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…
Expatriates going home
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 2 | Tags: expatriates, julia preston, new york times, new york times travel, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer Leave a comment »Chapter 2 discusses the expatriate as a fast-growing nontraditional audience for travel journalism. That may be changing. Countries are calling their expatriates back home. Julia Preston of the New York Times explains in an article,
Returning scholars and business people are offered housing subsidies and tax exemptions to locate new enterprises in government-designated districts. One program is designed to attract Chinese expatriates who hold overseas patents in specialized science fields, the report found. China is also recruiting Chinese managers in high-level positions in non-Chinese companies.
Federal policy and the traveler
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 2 | Tags: adie tomer, brookings institution metropolitian policy program, federal regulations traveler, robert puentes, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 2 warns the travel journalist of the cost of traveling. In addition to price the travel journalist should be concerned with United States Federal policy. According to Adie Tomer and Robert Puentes from Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program,
federal regulations restrict competition and complicate travel in and out of the country. Even with major deregulation in 1978, the United States still prohibits international airlines from operating domestic routes. With domestic airlines consolidating routes and leaving many communities with fewer direct flights, does it make sense to restrict carrier options for these communities?
These are some of the major federal policies that affect travelers. Policies eventually trickle down and affect pricing. The frugal travel journalist should also beware of…
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.
Air and rail combo
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: air and rail combos, christine negroni, new york times, save time and money travel, travel column, travel journalism, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 encourages the travel journalist to investigate the misery of air travel. The travel column of nytimes.com offers travelers another route, take the train. According to an article by Christine Negroni, travelers in Canada, France, Germany, and Spain are all leading hubs for air and rail combo travelers. Negroni’s advice can save the traveler time and money.
Air travelers in Canada, France, Germany and Spain may increasingly find that they are doing part of their journey on the ground, as airlines work with rail companies to sell tickets for combined trips.
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.
More to blogging
Posted: November 5, 2012 Contents: Chapter 5 | Tags: duct tape marketing, ducttapemarketing.com, john jantsch, search engine optimization, seo, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel technology, travel writing Leave a comment »Getting published is no longer just about sending letters to magazine and newspaper editors. According to John Jantsch, an author and contributor at ducttapemarketing.com, blogging isn’t enough anymore either. Jantsch offers this advice on how to have an easily accessible optimized blog:
I believe the best approach currently and in the foreseeable future calls for a 2-prong strategy to content development that feeds both readers and spiders. I believe that we must create what I’m calling classes of content that address the growing demand for real-time updates and long-term sustainability. When I talk about classes I’m talking about how we build, display, link to and optimize our content. I believe we need develop content strategies along these two classes: attraction content and foundation content
