Clearly this creates the potential for biased reporting, and we owe it to our readers to make them aware of that by including some sort of disclaimer at the bottom of the article.

This has the added benefit of acknowledging the generosity of the host in an editorially neutral environment – and hopefully gives us the scope for a more accurate critique of the destination or product in the preceeding text.

Cheers

Martin – Thumbrella

The SMH’s ‘Beauty Beat’ blog (see http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beautybeat/), which for the past two weeks has seen SMH blogger Natasha Hughes raving about spa treatments in the Shangri-La Singapore and another Shangri-La owned ’spas village’ resort in Borneo, has FINALLY added a declaration that “The spa treatment was courtesy of Shangri-La”.

Although that’s just the “spa treatment” itself, mind you – did Ms Hughes or Shangri-La also pay for airfare and accommodation for the entire trip? (I’d suggest it was Shangri-La, as Ms Hughes stayed at Shangri-La properties in both Singapore and Borneo).

So we’re still only partway to the SMH being transparent with the truth.

But what gets me is that this came after I repeatedly posted comments to the Beauty Beat blog – simple, straight-forward non-abusive comments asking Ms Hughes to clarify through her column if her trip was in fact a sponsored ‘junket’ and if so, to declare it as per SMH ethics and indeed journalistic ethics.

Despite these emails being courteously worded and not abusive in any way Ms Hughes blocked every single comment, refused to publish them, never replied to me via email. And only after two weeks of my commenting below every story and threatening to go direct to SMH editorial did that one-line write-off appear.

The SMH has a terrible record with letting bloggers get away with more tricks and less transparency than their peers in print. Some years back SMH.com.au had a travel blog written by a very well-established Aussie travel writer who none the less refused to run ANY declaration under any of his columns that the trips, destinations and tours he was praising in each column were sponsored.

The same thing happened then as now – comments posted to his blog to query the commercial or sponsorship status of his trips were banned, and only after this was brought to the attention of the Editor of the SMH did the appropriate declaration for sponsored travel suddenly appear under each story

This is clearly an area where mainstream media need to closely monitor their bloggers as those media embrace blogging.

As I wrote in response to that discussion; I review comedy shows for The Age during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the free tix have never stopped me being totally honest, because there are hundreds of shows and the readers are relying on you to be straight with them as to their quality. I gave two shows ‘zero stars’ last year for the first time – and the flow of tix hasn’t stopped. PR people understand you’re doing your job in being honest, in my experience, even if they’d hoped for a rave review.

I’m sure the same principles apply to travel writing; with the distinct difference that it’s harder to get a negative article into print. The odd negative piece would add credibility!

Having said all that, I’m not a pessimistic person and, when I travel, I’m subconsciously looking out for the good and discounting the bad. I suspect the travel writer temperament is often thus – we expect to encounter the occasional less-than-exciting hotel room, so it doesn’t bother us as much as it might the average punter. It’s not a case of ignoring a fault, just not seeing it as particularly negative. Just a thought.

I know I’ve enjoyed every place I’ve travelled to, regardless of setbacks, though those setbacks have often ended up in the article. A piece I write on French Polynesia, for example, began with an account of trudging along a dusty wrote in the hot sun after the accommodation I’d booked online turned out to have closed down. But I didn’t whinge about it in the article, it became an amusing counterpoint to being in “paradise”. A big whinge at this point would’ve been, in my opinion, dull. And being dull is a sin it’s difficult for readers to forgive.

Tim Richards
Travel Blog: http://www.aerohaveno.com/

Honestly I also don’t believe magazines should say they “don’t accept free or sponsored travel” when I have been on famils with journalists who clearly are writing for that mag. I’m not saying your mag as such, but a couple of other global magazines in particular.

Why would you say that “Travel magazines in Australia are by and large the most unprofessional part of the publishing industry”?

