The Tourism Society

MODERATOR:
Henry Hemming, Managing Director of TravMedia UK. Henry, a former travel journalist, oversees the strategic development of TravMedia, the leading travel news service for the media. Over 4500 journalists and 1500 PRs are registered with the site, which publishes the news of over 750 leading travel and tourism brands. Each subscriber enjoys a press centre on the site, with releases, images, PR contacts and now video - a service TravMedia is launching at World Travel Market. Henry is also CEO of News4Media, a company taking the same concept into new industries, and has launched Entertainment4Media, Property4Media and Homes4Media in the last 18 months. Contact: henry.hemming@travmedia-uk.com

Kirsten Magasdi has been a Reporter, Presenter and Producer on FASTTRACK - the BBC's weekly travel news programme shown on its global channel BBC World & BBC 1 and In-flight on a number of airlines since its launch in 2002. Prior to this she started Gate 24 on News 24 after 10 years working in News both in London and in her native Australia . Kirsten has filmed in more than 40 countries worldwide - her varied reports have come from 36,000 feet onboard aircraft test flights, to the ocean depths diving on a conservation project in the Maldives . She reported from Bali after the bombings; Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean Tsunami and China on the SARS virus. She has interviewed Ministers from many Governments and key Travel Industry representatives. Of course she likes to cover many 'lighter' subjects as well and has managed several wine tasting reports and tried her hand at desert golf and belly dancing. Kirsten also represents the BBC as a Moderator and Panellist at international Tourism conferences and currently presents a BBC World TV promotional campaign for Tourism Malaysia .

Maria Pieri is Editorial Director for Absolute Publishing, publishers of ABTA Magazine, ASTANetwork Magazine, Welcome to London and Supplements. With over eight years' experience in travel publishing she has launched and edited a number of ABTA's trade titles, including their business travel publication and consumer title. She has also been responsible for the redesigns of ABTA Magazine, ASTANetwork and Welcome to London magazines and this year will be launching ABTA Magazine's Daily edition at WTM for the first time.

Richard Hammond is a freelance travel writer who writes a regular column in the Guardian on eco-friendly holidays and has written about green travel issues for several magazines, including ABTA magazine, Geographical, Green Futures, New Consumer, and Wanderlust. He is the editor of the worldwide guide to 'Green Places to Stay' (Alastair Sawday Publishing) and is one of the judges of the Responsible Tourism Awards and the Guardian's Ethical Travel Award. He has recently been the Contributing Editor to the Travel Channel's six part TV series How to Holiday Greener and has set up a website, greentraveller.co.uk that provides tips on how to have a greener holiday and where to find green places to stay.

Sharron Livingston is the editor of The Travel Magazine and the online magazine www.thetravelmagazine.net. She compiles and publishes a series of guides called Channel Hoppers Guides, yet she also finds time to do freelance writing and has been published in the Express, The Observer and The Guardian. She is a regular guest on Talksport national radio and Travel Talk radio based in California .

Gill Williams, Travel Editor for the Sunday Mirror is also the owner of Wildside (UK) Productions Ltd. A media group with its own TV company specialising in travel, TV studio in the City of London and also a media training company offering indepth TV, radio and print training for industry.

Tom Chesshyre, a travel writer for the Times for 10 years has recently published a book called 'How Low Can You Go'. Tom flew to several hidden corners of Europe on 1p flights (each way plus taxes) that low-cost airlines such as easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air offer regularly. He snapped up these fares basically because, as he says in his introduction, "no one else wants to go" to these destinations. The starting point for his book was to see for himself "all these places I hadn't been to, couldn't pronounce and would never have heard of, if low-cost airlines didn't fly to them."

BBC Fast track started seven years ago with a budget of just £1,000 a programme. They try to put themselves in the traveler's shoes; it is a lifestyle show covering all aspects of travel from firewalking to working on conservation projects!
Fast Track has regular segments, e.g. monthly festival features which are received in advance
Budgets are still very tight with just £4,500 per show and with strict BBC rules they are unable to accept freebies. This budget has to cover flights, accommodation, camera crew, etc
In terms of turnaround, some features sit on a shelf for months and others are used immediately. This time of year (early November) is a good time to send through information for 2008
Any help with cutting red tape is gratefully received, e.g. filming permits

click here to view Kirsten's presentation. If you would like to be sent clips of the 3 BBC Malaysia advertorials please Email Flo.

