PRESS PASS NewsletterVolume 36, Issue 07, September 2018 In this issue...
What You Need to Know About Using Photos in your Articlesby Mary Chong
1. Use your own photos whenever possible - Do not ever use a photo in an article without giving proper credit to the owner/photographer.
2. Reach out to the Tourism Board, Brand or Host for a suitable photo if you don't have your own pictures
3. Buy Stock Photos
4. Creative Commons Photos / Free Photo Sites - Creative Commons, PEXELS, Unsplash
5. Final Tips
Attending Travel Marketplace Events - How to Find Them and How to Applyby Kathleen Walls Travel marketplace events are gold mines for travel writers. Gold miners and travel journalists are a lot alike. Both are looking for precious nougats. The miner needs a mine or stream where the gold is hiding and a tool to get it out. A travel writer needs a destination and a contact there who can give them the inside scope or what to do and see. Think of the destination as your nougat and the contact as your tool. Marketplaces are filled with nougats and tools. A smart travel writer will be at as many as possible to mine the destination gold.
The basic premise of all travel marketplaces is to bring visitors to destinations. Well-written stories in publications, both online and in print, bring visitors (and their money) to destinations. The basic working of marketplaces is CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureaus) and public relations firms who represent destinations who pay to rent a booth at a marketplace. Travel writers are invited free, and in some cases, even have hotel and occasionally airfare paid to bring them there. To sweeten the pot, pre- and post-event press trips are offered. Once at the marketplace, you have appointments with destinations (CVB and PR people). You each know a little about the other when you meet. They tell you what they have to offer and you tell them what you want to write about. Sometimes they are planning group press trips, and if you meet their standards and the interests are mutual, you get invited. More often, they help you arrange to visit their area and set you up in a hotel, feed you, and take you around to their high spots. Using Travel Media Showcase (TMS) as an example, this is basically how they work. You fill out a pre-registration form on their site. They look it over and if you look promising, they send you credentials to post an official application. Here is where you show your strength. Post your best articles in publications with the highest circulation. Assuming you are accepted, you are offered choices of several pre- or post-trips. This year, I am going to Cattaraugus County and visit an Amish Community and the Seneca Nations Cultural Center among other things. Choices ranged from Rochester to Finger Lakes to Erie and more. At the marketplace, I will spend a day and a half doing 12-minute meetings with about 40 CVBs to exchange information. Then I will do a day tour around Niagara. Choices range from fishing to riding the rapids to hops and vines tours. Now fellow journalists, do you see why these are gold mines? by Rossana Wyatt and Dana Freeman As you know, press trips are not a vacation. They entail a lot of work for journalists and require us to be professional at all times. To that end, the media trip committee works hard behind the scenes to plan the best trips possible to meet members’ needs. As a reminder, when applying or selected for a media trip, IFWTWA members accept full responsibility for their actions. As individuals and as an organization, we must conduct ourselves with the utmost professionalism. IFWTWA applicants must agree to adhere to our Code of Conduct and the expectations of conduct for events and media Trips.
Read the entire Media Trip post. Don’t just jump to fill out the application immediately. The detailed itinerary we provide you with has information you’ll need to pitch your potential outlets. Our hosts consider your “story focus” as a very important part of your application. Update your profile .pdf new media clips. Our hosts need to see what you have published recently. Fill in all of the information that is asked for in the form. Leaving out crucial information may lead to rejection of the application by the host for this trip or future media trips. It doesn’t hurt your application to include the following information, it only helps our hosts to properly plan for your visit. So please be honest. Food Allergies: The host needs to be aware of any, and all food-related allergies/intolerances ahead of time. Physical restrictions: Do you get car sick? Have a hard time getting in and out of a car or difficulty walking? We need to know if there are any potential problems that would prevent you from participating in an activity that our host has arranged for us. If we find out about a restriction while on the media trip that precludes you from participating in an activity, it will look unprofessional to our host and will be frowned upon by IFWTWA. We will take this into account when you apply for future media trips. Always conduct yourself in a professional manner while on a media trip. Hopefully, we do not have to spell that out for you. Inappropriate behavior on the media trip may lead to rejection of your application on future trips. Uphold all of your Media Trip Clip Commitments. You must fulfill your commitments to publish all of the posts and articles you said you would in your application. The hosts rely on you to follow through, and those commitments are part of the reason you have been chosen. Additionally, members should maximize social media sharing during the press/media trip. Q&A with San Juans' Barbara Marrett: What CVBs are looking for to host Travel Writersby Mary Farah What’s in a story? That is the question travel writers often face. As we network and pitch with conference and visitor bureaus (CVB’s) and media contacts, we cannot help but wonder what they’re looking for when they invite press to visit their destination, hotel, restaurant.