I’m the Managing Editor of HM magazine (which covers the accommodation industry) and I also launched Hilton Magazine in 2005. We are most certainly very professional and I find that my industry colleagues who edit other industry magazines and very professional as well.

Some individuals in the travel writing game aren’t professional – but I don’t use them. I think overall we have a fantastic collection of travel writers in Australia – such as Rob and Daniel – who are doing the travel industry the world of good.

Honestly I also don’t believe magazines should say they “don’t accept free or sponsored travel” when I have been on famils with journalists who clearly are writing for that mag. I’m not saying your mag as much, but a couple of other global magazines in particular.

I believe a good travel writer can provide an objective view of a destination, hotel, airline, bar, restaurant etc no matter whether they were hosted or not. That’s the real key here.

Some travel writers simply write the good points because it’s easy and the fact they were hosted. I think this is pure laziness and these are the kinds of stories I refuse to run.

But sometimes everything is good on a trip so why not write about? There’s no point writing about the bad parts of a hotel or airline when you can focus on what’s great.

Great writers will use their spare time on a junket to uncover what’s exciting about the destination where they are. And these are the stories I love.

James

I chose my word carefully (although my typing is atrocious). We do not accept famils for editorial.

The policy has been for the last four years that we may accept famil travel for research.

This is clearly articulated between us and any PR/Operator who kindly offers an invite. And we often get knocked back.

We will follow up with a commissioned journalist where we see fit. It also assists in quality control of material we receive – is it correct, is it well researched…. I am not sure how that is hypocritical.

Whitley, finding space for a negative review is only challenging by the balance of where to go and where not to go editorial.

Further a great piece of inspired writing is a great piece of writing – negative or positive. One of the most memorable for me was the lonely journey of a widower on the nullarbor plain. http://australiantraveller.com...../3524-2676

And before anyone jumps at it – that’s right, great writing can come from a famil, but it is made more difficult by trying to deliver on the explicit or non-explicit demands of a famil.

He says the design of the villas works perfectly – but he didn’t like the lobby bar. Big deal. He says the spa treatments were great – but he didn’t like the fact that they took place indoors, to avoid the heat of the desert. Huh? He says the service was too attentive. He says he wants alcohol. Yawn.

As for the supposed eco hypocrisy – if he was a real journalist, he’d know that, for instance, water is not scarce in Bahrain: unlike its Gulf neighbours, Bahrain is surrounded by perpetually flowing freshwater springs. Saving water matters there like it matters in Switzerland: some, but, well…

His preferred alternative, Al-Maha in Dubai, on the other hand – despite winning several industry awards – has serious questions over its eco credentials, its cultural sensitivity and its wildlife policy. And it’s owned by that green paragon, Emirates. It does serve beer, though.

Rant over. That’s why Bahrainis didn’t like this article: it’s not very good. If you’re going to slate somewhere, at least do your homework first! This guy didn’t.

As (I think) Daniel Scott said earlier on, I just rarely have a bad time. Who wants to know that I spent 15 minutes wandering around my deluxe superior suite at The Address Downtown Burj Dubai in the nude at midnight trying to figure out the insanely stupid lighting system so I could go to sleep? It is an irrelevant detail; Dubai remains fascinating. Who gives a monkeys if, after being really excited about coming to write about Renzo Piano’s Paul Klee art gallery in Bern, Switzerland, in the end I found it slightly underwhelming? It’s still worth visiting, and Bern is still amazing.

For an example of just how pointless and self-defeating negative writing can be, see this infamous article from the (London) Times. It caused a national stink in Bahrain; people there are still talking about it. Not in an admiring way.
http://tr.im/pdCi

To my mind, there’s a big difference between travel writing and travel journalism. I know Simon Calder, and have written for him/The Independent many times. He is just about the only consumer travel journalist I know – that is, he exposes and analyses issues in consumer travel for the benefit and education of consumers themselves. Same model (more or less) as political journalists, financial journalists, etc.

