Niche’ audiences: Adaptive skiers
Posted: March 13, 2013 Contents: Chapter 2 | Tags: adaptive ski, adaptive skiing, americans with disabilities act, carrie jung, npr, skiing, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel technology, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 2 of the text describes special sets of audience segments such as students and seniors who consume travel journalism. Many ski resorts have eyes set on another special group of travelers. According to a report by npr news, ski resorts are reaching out to travelers with disabilities. According to the story, All resorts on Forest Service land must offer adaptive skiing under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Adaptive skiing allows an individual with physical disabilities the ability to ski down the mountain like an able bodied person. The NPR story focuses on a family new to the activity and presents the travel journalist an opportunity to reach out to an eager niche’ audience. Have a look, or listen.
Wine over ice
Posted: March 13, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: ice age trail, laurentide ice sheet, national geographic, sally younger, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing, Von Stiehl Winery, wisconsin Leave a comment »Chapter 3 claims food and wine is an important niche’ topic to travel journalism consumers. The text details information on the audience, angles to pursue, an example of best coverage, and where you can learn more. Sally Younger of National Geographic pursues her wine story from an unexpectedly unique angle. The author describes in vivid details her surroundings as she catches a rest from her adventurous Ice Age Trail journey. What starts off as an adventure/ journey piece describes a destination as remarkable as the historic Ice Age Trail itself. A town with underground tunnels, grand fishing and more importantly great wine is set in a historical Ice age Trail.
Younger utilizes all of her travel journalism skills beyond observation by offering quotes from the locals that add validity to her story. The author uses sounds, feels, color, and descriptions of taste that takes the reader out of his chair and into the tavern in Wisconsin. Younger provides a prime…
Video and heritage travel in Australia
Posted: March 13, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3, Chapter 6 | Tags: australia, australian art, australian street art, culture, foreign culture, local culture, lonely planet, lonelyplanet.com, melbourne street art, street art, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel technology, travel video Leave a comment »Chapter 6 explains the intersection between two growing trends. The first discusses travelers who book their trips online while the other is the audience for travel video. Chapter 3 then breaks down topic niches’ for travel journalism stories including the heritage niche’. Lonely Planet posted a video that intersects the growing online travel video trend with the heritage niche’ topic. Their video titled “Melbourne’s artistic underbelly” features a part of Australia’s culture that is often over looked because of it’s lack of mainstream luster: its street art.
The video depicts a growing niche’ topic for travel journalists to explore. The street artists in Melbourne are now taking it upon themselves, much like the advice in the text, to lead groups of tourists as tour guides of Australia’s most overlooked artistic gems. The relatively short video encourages visitors to engage with and participate in these street art tours. The tour guides highlight the fact…
Digital divide
Posted: March 6, 2013 Contents: Chapter 6 | Tags: Corey Breier, digital divide, digital generation, matador network, matadornetwork.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel technology, travel writer, travel writing 1 Comment »This digital divide has less to do with socio-economic status and its relation to the inability of poor class people to access information electronically. Instead this division spreads older and younger generations apart in their views toward traveling, according to Corey Breier. Corey Breier an (young) author/contributor for the Matador Network identifies himself as a part of the “Digital Generation.” As a member of the digital generation Breier admits to spending months in front of a digital screen of some sort in contrast to an older generation who may have spent their time say, playing in the mud. This exposure to the digital world according to Breier has somewhat spoiled his traveling experience. Here’s an example of the author’s opinion:
To be fair, it does make life more interesting — I keep expecting cloned dinosaurs to pop out at me in the Hawaiian jungle, and graboids from Tremors to snatch me out of the sands of Anza-Borrego.
Yet…
Sequestering travelers
Posted: March 6, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: fred gebhart, maria lenhart, Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, sequestering travelers, sequestration, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel market expert, travel writer, travel writing, tsa Leave a comment »The Federal Government is facing a deadline that will affect the American economy. As individuals a citizen may not completely understand how such deadlines as the “automatic federal spending budget cuts” that went into place Friday, March 1, affect their personal life. As a traveler the federal deadline has serious implications according to facts and opinions travel experts explained to Fred Gebhart and Maria Lenhart of Travel Market Expert. Travel journalists should brace themselves as experts expect:
Threatened reductions in air traffic controllers, customs clearance officers, and TSA officials staffing airport checkpoints risk long lines, system slow-downs, and general delays.