For those who could not be with us at the 2018 conference, or if you need a refresher, we’ve asked Barbara to elaborate a bit more on the hour-long workshop, and the importance of having a brand if you’re an influencer. IFWTWA: What do you look for when inviting travel writers to visit your destination? IFWTWA: How closely do you look at a writer's social media presence when considering them for a press visit? IFWTWA: When you're pitched for story angles and visits, what's something that stands out for you from a writer? IFWTWA: In your conference workshop, you mentioned writers should obtain testimonials from PR. Can you elaborate on this? IFWTWA: Also during the workshop, you explained the importance of a great business card. What makes a good one for you? IFWTWA: How important is flexibility to you when working with a travel writer? IFWTWA: As an IFWTWA member, why would you tell colleagues to join us?
Photo of the Year 2018by Len & Judy Garrison CONGRATULATIONS to JANICE NIEDER, Photo of the Year 2018 winner for her amazing portrait. "Tibetan man walking through Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet" originally showcased as our October 2017 Photo of the Month.
Photo Tips & Tricks:Here's your tip for the month: Always have a spare! Whether it be batteries, straps or cards, there will always come a time when the one you left the hotel room with lets you down. Here are some of the extras we always pack:
Introducing IFWTWA Professional Development Learning Videosby Linda Milks IFWTWA members continuously grow in this fascinating business of writing about food, wine, and travel. As Chair of the Professional Development Committee, I'm honored to assemble a set of short videos for you on IFWTWA’s YouTube channel. With the help of Mary Farah, Social Media Committee Chair, we begin a series of snippets on topics IFWTWA members selected to expand their knowledge. The following videos are graciously provided by our IFWTWA topic experts. I look forward to learning and growing along with you.
Volunteer Spotlightby Linda Milks JANICE NIEDER has been chosen as our Volunteer of the Month because of her active role in assisting Allen Cox with the 2018 IFWTWA Conference on Whidbey Island.
When you meet Janice, ask about her adventure with Ethiopian tribal women baking Injera bread on hot stones or her exotic dinner with a Shuar Indian family deep in the Amazon Jungle. In addition to assisting underdeveloped countries keep their culture through the foods for which they are known, she has written numerous articles about her culinary discoveries and the cooking methods in a wide variety of countries such as Ireland, Poland, Taiwan, San Sebastian, Italy, and Jerusalem. IFWTWA is not the only organization that cherishes Janice’s work. She has received San Francisco's Community Leadership Award of Excellence for her activism as the Volunteer Coordinator for C.H.E.F.S. (Conquering Homelessness Through Employment in Food Service), a creation of hers that trains the homeless in restaurant skills. You can find some of Janice’s writing on her blog Travel Luxury Blog as well as Honest Cooking, Just Lux, and JaniceNieder. These are just some of the places she publishes. As you can see, she is a prolific writer! We want to give Janice a very big “THANK YOU” for all the work she did this year on the conference! It’s an honor to introduce you to our new members and to give recognition to members having anniversaries this month. We thank our new and anniversary members for including IFWTWA on their pathway to success. Your choice to work hard, think positive, network, and use your member benefits brings you to a whole new level of achievement. Way to go! ANNIVERSARIES
10 years
John Lamkin 5 years
Jan Pollack Bianco 5 years
Beverly Cohn * * * * *
NEW MEMBERS
IFWTWA Resources: Connect with our Experts
Connect with fellow IFWTWA experts. Join Forums & create Social Circles on IFWTWA's new website. Meet members in our private Facebook Members Group. Follow and connect for retweets, "like" member's posts and pages, attend events, and volunteer. Interact with your colleagues to enhance and grow your professional goals. IFWTWA Members Facebook Group Follow | Connect | Retweet Official Magazine of IFWTWA Follow | Connect | Retweet LOVE TO PLAN EVENTS? MEET YOUR COLLEAGUES
Beth Graham IFWTWA | Murrieta, CA | 877-IFWTWA-9 |
One of our 2018 Conference highlights this year on Whidbey Island, Washington was the fantastic workshop led by San Juans Islands Visitors Bureau Marketing Manager Shannon Borg and Barbara Marrett, Communications and Stewardship Manager. These talented ladies covered, How your Stories can Promote a Destination's Wishlist. Ideal for tips and hacks to satisfy your host when you write your stories, It was inspiring to see many of the attendees, several new to the association, watch with wide eyes and taking many notes.
You could say Janice’s background is diverse. For 12 years she worked as a specialty food consultant in New York City for places like Tavern on the Green and Dean and Deluca. Since that time, she has traveled to nearly 100 countries where she uses her knowledge of food and food preparation to help underdeveloped countries protect their cultural identity by preserving their traditional foods and cooking methods. In addition to these countries, she has assisted local producers with bringing their products to market, and consulted with tourism and business leaders on developing and promoting local farmers markets, cooking classes, and culinary tours.
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