Just about everyone else – myself included – are travel writers. We’re paid to write stuff that, in the best-case scenario in a quality publication under an enlightened editor, encapsulates some essence of the truth of a place – but which, in most cases, exists merely to give people ideas about where to go on holiday. 99% of the time there is, and should be, no element of journalism involved.

Travel journalism, I would say, means investigating your hotel’s greywater reuse system, interviewing hotel employees, discussing a tourist destination’s future prospects with the mayor, finding out how much the local airport pays in order to get no-frills airlines to fly there, drawing in perspective from similar places in the same region and beyond… In other words, it doesn’t really exist. Virtually nobody is doing it. Where it exists it’s being done mostly by business journalists, frequently led by corporate PR.

But that doesn’t mean travel writing is a lie. Airlines, tourist boards and hotels only offer me comps because they know they will get a one-line mention in the factbox below my article. Fine by me. I focus pretty tightly on the Middle East. I’ve been lucky and have built up close relationships with 2 or 3 Middle East-friendly editors here in the UK. Comp flights and hotels mean I can afford to write more Middle East stories from more angles, and generally raise the profile of places I think are interesting and people who I think are doing interesting things. Is it a big deal to then say in the factbox: “The author stayed at Hotel X (phone number; website)”? I don’t think so – and I don’t feel in hock to Hotel X or Airline Y to then gush about their product. If the story is the destination, then the airline and the hotel are just means to an end – rather like ‘off-the-record’ briefings given to political journalists. A way to make the story happen. If they want a line of factbox in recompense, well OK.

(If the story is the hotel itself, or the airline, then things are obviously different – and accepting comps in that scenario is unethical. But if the editor won’t pay, then in my view such a story simply shouldn’t get published: it is hotel reviews written by comped journalists which undermine the whole industry, I’d suggest…)

Enough from me. Thanks all.

The only way to really make a living as a travel freelancer is to write and sell an awful lot of stories. That doesn’t leave much time for lovingly crafting them (not necessarily a bad thing in itself – it prevents pomposity creeping in for one).

Personally, I work on a principle of writing at least one 1,000 word story a day. And to sell that many, you need to be doing what the editor wants to publish, rather than what you desperately want to write.

As a freelancer, it’s incredibly hard to sell a negative piece. Travel editors want generally positive copy, and as a writer you end up focusing on the positive side of things in order to sell.

If something’s crap, the general approach ends up being to simply not mention it rather than tell it like it is. For example, I was hosted at a dreadful hotel recently – and I just told the tourist board rep that there is no way that I would cover it in the article. I’d have loved to have gone to town on it, but there’s simply no market to sell such a piece. I’d love it if there was

I think even Quentin and Greg at AT would admit that they’re unlikely to run much that is largely negative and critical. (And I speak as someone who writes for AT reasonably regularly). It’s probably the most honest travel publication in Australia though.

If I go to Place X and do three things, two of which are good and one of which is bad, I’ll probably be able to sell pieces on the first two. The last one has no chance. The key for me is to write about the positive stuff in an entertaining, honest, non gushy way. But I loathe reading the awful fluff that some publications will happily fill their pages with and I really cannot understand how those writers manage to get emplotment.

Personally, I think readers love reading a caustic, honest piece. But I don’t think publications full of them attract advertising. And there lies the crux of the problem.

There is an understanding at some level unless you pay your own way. Simon Calder is of course fantastic and an example to the rest of the travel press.

what about mentioning very clearly beforehand that you wil be independent and write as you see it? At least then the travel provider is completely forwarned. Dee Birkett (who i think is excellent) gave us that kind of warning and we were happy to accept as we were confident of our service.

Another problem is press blaggers. Non travel specific journalists blagging free nights for quick articles – we cannot turn them down, they will always write positively, makes industry more sceptical of all you good professional guys out there! They can often blag nights and then not even get the article published. Really puts us (as they organiser) in a terrible position and so many are completely unrepentent.