As Jeremy Head rightly points out in his new post, there is so much destination guide content festering on the internet that much of it becomes interchangeable. Why, in essence, should you go to one site’s guides above another’s? Many websites – be they for hotel, airlines or generic travel companies trying to build their [...]
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A cruise for everyone? Andy Jarosz of 501places.com wrote a beautiful post the other day about cruises. To sum up, despite people that there’s a cruise for everyone, he still remained sceptical. My attitude is largely the same. I am yet to see one reason why I would enjoy a cruise. I hate travelling as part [...]
Continue reading about Why the try everything once mentality is nonsense
A PR’s job I am acutely aware that there is more to doing travel PR than forever leaping every time a journalist clicks their fingers. In fact, some PRs may argue that dealing with journalists only forms a small part of their job. But it is a part of the job nonetheless, and the whole [...]
Continue reading about One common mistake that PR companies make – and how to fix it
Writers and photographers are increasingly expected to be multi-skilled. But are the two crafts compatible? Photo obsessives For the last three weeks or so, I have been on the road. And from Vancouver to Viti Levu, I have been constantly staggered by the number of people I’ve encountered who will happily take photos of [...]
Continue reading about Good writing and good photography: An unnatural mix
Or The Curse of the Woman Who Didn’t Know When To Shut Up. Difference between bloggers and journalists A few weeks ago, the ever-excellent Matthew Teller hosted a debate on his blog about the difference between bloggers and journalists. It’s something of a hoary old debate, but some excellent points were raised. Key amongst [...]
Continue reading about Bloggers vs Journalists: Why bloggers are second class citizens
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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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 [...]
Continue reading about Why we need more celebrity travel journalism
“Award-winning travel journalist” When I am asked to write a brief biography of myself for contributors’ pages in magazines, I will often bill myself as an “award-winning” travel journalist”. And this is true, because way back in 2001, I was named Student Travel Writer of the Year in the Guardian Student Media Awards. Yes, it’s [...]
Continue reading about “Award-winning”: a phrase not to be taken seriously
Blogosphere debate Jeremy Head has written a characteristically interesting post on whether travel content that has been paid for by a company can ever be objective. As part of the debate, he references Matthew Teller’s proposal about PR agencies and tourist boards paying travel writers for articles rather than the publications they are published in. [...]
Continue reading about Who will pay for travel writing? A potential compromise
Dear PR person. You were curious as to whether I had received your press release. I probably did. I probably didn’t read it either. Here’s why: 1. It’s not addressed to me If you’ve sent it to everyone on your mailing list in the hope that it fits something that someone, somewhere is writing [...]
Continue reading about 12 reasons why I deleted your press release without reading it