What makes a strong travel story? It really depends on the publication. Some favour news, trends and original concepts. Others want evergreen guides or stories that will be relevant a year from now. Here are nine ways travel writers can think of original ideas for travel stories for websites, newspapers or magazines.
Read travel trade publications
Travel writers looking for fresh angles should follow the travel trade as closely as holidaymakers track flight deals.
Trade newsletters, websites and social media announce new tourism board strategies, airline routes and hotel developments. They reveal what is launching today and six months’ from now, and what the industry expects to be big next year.
Trend reports published by major travel companies such as Expedia are especially valuable. That’s because they combine booking data, search patterns and traveller behaviour. This makes them a rich source of ideas into emerging destinations, shifts in how people travel and changes in why they travel – long before the ideas reach mainstream travel pages.
Be the first to spot a trend
However, the people who spot trends first aren’t usually reading trend reports. Instead, they’re embedded in fast-moving conversations.
Want to be first to announce a trend? Then spend less time consuming polished content and more time listening to people experimenting in public before brands, algorithms and traditional media catch up. That means watching emerging creators on TikTok before they go mainstream. Alternatively, participate in niche WhatsApp groups, Reddit communities, Telegram chats and Discord servers, where new behaviour appears organically.
Noticed the same niche destination, experience or complaint in different communities at once? Then you’re on to something.
Network with travel PRs
Building relationships with travel PRs can give writers access to travel story ideas long before they’re widely covered. PRs know which ski resorts will open first each season, which cruise ships are launching soon and which destinations are repositioning themselves.
PRs can also connect travel writers with unusual interview subjects. An up and coming chef who cooks Eritrean cuisine or a conservationist who specialises in golden langurs may lead to an original feature.
The most useful relationships are not just transactional. The more a PR understands a writer’s interests and style, the more likely they are to suggest ideas that fit that writer’s audience before anyone else spots them.
After a group press trip to Arctic Sweden, I kept in touch with the PR for Visit Sweden, who knew I’m a level bronze figure skater. Later that year, I returned to the same region on an individual press trip to write about the local trend for wild ice skating for National Geographic Traveller.
Invest in a printed guidebook
Traditional guidebooks are an effective starting point for ideas for travel stories. That’s because they are written by native authors or travel writers who have spent long periods researching the destination in depth.
Lonely Planet, Rouge Guide or Bradt guidebooks for example often contain overlooked historical details, local customs or little known neighbourhoods that never make it into online listicles.
Consider reading older editions, too. Compare them with newer versions to understand how a destination has changed. What’s disappeared, and what’s fashionable again?
Look for something new
Something new instantly gives a travel story relevance, whether it is a rail route, gallery launch, visa change, completed restoration project or a destination suddenly becoming easier – or harder – to reach.
Scan tools such as Google News. Read local newspapers and planning applications. Listen out for UNESCO announcements. These can all reveal stories before they become mainstream travel features.
Even a small news item such as an inaugural ferry service, vineyard opening or a historic building reopening can become the starting point for a bigger travel piece.
Research unusual experiences
Editors always want new angles on familiar destinations. Travel stories are more compelling when they offer readers something unique, which they can’t easily experience elsewhere.
An unexpected service or activity will always go down well. That’s why the commissioning editor at the women’s health magazine Zest loved my pitch about Japan’s electric hot springs.
Likewise, if you pitch an event or experience that’s the first of its kind, you’re likely to pique an editor’s interest. That worked for me when I pitched to Zest a story about the world’s first cycle zipline.
Use anniversaries, festivals and events to generate ideas for travel stories
Milestone anniversaries such as HX Expeditions’ 130th anniversary or the United States’ 250th anniversary create strong story angles. That’s because topical hooks give editors a reason to publish your story now. Annual festivals and events are another source of ideas.
This worked for me – I pitched a story about London’s ‘magnificent seven’ cemeteries to the Financial Times in time for Halloween, pointing out how familiar I was with them all because they’d featured in my guidebook, London Almanac.
One-off or inaugural events are valuable, too, as they give readers a fresh insight into a destination. That’s why adventure.com liked my idea on Bhutan’s first fashion week.
Contact locals
Before you travel to a new destination, contact locals, particularly creatives. Designers, artists or architects have the best ideas for travel stories. Ask them, what’s new? What are their peers talking about? Which major museums or hotels are opening soon?
Ahead of my trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, I emailed a street artist who lived there. He told me the jaguar population is increasing in the north of Argentina. That’s why he’d created a jaguar mural that day. That ticked three boxes – it tapped into the trend for rewilding projects; it was a new mural; and no one else knew about it yet.
Network on the ground
Remember, not everyone is online. An artisan in a village in Rwanda, East Africa, may be the only weaver outside the capital to host agaseke basket weaving workshops, but can’t afford broadband to market them to tourists.
A tour guide in Cienfuegos, Cuba, may offer silent flamingo boat trips at dawn, but struggle with an unreliable internet connection to share the news.
An entrepreneur in Bangalore may be setting up a business renting campervans with drivers to tourists, but their website won’t be launching for another two months.
Even if these people, services and experiences were online, their website won’t show up on the first page of Google (or the second, or third…) if it’s not optimised for search engines.
But you want to find these people, services and experiences before other travel writers do. How?
Talk to locals. A chance conversation can spark an idea, and if your contact can’t help you, then they’ll know someone who can.
Strong ideas for travel stories are important, but for more travel writing tips, contact travel writer Sarah Riches for one-to-one or group coaching workshops.
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