Essential skill: frugality
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, new york times, new york times travel, seth kugal, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel skills, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 aids the travel journalist by outlining tips, tools, and cautions which should help journalists cover stories at a home market or on the road. Likewise, Seth Kugel of the New York Times Travel section updates travel tips for the new year. Kugel devotes the entire article to helping travelers master the technique of traveling frugally which can lead to more experiences which in turn contributes to the travel writers end goal.
Kugel encourages the aspiring traveler to adjust their mental budget. Instead of thinking about staying home for another average weekend one should be
subtracting what you save by not being home. Surely you would have gone out for dinner and a movie one night, at least, so knock off $100. Add in gas, groceries, electricity, etc., and you’ve got at least another $50.
Kugel also warns that…
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.
Inner travel – working locally
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: backyard traveling, inner travel, local, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel advice, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 discusses the importance of travel writing without the traveling. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the concept of “inner travel.” Menkedick describes the process of inner travel as
It is a full-on sensory experience that yanks all those dormant parts of oneself, the parts that go plodding through the day to day in familiar places without really seeing, to life. The best way to experience “inner travel,” the process of moving oneself out of a familiar mental space, is to take no detail for granted.
Real culture
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: local foreign culture, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 suggests several criteria to guide the travel journalist in bridging cultural divides. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the travel journalist to consider modern aspects of foreign culture as authentic. In her article Menkedick compares traditional Chinese culture symbolized by dumpling restaurants versus modern culture represented by adolescence pulling all nighters in the local McDonalds. In Menkedick’s view both equally represents the local culture. Here’s an excerpt:
This idea of authenticity often reinforces the same set of power relations travelers hope to undo: the control of dominant, technologically advanced, “modern” countries over more “primitive”, poor countries. Why is it that “modern” countries are free…
Facing the fiscal cliff
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 6 | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, Julie Schwietert, matador network, matadornetwork.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 6 discusses the opportunities for the travel journalist. As tensions build with all the media attention surrounding America’s economic situation, travel journalists may find themselves gaining more opportunities during tough times. Julie Schwietert of the Matador Network helps the journalist find opportunities as unemployment lingers around the country. Here’s one tip,
1. One sector’s pain is another’s gain.
The somewhat diluted value of the dollar has had an effect on other countries’ currencies that benefits travelers.
Consider the Mexican peso, for instance. After enjoying a lengthy period of relative stability (with the exchange rate being about 10 pesos to every 1 US dollar), the peso’s…
Rules to help writing
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: guardian.co.uk, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel skills, travel writer, travel writing, zadie smith Leave a comment »Chapter 4 outlines the essential skills and knowledge for the travel journalist. The guardian.co.uk put together a list of rules by Zadie Smith that may make any writer better. Here are a few of her rules,
- When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
- When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
- Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
- Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
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.
Step by step to bliss
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: andrea ross, conde nast travler, fixers, perrin's people, translator, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel language, travel research, travel specialist, travel writer, travel writing, wendy perrin Leave a comment »Chapter 4’s “Finding ‘Fixers’ for Translation, Logistics” introduced Andrea Ross, a travel specialist who’s arranged translators and guides for me across Southeast Asia. Ross is one of Wendy Perrin’s “Perrin’s People,” some 150 travel specialists Perrin regards as the best in the business. Perrin has been supplying this list to Conde Nast Traveler for the last 13 years. Ross returned this year as one of two travel specialists focused on Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Ross also is the subject of a step-by-step guide to using travel specialists written by Janet Nezhad Band. Though intended for travelers, the advice is relevant to travel journalists.
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 —…
