because of a lack of trusted information for holidaymakers. We now live in an information age, but in a way, things are worse. Much of what we read about travel is repurposed from holiday company press releases, while reviews are often bought and biased, or just outright fakes.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that the original mission of the magazine remains. We’re still independent — the only national UK travel publication that doesn’t take freebies — and we strive for accuracy, employing scientists, statisticians and lawyers. We’re still fearless, regularly challenging companies that let consumers down — whether it’s in the pages, in court or in parliament, no matter how big.
In many ways, the magazine has been reinvigorated by external changes to media. Readers are increasingly searching for channels and publications they can trust, because honesty has become rarer.
And I do think far too much of travel writing has been swamped by client journalism. It is difficult, if not impossible to always report on a destination, hotel or airline objectively when that same destination, hotel or airline has paid for your trip. It’s a relationship that many publishers have been happy to foster, because it benefits them and them only. It places freelancers in an incredibly difficult position, because there is no widespread alternative and the writing fee is a pittance. Meanwhile, it contributes, in its own small way, to the public’s eroding trust in journalists.
That’s why we pay our freelancers’ travel expenses. The vast majority of what we say in the magazine is positive; destination recommendations and profiles of the best companies to book with, but when we do find that destination that disappoints or a hotel that has underdelivered we can say so. Journalists must be able to express their opinions freely.
It’s trust that makes the brand so powerful. The reason people pick us up, the government listens to us or the BBC invites us on is because we tell the truth.