In addition, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood warned that sequestration would have ‘serious impacts on transportation services that are critical to…
Traveling and the global economy
Posted: March 6, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: bill poling, economics, global gdp, travel economics, travel experts, travel industry, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel weekly, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Bill Poling of Travel Weekly reports stats on the travel industry’s effect on the global economy. All in all the report shows that the travel industry boosted the global economy and added trillions of dollars to the global GDP. Here’s a tidbit from Poling’s report:
In a report that again depicts the resilience of travel, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that the industry’s contribution to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3% last year, the third consecutive year of growth.
The annual report, produced by Oxford Economics, said the direct contribution of travel and tourism in the global economy came to over $2 trillion, or 2.9% of global GDP. With indirect effects added, the total economic impact of travel and tourism rises to $6.6 trillion, or 9.3% of global GDP.
Premium parking
Posted: February 26, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: King Richard III, king richard skeleton, London, Matt Bolton, new york times, new york times travel, Paul Theroux, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel writer, travel writing, university of leicester Leave a comment »Chapter 3 of the text discusses “Destination” as a major story type to reach the audience for travel journalism. The chapter includes a quote from Paul Theroux which states,
Today, the destination story means looking for places that have changed, or places to visit in a new way.
Following that notion, Matt Bolton, of NewYorkTimes.com, writes an article for the New York Times online travel section about the recent discovery of King Richard III’s skeleton under a local English parking lot. Here’s a tidbit from Bolton’s article:
Since Feb. 4, when researchers from the University of Leicester announced that a skeleton found during an archaeological dig at the parking lot in September 2012 was indeed that of Richard III, a monarch immortalized by Shakespeare, Mr. Jones [security] has been fending off…
Prepared for a rush
Posted: February 16, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4, Resources | Tags: Clay shivers, Making friends model, travel journalism, travel writing 2 Comments »In the Resource section of the text college student Aaron Mashburn offers his “Making Friends Model.” Clay Shivers of Worldhum.com narrates his travel to Bangalore and his own execution of the “Making Friends Model.” Shivers explains through out his piece that for twenty years he has fantasized over a poster of a packed train ride through India. From the poster Shivers longed to reach that magical place, that place directly in the middle of local Indian culture.
Finally upon reaching Bangalore he gets his opportunity to be apart of the crowded train. As anticipation builds, the train takes off and literally is moving so slow that locals are able to out walk the train. This is what’s great about this piece. Because of this situation, a disappointing slow train ride, Shivers meets a friend, Rahim who had previously studied abroad in Pennsylvania. Figuring he has…
Love your city?
Posted: February 16, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: Heart your city, love you city, travel journalism, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 of the text encourages the travel writer to place his market in context as well as find hidden “secret” attraction that nobody knows. National Geographic has recently released a “I Heart My City” survey that asks questions that when answered can be a guide to any traveler to your hometown. Sofia von Parot of National Geographic has recently released her version of the self made guide. Here’s a bit,
When someone comes to visit me, the first place I take them is Haga, a quaint old neighborhood with many cozy cafes.
Gothenburg’s quaint Haga district.
Summer is the best time to visit my city because the rain and snow have disappeared,…
Expert advice, what not to do
Posted: February 16, 2013 Contents: Chapter 1, Resources | Tags: chapter 4, travel journalism, travel writing, what not to do Leave a comment »The Resources section of the text offers the travel writer advice from 100 freelance journalists. Carlo Alcos offers some good advice for the travel journalist in the article What Not to Do. Here’s one of his pieces of advice,
DO listen to yourself and be authentic to what your gut tells you.
Society these days is “noisy.” We’re being bombarded with information through news, websites, advertisements, social media; pulled and yanked in this direction and that direction. It’s enough to give you whiplash. It can be extremely hard to shut out the static and turn inward, into yourself to listen to what it is that you actually want. Go for a run; meditate; do some yoga; take a walk in the forest. Ask yourself questions and sense how your body reacts — your physiological responses like increased heart rate, a “funny feeling in your stomach”,…
