How to become a Travel Writer? — Looking for tips on travel writing

Hello, let me introduce myself, the names Emmanuel (Eman for short).

I joined this space to discuss how to become a travel writer as a complete beginner with little writing experience?

I just want to dip my feet in the water so to say but I don't know where to start, I am passionate about traveling, I've lived in Ohio for most of my life and recently moved to Massachusetts, it was my first time living away from home and it changed my life, right now I just want to do more of that and be able to make a living traveling full time, is this possible or just a dream?

Looking forward to your tips.

Let me know!

Hey, Emmanuel 👋

I've started my travel blog 10 years ago and even though I wouldn't call myself a travel writer per se, I've done lots of writing in the area. Here are my tips:

👩‍💻 Read a lot of travel content. This will help you find what style of writing do you like, which pieces perform best and eventually help you find your own writing style and tour preferred niche.

✍️ Start a blog. Creating your own writing space will help you learn a lot about writing, SEO, formatting, what your audience like, etc.

⭐️ Build a portfolio. Once you feel confident about some of your articles, start pitching your guest posts to other publications (for free in the beginning). Connect with other writers/bloggers and ask them if it's okay to write for their websites. I've spend the first 6 months of my blogging career writing guest posts for other websites. It helped a lot with being discovered by both, readers and brands.

Here's part of my portfolio that I keep on my blog: travellingbuzz.com/published-guest-posts/

I'm sure there's many travel writers here to give more advice.

Good luck!

Starting a travel blog is one of the best things I have ever done.

I launched my blog Diary of a Muzungu @DIARYOFAMUZUNGU in 2008 and it has become a recognised platform for promoting travel in Uganda and East Africa. Along the way, I have had some incredible - complementary - experiences: gorilla tracking, dolphin watching, hot balloon safaris and endless interesting invitations. A few years ago, I used my platform to start teaching the tourism industry how to do what I do: create content, and use social media and blogging to promote their companies.

However, it's been a really hard slog: going for a weekend away is not as fun as it used to be (as I'm always thinking about how I can promote their business!) Forget the 9-to-5. I work six or seven days a week and have done for a decade plus.

I agree with Maria's great tips and would add:

1. If you start a blog, be consistent. It is better to have one very good blog per month and promote the hell out of it than commit to writing one blog week (and failing after a few exhausting months).
2. Find a niche. Be very good at one thing. Don't think that you have to blog, create a YouTube channel and 3 other social media channels. Just master one or two things.
3. Network like crazy.

Good luck!
Charlotte Beauvoisin
Diary of a Muzungu | Uganda and East Africa Travel Blog

www.muzungubloguganda.com/portfolio/

I've been a full-time travel writer and blogger since 2006 and am the author of the Travel Writing 2.0 book. There's a decade's worth of free advice on the associated blog, from me and from interviews with others. You'll see a lot of recurring themes that will up your chances of success there. travelwriting2.com

Hi Eman! I'm head of editorial for a wellness travel digi magazine. I agree with the points that Maria and Charlotte both bring up. I would add that it's also about luck. Pitching at the right time—sliding into the inbox with relevant story ideas. Editors get slammed with loads of emails and in my case loads of spam about backlinking. Think about your narrative along the lines of what would you want to read and learn about. Don't mix and match topics. Spy on the publications that you dream of writing for. Download their style guides. Analyze headlines and writing style. You don't necessarily have to be a journalist, but you should be able to string sentences together in a coherent way. That said, some editors have a heavy editing hand and what you read may not actually be what the writer delivered ;-)

Thanks for starting this discussion. I am just getting started. I still work a full-time day job so my travels are often limited to regional road trips at the moment. Since I'm not doing a ton of those, I have started sharing content about tourist destinations I haven't been to yet, but would love to visit one day. I just want to get some content on my blog and keep honing my tourism writing. There's plenty of interesting content even if I don't have a first-hand experience, and I'm happy to give tourism bureaus another outlet in which to promote their destinations. phillygrubtrips.wordpress.com

I'm a freelance travel writer. Most if not all publications have pitching guidelines on their website. The best way is to start up a portfolio even for guest posts or smaller pubs to get started.

Hi Emmanuel - great question!

Getting into full time travel writing isn't impossible but it's certainly not easy. For many (most?) travel writers it's part time and they're either supported by other work or spouses with "proper" jobs. Most mainstream publishers have been cutting back since covid and I can't see that changing anytime soon.

But it's not impossible. There's a knack to making travel writing add up economically, and it's more about business and administration than writing. You need to nurture good personal relationships with the right contacts (takes years), and a reputation for being able to deliver the goods with minimal fuss. And you need to figure out how to generate multiple commissions from a single trip, otherwise after expenses you'll probably be in the red.

In the meantime the lower hanging fruit is content creation freelancing for businesses and agencies. Most travel companies are switched onto needing online content for their marketing. Rates aren't often great – you'd be lucky to get $100 for an article, but if you get a few regular clients it might give you a baseline income stream as you build your portfolio and contacts.

Register as a contributor with my company Horizon Guides, we're not commissioning much at the moment but will be soon: horizonguides.com/journalists

Another very good resource worth checking out: travelwriting.substack.com

I think Pitchwhizz has turned into this, still worth a look: coveredpress.com

good luck!

Hey, Emmanuel. You already have some great tips and advise in this thread but I'd like to elaborate on the networking point. The old adage "It's not what you know but who you know that counts" is as relevant to travel writers as it is to any occupation.

Over the course of three decades, I've found LinkedIn to be an invaluable online networking tool for connecting with travel industry professionals.

Search for DMCs, Travel Agencies, Tourism Bureaus, etc. Follow their corporate pages, subscribe to their newsletters, and send connect requests to their CEOs / marketing people (their names & designations are usually listed).

Researching their product / service / destination helps when pitching a travel story angle that ties-in with their marketing strategy and knowing who to pitch that story to may lead to being commissioned or hosted.

Also, try to attend local, regional, or international travel trade shows & conferences. Then, research the list of exhibitors / delegates. If they're in your 1st level LinkedIn contacts, make an appointment to visit their stand or meet at the conference.

Hope the above helps with your aspirations. Good luck.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this discussion! I've only just found and read this, and it's been helpful :)