Let’s get started. . .
Whether you enjoy travelling and writing in your own blog or website as a hobby or seek a future career in the field of travel writing expertise the tips below will help you get started.
It is significantly important to start off by saying what isn’t considered to be a piece of travel writing. Travel writing definitely isn’t writing about your family’s vacation or what you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy during your last journey. And of course, it isn’t writing about destinations so that you can travel for free as some people think.
Travel writing is writing about places and different cultures, people and their manners and customs. It helps readers plan their own trips by giving tips on when and how to travel or giving advice on travelling. Your aim should be to spread your travel experiences and knowledge to others so that they can follow these suggestions or warn them not to make the same mistakes you did. However, try to focus more on the positive parts of your experiences as your job is to inspire people to travel not to prevent them.
The key to a successful piece of travel writing is to always have the reader in mind. What do they need to know? Will this interest them? Is the information I am providing helpful? In order to answer these questions, you need to narrow down your target audience. For example, does your writing refer to young adults, families travelling with children, the elderly, people who seek adventure, or people who want to relax? By having your target audience always in mind, you will not lose track of your writing. If your target audience is ‘young adults who seek adventure’ you would probably like to mention places in the destination that will offer them the adventure they are looking for e.g. hiking, extreme sports, bars, and clubs. But if your target audience is ‘families travelling with children’ you will then have to include family-friendly places to visit, family excursions at the destination, etc. It is impossible to write a piece of travel writing that can possibly refer to everyone.
The best way to start is by ‘Writing about things in your own backyard’ that are ‘exotic’ to everyone else. ‘What you call home may be glamorously distant to others’. After all, who knows a place better than the locals? Write about a local museum in your own city, a remarkable sight that tourists would want to visit, and even better a ‘hidden gem’, like a secret waterfall/lake/place, that not a lot of people know yet. Some travellers would love to discover special places and things to see that aren’t obvious tourist attractions.
Your goal should be to present a correct and persuasive valuation of a place. Therefore, carrying out detailed research using valid resources, prior to your visit to a place, is essential. Don’t write anything you are not sure about.
To close with, giving the appropriate title to your article is also another important point. A misleading title will only result in disappointing your reader. Be as specific as possible and provide everything your title promises to offer.
Good Luck!
