Do Your Research to Become a Travel Writer

travel writing research

Research is the key for all writers, especially when you are a travel writer.

Whether you are writing about exotic destinations, new hotel openings, the best restaurants or the most popular spa…you need to do your research about whatever topic your article will be about. Research on your subject will allow you to learn about what and where you want to write about and a better understanding of your topic.

Your research as a travel writer first starts with what market do you want to write about…what’s your niche?

Once you decide that you want to be a travel writer, you need to do research on the market you want to write about. A travel journalist writes about all the best places to visit and what to see, what to do, where to eat and where to stay while you are visiting those destinations.

Your first step is to decide what genre under traveling do you want to write about.

Will you specialize in just writing about different cities or do you want to write about hotels, spas, the best places to shop, restaurants, the nightlife or do you want to focus on what are the best weekend getaways? Pick your niche first so you can do your research on your niche.

The best way to pick your niche is decide what topic really interests you that you have some knowledge about and you will enjoy writing about it. Jumping from one topic to another will not give you expertise in it and you will find yourself doing a lot of research for different areas. Whereas, if you stick with one area not only will you be an expert in it, it will also open doors that can lead to you becoming published, because you will be specializing in a certain field.

Your research in the beginning should be reading and studying everything about the area you decided you want to write about as a travel writer. Know the ins and outs of what you plan your career to be as a travel journalist.

Once you find your niche, research everything pertaining to it, especially what magazines publish articles on your topic? Let’s say you decide your niche will be hotels and you want to write about where the best Bed and Breakfast hotels in the northeast are. Research what magazines have articles particular on that subject. That way you have a better chance to get published with a magazine that focuses on Bed and Breakfast instead of one that might focus on just hotels.

Read some back issues from those magazines so you will know how they run their articles; learn their style and what has been written about Bed and Breakfast in the last six months. You do not want to query an editor with a idea that has already been done a couple of months ago, that’s the best way to get rejected and let the editor know you have not been reading their magazine.

Now that you know your niche and have researched that area along with what magazines you can submit your articles too, your next step as a travel writer is photography.

Most travel writers take photos to go with their articles and most editors want photos. I am sure you have taken pictures while on vacation, but now you want to take professional pictures to sell.

Do your research on what editors want in a photo, but most importantly do research on how to photograph pictures to sell.

When you are taking a picture of a hotel to write about it, you should be looking through your lenses for different angles, rather than just snapping a picture to put in the family vacation photo album. Try to take at least one class on photography so you can learn how to shoot as a pro and to really understand what your camera can do.

Do your research on cameras so you will know what the best type of camera you will need for whatever your niche is going to be. Taking pictures of family and friends are different from taking pictures of the different places and things to go along with your articles.

Research is a very important part of being a travel writer. Not only do you need to do research about the career of a travel writer, but you also need to get into the practice of doing research to write your articles. Each time you write about a particular place or subject you will need to do some research before you write the article so you will know what to target in your article and be prepared to write it.

A travel writer gives experiences to people about certain places and certain things to do, you the writer have to research those places and things to be the best travel writer for people to live through your experiences.

~ Rose

About Rose Walker 1 Article

Rose Walker is an internationally published freelance writer, columnist, writing instructor and owner of Rose Walker Writing Consultants where she consults with writers on traveling, movie screenplays, freelance, novels and research.

She has written a five article miniseries for the British magazine, The New Writer and taught writing classes at University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University.

You can learn more about Rose at her website: http://rwalkerwritingconsults.webs.com

2 Comments

  1. I perfectly agree,,Research is the very first thing to do when your about to write whether for travel or any other niche. It is also much convenient to write for travel niche if you’ve personally visited the place your about to discuss.

  2. Research what is trending – then follow the topic and work out if you can approach the topic with engaging fresh views. If you get it right you will appear in trending search results which will deliver lots of visitors eager to discover more and likely to share.

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