What is travel writing, anyway?
The first ever travel writer might have been the Greek geographer Pausanias, who wrote Hellados Periegesis, or Description of Greece – what is now considered to be the oldest guidebook ever written; the first tome of the travel literature genre.
Over the centuries since, travel writers have written for glossy magazines or the dun-coloured pages of memoirs. Their words were made concrete in print, shared with readers who held physical paper and spent more than just eight seconds looking at an article.
Then the internet came along and everything changed. What is travel writing today?
The definition of travel writing
Travel writing, by definition, is writing that describes places the author has visited and the experiences they had while travelling.
While more traditional travel writing follows a narrative of one person’s travels, modern travel writing has started to blur into a blog-style format, with a focus on advice, tips, and must-sees.
Travel publications now produce just as many service-based pieces and listicle roundups as longer-form first-hand accounts of an author’s journey. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; the digitisation of travel writing means it’s easier than ever for people to enter the field. Travel blogs elevate travellers to travel writers just by dint of them recording their adventures on a personal website.
Modern travel writing has more voices than ever before, and is becoming slowly more inclusive than ever before, which is important. The “good old days” of travel writing are laced with power imbalances, as much of the writing was done through a lens of colonialism and exoticism. Traditionally, white, male writers from the Western world would share their biased views of people and places with their audience at home.
Diversifying travel writing, in both medium and voice, and broadening the scope of the definition of travel writing, will hopefully disestablish the tradition of imperialist travel writing.
Instead of “parachute journalism,” where travel writers would tell stories about a place they visited once, people are writing about their own countries and cultures.
Like me - during the pandemic, I travelled New Zealand extensively for the first time. I started sharing more stories about New Zealand, because I’m excited to share knowledge about my own country, and because as a New Zealander I feel qualified to talk about Aotearoa.
““Most travel narratives—perhaps all of them, the classics anyway—describe the miseries and splendors of going from one remote place to another. The quest, the getting there, the difficulty of the road is the story; the journey, not the arrival, matters, and most of the time the traveler—the traveler’s mood, especially—is the subject of the whole business.”
What is the purpose of travel writing?
Travel writing introduces us to new places, people and ideas. Truly great travel writing can transport us; give us a glimpse of far-flung places and provide inspiration or escapism. I like to think that travel writing, much like travel itself, can open our minds to different cultures and possible ways of living, fostering more empathy for others and curiosity about the world around us.
Travel writing can make us dream, of packing up our belongings, scooping up our passports, and spending a week, a month, a year in a place anywhere other than home. Or it can simply transport us through words to places we might otherwise never see.
There is also a deeply practical element to travel writing. Legendary guidebooks have long provided concise and actionable advice on travel – as well as eloquent and poetic descriptions of destinations, I have used Lonely Planet’s books to find small cafes, places to stay, and train stations. When I first started traveling, I didn’t have a phone and would only get online in internet cafes. My well-thumbed guidebooks gave me all the information I needed as I stumbled through South America.
Much travel writing has evolved with online media. This type of travel writing now takes up most travel websites; where to find the best places to eat, stay, and wonder.
People travel more, and they consume more media than ever before. With the sheer volume of social media posts, blogs, YouTube videos and television series centred around travel, your average consumer no longer needs to be told by a travel writer what a country on the other side of the world is like.
There’s not much mystery left in the world when you can watch TikToks from anywhere.
We’re also now conditioned to consume fast-moving content saturated with visuals. Few people sit down to scroll through several thousand words about a national park in New Zealand when they can just search the relevant hashtag and be inundated with images.
Today, people are more likely to seek out a ‘top 10 things to do’ list – a quick and dirty highlight reel they can replicate, rather than a moving and thought-provoking piece of literature.
Add to this the fact that much of the travel content you now see online is geared toward marketing a product, or raising the profile of a brand, rather than selling a publication.
That doesn’t mean online travel content is bad. On the contrary, Lonely Planet has excellent free, online resources for travellers - their website just also happens to be an outstanding example of content marketing, maintaining their position as an authority on travel while gently steering people toward purchasing their guidebooks.
“Great travel writing consists of equal parts curiosity, vulnerability and vocabulary. It is not a terrain for know-it-alls or the indecisive. The best of the genre can simply be an elegant natural history essay, a nicely writ sports piece, or a well-turned profile of a bar band and its music. A well-grounded sense of place is the challenge for the writer. We observe, we calculate, we inquire, we look for a link between what we already know and what we’re about to learn. The finest travel writing describes what’s going on when nobody’s looking.”
Examples of travel writing
Online travel magazines still showcase beautiful travel writing. To show the breadth of what travel writing can encompass, here are a few examples:
National Geographic Travel is a forever iconic publication, featuring stories that explore travel through the lens of science, culture, history, or environment– like my story on hut hiking in New Zealand.
I love Suitcase’s focus on narrative travel writing.
Travel + Leisure is a beautiful mix of roundups and service pieces, as well as inspiration.
Patagonia’s journal is an epic example of content marketing – genuine, beautiful stories of adventure around the world. I like to think this is where a lot of travel content will return to; it can be highlighting a brand and a purpose, while still staying true to inspiring narratives.
Check out my portfolio for more - I’ve written travel pieces for a range of different publications, and you can see that I’ve written profiles, listicles, and reported stories.
Does writing about travel make you a travel writer?
So, if you are crafting content on the subject of travel, are you a travel writer?
What you understand by travel writing is largely open to interpretation – in my opinion, anyway. Feel free to disagree in the comments below.
I call myself a travel writer because I think this more accurately covers the breadth of what I turn my writing talents to. I can write a long-form article, pithy email, social media post, or short and sharp landing page copy.
I tend to split my time as a freelance travel writer, between longer-form features that are published both online and in print, and on content projects for clients in the tourism industry. And yes, I write listicles, too – I don’t think there is any shame in that, I also admit to reading and loving listicles.
It might not be as glamorous as being published in a reputable magazine or writing a guidebook, but it’s a writing-based job that allows me to immerse myself in my favourite subject matter.
Essentially, whether you brand yourself as a travel writer or a travel content writer depends on how you see yourself, and the kinds of clients you’re aiming to write for.
There is certainly still space on the internet for long-form, narrative stories that are born from journeys. So if that is what you prefer to write, find the publications that accept these pitches and get to work.
If you choose the content route, you should understand how what you create fits into broader content marketing, and what this means for brands who want to stay visible in search engine land. Content can still feature in-depth research and interviews, giving a close-up look at a destination.
What does a travel writer do in the age of content marketing?
Travel writers are still doing what they have done for a long time. They write about all aspects of travel, including how to get to a destination, where to stay, what to expect from the local culture, and other interesting topics related to the history, natural attractions, or quirks of a place.
Overall, it’s merely the format that has changed.
There are still journalists who visit destinations and write about them, but these are often at the invitation of tourism boards or operators within the industry. The media coverage they generate is PR for the destination, or business – a form of content marketing. There’s a good chance these media stories will be published in a digital format.
There are still more travel bloggers who travel on their own dime, writing about their experiences on their own website or pitching stories to various publications on the internet. Their chosen topics are most likely driven by search behaviour and – of course – published online.
And there are travel writers who work with brands, developing engaging content that provides valuable information to travellers while also connecting them to brands within the industry - another form of content marketing.
As long as people around the world want to travel – and they always will – there will be a need for travel writers, in whatever shape or format that may appear.
