Faces Not Places: How Humans Make the Best Subjects for Your Travel Content

Gone are the days when we – as travel content consumers – drool over vivid descriptions of blue skies and calm seas. Behind us are the times when we fall head over heels with the described colours of the Sahara Desert. Lost are the moments when we devour articles that talk giddily about hidden gems, startling sunsets and dreamy cities.

Readers of travel content today are incredibly sophisticated, and exposed to more travel writing than ever before, so it takes more than a pretty description of a landscape to get readers’ feet itching. Today’s readers are looking for something more tangible in their travel writing. And one of the best ways to add it is to include a protagonist.

In the art of storytelling, characters are crucial, and travel content writing is no different. Want to know more about why adding faces to your content can be effective… and the best ways to do it? Then read our expert tips below.

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12 Tacky Travel Writing Clichés to Avoid

Every writer and editor has their personal peccadilloes about overused travel writing terms such as ‘off the beaten path’ or ‘sun-drenched’, but individual qualms shouldn’t mean a blanket ban on these phrases. These may all be overused clichés, but sometimes — to borrow another particularly well-worn cliché — they hit the nail on the head.

However, there are some words and formulaic travel phrases that are so overused, they are positively exhausted. Many of them are churned out so regularly in travel writing that they have lost all meaning, and no longer register with readers. And yet, thanks to writerly laziness, these hackneyed phrases keep on cropping up again and again.

We have named and shamed 12 of the worst offenders below; our very own dirty dozen of travel writing clichés.

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Not a quaff

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Seven Very Handy Travel Writing Habits

Good written travel content is the result of three main factors: an interesting idea, solid research and great writing. Attaining these goals is easier than you think; it’s all about the habits you form. Just as bad habits can ensure bad content, developing good habits can ensure consistency and quality throughout your written travel content.

Here are seven habits that we think are well worth forming…

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