This piece was originally written last year for Ninemsn.com.au. But I thought it was worth reposting here for anyone who fancies an insight into the glamorous life of a travel journalist. This isn’t a verbatim, true diary of one week, but it’s not far off the mark and should give a decent idea of proceedings… [...]
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Hot destinations lists It’s that time of year again where every guidebook publisher, newspaper travel section and website trots out its list of the top ten hot travel destinations for 2010. From Lonely Planet to the Guardian, you can guarantee that anyone who’s anyone will have their own spurious list. And, therefore, Grumpy Traveller shall [...]
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I’m sure many travel writers have encountered a situation where they have been offered a ‘media rate’ by hotels, airlines and tour operators. And I’m sure many of us have struggled to know how to word the most appropriate response. Well never fear – just alter the details on this template letter to suit your [...]
Or a Vanuatu rugby kit. That would do nicely as well. Heck, I’d even accept a Dominica cricket shirt if I could get hold of one. Travellers’ collections I should perhaps explain a little here. A lot of travellers collect things from their travels. Some go for postcards, others like to get stamps, others [...]
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Future of tourism at Uluru Sydney Morning Herald blogger Clive Dorman has sparked a big debate on the future of tourism at Uluru (the monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock). His reaction seems to be that if you can’t climb the rock, then there’s no point in visiting. Background to climbing debate That, frankly, [...]
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What makes a good travel story? I often get asked what makes a good travel story, and it’s something that hard to quantify. Evoking a sense of place, letting the reader in on things they don’t know, passing on useful information and skilfully managing to weave pertinent themes together are up there. But if there’s [...]
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Why the hospitality industry doesn’t get WiFi. Again. I know by now that rambling on about wireless internet access isn’t exactly smashing the boundaries of literature and reportage, but today I encountered a classic example of why the hospitality industry (and by extension, the tourism industry) just doesn’t get it. Moving house I have [...]
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Trivia time As you may have noticed, I’m not averse to the odd bit of trivia. That doesn’t make me a loser. It makes me very cool indeed. Christmas quiz And as I’m far too stingy and Scrooge-like to hand out proper presents to the readers of this blog, I thought I’d create a [...]
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