Category
Extremely important niche’ topics: Cruising & Eco
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: cruise, cruising, eco, eco-cruising, ecotourism, jennifer conlin, new york times, new york times travel, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing 1 Comment »Chapter 3 lists “Cruising” and “Eco” as important niche’ topics for readers. Jennifer Conlin of New York Times Travel section takes advantage of both markets as she explores the push for cruise lines to shrink their footprints. According to the article:
A one-week voyage on a large ship is estimated to produce 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes.
Hopefully the two niche’ topics can come together on better terms next go round. Combining niche’ topics is a great way to find unique angles to pursue.
Continue cruising
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: cruise, cruise safety, tom stieghorst, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel safety, travel weekly, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 discusses the importance of cruising to travel readers. The cruise industry is in need of some good news after the tragic sinking of the Costa Concordia. 2013 may be the turn around the industry is looking for according to Travel Weekly. Tom Stieghorst of TW reports,
Deployments in 2013 will feature more cruise segments that can be combined into longer voyages. Celebrity Cruises, for example, will offer more short cruises in Europe that can be paired with a second short cruise with a different set of port calls.
2013 may give cruise readers more to read about.
Cruise story: Safety
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: beverly beyette, costa concordia, cruise, cruise safety, l.a. times, la times, latimes.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel safety, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 gives the travel journalist angles to pursue while writing a travel story about cruising. With the recent sinking of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” another topic to consider is safety. Here’s a bit from Beverly Beyette’s article for the L.A. Times:
It’s a cruise vacation, promising lots of fine dining and drinking, new adventures and relaxation. What could go wrong?
As the 4,200 people aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia found, just about everything. The Jan. 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety concerns.
Is it possible for today’s megaships — some hold as many as 6,000 passengers —…
Poverty tourism
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: ethics, journalist ethics, moni basu, poverty travel, travel ethics, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 explains a dilemma travel journalists face when exploring stories about poverty. Can the journalists contribute to the impoverished or are they gazing at subjects as in a zoo? CNN.com writer Moni Basu explains a recent trip to India and her thoughts on poverty travel.
Others in the group also tell me that this is an India they might not have otherwise seen. And maybe they were wiser for it, sensitized to problems that can be unimaginable back home.
How can that be bad? There’s no better way to learn about a place, after all, than to experience it.
Still, as the foreigners turn in their donations for Salaam Baalak Trust, I can’t help but think about the day for what it was: a tour of poverty. And hasty, I think. In all of less than two hours, our look at others’ lives is over. The only people I have spoken to are connected to Salaam Baalak Trust…
Chocolate travels
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: chocolate niche', chocolate travel, hotel chocolat, new york times, new york times travel, travel journalism, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 outlines several niches the travel journalist should consider when choosing a topic. One should consider chocolate. Check out this tidbit from travel.nytimes.com:
Hotel Chocolat’s union of tourism and agricultural development, specifically its devotion to all things cocoa, is part of a budding movement across the Caribbean. You might call it choco-tourism.
From Tobago to Dominica, Grenada to St. Vincent, the Caribbean cocoa industry, which has roots in colonial times, is being revitalized. This is excellent news economically: With free trade having all but destroyed the islands’ banana and sugar industries, fair-trade farming initiatives are a welcome boon.
One thing the chocolate traveler will have is energy.
The road or roadless to adventure
Posted: November 5, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: adventure journalism, adventure writing, avery stonich, backcountry, outdoor industry association, road trip, roadless areas, travel adventure, travel journalism, travel research, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 introduces adventure as an important niche topic for travel readers. Earlier this month, adventure travelers and consequently adventure writers received good news when the Supreme Court ignored a ruling that would allow individual states to downgrade protection on roadless(backcountry areas that have few roads or significant alterations other than trails) areas that may allow things like mining and deforestation in certain outdoor adventure areas. Avery Stonich of Outdoor Industry Association calls this effort or lack of a
major win, protecting these places for future generations.
Without these roadless areas there would be very little for the adventure audience to read about.
The travel writer as an ecotourist
Posted: October 20, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: bonnie tsui, ecotourism, ecotourists, new york times, new york times travel, travel journalism, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 teaches the reader how to identify and research the audience for eco-tourism. Bonnie Tsui, a writer at the New York TImes Travel section, offers insight to what ecotourists are looking for. According to Tsui’s research ecotourists are,
“looking for two things: access to unique areas that most tourists can never visit, and a way to improve the life of the people and places they do visit.”
Coincidentally travel writers seem to be seeking similar experiences. Ecotourism maybe a way for the travel writer to gain that unique perspective and story.
Volunteer travel with integrity
Posted: October 20, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: ecotourism, ecotourism.org, sallie grayson, travel journalism, travel writing, volunteer, volunteer travel, volunteer traveling Leave a comment »Chapter 3 reveals that 35 percent of travel editors who responded to a survey said “volunteer” is somewhat important topic to readers. Sallie Grayson, program director at ecotourism.org, offers this advice to travelers to ensure the majority of their funds and time are actually benefitting the host country:
“We suggest that you then ask exactly the same questions of each organization that you contact. As you asses their responses, if the following questions come to mind – ‘Why can’t they tell me how much of what I’m spending reaches my hosts?’ or ‘How do I know that my hosts are being fairly recompensed for their hospitality?’ – maybe you want to think again about choosing to travel with them.”
Grayson, however, neglects to discuss the question: is the time and money a volunteer spends worth more than simply sending…
Skip the journey and appear at the destination
Posted: October 20, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: christopher elliot, destination, frommers.com, journey, travel cheap, travel journalism, travel writing, tsa Leave a comment »Chapter 3 discusses the concept of the journey as a key part of the story . However,
according to Christopher Elliott, an author at frommers.com, the excitement of
the journey and the corresponding stories are becoming tales of horror and terrible
experiences rather than hero journey tales.
Among the horrors of traveling Elliott describes run-ins with TSA while travelling by air
and annoying crewmembers on cruises constantly bombarding travelers with extras that
also cost extra. Elliot offers this message to those responsible for the journey:
“Yeah, we want to travel cheap. Truth be told, we’d pay nothing for our vacations if we could. That’s no excuse for turning the journey, which was once the best part of the travel experience, into torture.”