ABTA Magazine is always looking for news angles, destination reports and lifestyle elements, e.g. top bars
The publication works on a 8-week lead-in time
In terms of a features list, this time of year (early November) is a good time to be sending through information for 2008. Maria is always looking for help to plan features and information regarding festivals, campaigns, anniversaries etc are always useful
Exclusivity for the magazine will get more attention
Email is her preferred method for receiving press releases and would like images included but large files are not helpful, e.g. 1 mb maximum for an image would be OK. Alternatively Maria would like to be sent a CD with images or a link to an online image library.
In terms of press trips it is important to allow plenty of free time for the journalist to experience the destination as a tourist would.
Maria works in a small team and is unable to spend long periods of time out of the office at meetings or events; therefore breakfast or coffee meetings rather than lunches suit her better.
The use of supplements is increasing and will continue to do so, e.g. destination and hotel guides

The Sunday Mirror is a tabloid newspaper with 2.5-3 million readership
As of last week Gill received research regarding her readership which dispelled some myths about tabloid readers:

They spend £750 a week on holidays
They take 4 weeks of holiday a year and 4 short breaks a year
The destinations they travel to are diverse - there is still the traditional family trip to Spain but destinations such as St Helena and the Antarctic featured on the list
Only 2% asked what carbon footprint was - environmental concern was high

The perception of the industry needs to change in terms of the readership
50% of the travel coverage is based on UK destinations as ½ of the holidays taken by the readers are domestic
The big difference between a tabloid and a broadsheet is the way the information is delivered - tabloid is more short, sharp and concise.
Gill expressed the need for fresh ideas for her round-ups (104 a year, double-page spreads)
Email is her preferred method of receiving press releases, the mirror website is being modernized with a new travel section including video clips.

The Travel Magazine is a multi-media product with 9 different sections and an electronic version with its own distribution
Sharon looks for light-hearted reading such as anecdotes and she relies on PRs for inspiration and information
In terms of who to send the releases to, Sharon suggests using just one email address for releases for the magazine - travel@thetravelmagazine.co.uk . A good recommendation would be to say in the subject line what section the release is for, e.g. books, news, travel, health etc.
Images with the press release are important
Invitations to events should be sent directly to Sharon
There is a Q&A page on the website for PRs to submit their specialisms so that Sharon can go to the right person with questions.
Sharon requested that press releases should be sent in the body of the email and as a word attachment

Tom explained that the situation for travel journalists is different from any other industry as travel is so enormous - 194 countries in the world many with a tourist board; 1500 tour operators in Britain and 1500 travel agents, 250 airlines operating in the UK, 11,957 travel websites plus all the guide books, rail and cruise operators, hoteliers, PR companies and journalists all trying to sell stories to you at the same time.
Tom advised the audience to tailor-make pitches to people, e.g. Tom is in charge of travel news but there are others in charge of hotels, specialist destinations etc.
Releases should go to travel@thetimes.co.uk .
Exclusivity is always appreciated as are focused pitches to the features editor
Rather than 'blanket pitch' you should think laterally and give exclusivity
When a journalist calls and wants something, if you help them quickly they will use you again
Never call to see if the journalist has received an email

As a freelancer Richard replies heavily on PRs
A good PR knows what Richard needs as a freelance journalist. Richard works in the 'green' travel sphere. The best way to attract his attention is to send him an email listing the green issues in the release that would interest him
Almost every holiday can be made to be greener which can be highlighted
Richard is always looking for new, different and seasonally-related stories

Q: Who do I contact?
A: All publications/programmes have websites which list the general email contact which is best to use as it will also save you the time to find out which person you need. However, most publications/programmes also have a special email for late availability although this is not appropriate for monthly publication such as ABTA magazine

Q: Do you all need a unique story?
A: Yes, not just unique but tailored to the journalist/section/publication

Q: What is the future for online publications?
A: You can't take an online publication into the bath to read so it needs to work in tandem with the print publication. Online publications have a growing audience and a different readership to print. Advertising is increasingly going online and cult videos are becoming an excellent medium.

Q: Are we seeing the end of the traditional travel programme?
A: There are lots of new and controversial ways to look at travel such as getting debates going about issues such as green taxes. Film and TV tourism and anything with a celebrity angle will always get attention

Q: Are press packs useful?
A: Only if they are given at the end of a press trip with a CD of images. A more useful way of distributing them would be to give memory sticks with a list of what is on it instead of paper-based packs. This way the journalist can transfer all the information to their hard drive and re-use the stick! However, Tom Chesshyre is unable to view memory sticks on his work computer. Press packs should cover just one page for WTM and no cuddly toys! Although free wine is always appreciated!

Q: Where is consumer travel going?
A: It needs different stories and angles, e.g. biodiversity, green issues and travel. There is a lot of 'travel bashing' and the travel industry doesn't defend itself enough. Travel can be enriching for the soul. Gill explained that she no longer flies short-haul but takes alternative transport instead, we can't ignore the damage that short-haul travel does to the environment. Travel needs to raise the profile of endangered areas.

Q: Are you happy to receive attachments or not?
A: Sharon Livingston - I do not want pdfs - send the word doc and image as attachments and copy the release text into the email.
A: Maria - so long as the image file is not too big or send CDs or links to image libraries
A: Richard - I work on home-based broadband and therefore the smaller the file the better
A: Tom - don't just attach the release with no information about it in the email as it will be deleted straight away
A: Gill - I don't like attachments or pictures attached, less is more!

Q: Please give examples of recent successful stories and why they were a success
A: Richard - a recent online story about a trip on the Eurostar from Brussels to St Pancras - it worked well because it was a fun story and it was about a green issue but it did not preach to readers.