Writing Travel Content? How to Invent New Ideas and Fresh Angles Every Time

In the world of travel writing, a never-before-covered story is the holy grail. Whether you are a magazine editor looking for the next big thing in travel or a tourism brand trying to ensure your blog stands out from the crowd, you find yourself on a never-ending quest for new, original ideas. Or, at the least, a fresh take on an older story.

So how do you sniff out a good travel story? Anyone who has ever tried will testify it isn’t easy; but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. We drew on the experience of our travel writing team to come up with some helpful tips.

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Travel Writing Tips You Should Ignore

Since the advent of the internet, everyone and their uncle has been offering advice on travel writing. Most of this advice is well meaning, but much of it is outdated, ineffective or just misinformed. Therefore, it needs debunking.

Pooling the extensive travel writing knowledge of our writers, we’ve come up with a shortlist of questionable tips that are regurgitated online again and again. So, without further ado, here are four bad tips that are best ignored.

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Ending With a Bang: Three Great Ways to Conclude Your Travel Articles

In travel writing, endings matter. They are the last words the audience will read and, when done well, they have a tendency to linger. A good ending is the feeling or image that survives, the thing that keeps the story alive and kicking in the reader’s mind long after they’ve finished the article.

In our last writers’ blog, we dealt with the all-important opener. This time round, we’re turning our attention to the equally important conclusion. It may come last, but the ending should never be an afterthought.

Travel writing endings need to not only alert readers to the fact that the story is over, but they also need to reinforce the main points of the article. The chronological end to your experience is usually not the best choice (embarking on a return flight does not make a good finale); you’ll need to come up with something better. Anyone who regularly reads travel content will be aware that the quote has become a fairly standard way of wrapping things up. And although a juicy end quote can be extremely effective, it’s a trick that is fast becoming overused.

With that in mind, here are three other travel writing techniques that can help spice up your finale.

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Once Upon a Time: The Importance of Good Storytelling in Travel Writing

It’s that wonderful time of the year again, when the John Lewis Christmas advert has people all around the country reaching for their hankies. Viewers tune in their thousands and they know what they’re going to get: a stripped-down cover of a classic pop number by some young up-and-comer, a cute animal and a gentle tug on the heartstrings that — depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing — stops just short of cloying sentimentality. Why do people love it so much? Because it’s a familiar, well-executed story.

Whether you’ve fallen for Monty the Penguin’s charms or not, there is something to be said for the John Lewis method. Good storytelling works and not just in retail. In the travel industry, it’s especially important.

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