Where in the World #5
How much should travel writers spend on expenses, can AI design the ultimate day in New York and is this eerily perfect town a little too perfect?
Hi travel media people. Thanks again to everyone who has said such nice things about The Travel Communicator, and shared it amongst yourselves like your older sister’s copy of Dolly magazine circa 1994. I really, really, really appreciate it.
Next Thursday, I’ll be sharing a killer Q&A with another one of my excellent editors, Kelli Armstrong from Escape. Escape is a ripper of a title to work for because they run such a tight ship (and they also do a lot of work with actual ships - cruise ships - and I love me a good cruise). Escape is the absolute top of the travel media game which means there’s no messing around, no nonsense, no faff, no fluff - just an a-grade team who brief well, and expect tight, top-tier content in return.
That said, they also go out of their way to treat their freelancers like team-mates which I know all of us really appreciate. It’s always a good day when you run into someone from the Escape fam at an event or see their name pop up on a famil guest list.
So if you’ve come here from social media or because someone shared this with you I strongly advise you subscribe, below, or you’ll miss out. That’s all I can say, really. I can’t help you much more than that.
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Meanwhile, let’s get into it.
Empty content calories
“There’s more content than actual stuff!” is something I’ve been yelling for a while. Every business, every person, every concept, seems to need 10 times its own bodyweight in social media, marketing, online presence, discussion and analysis if it wants any hope of success. And yes, I am aware of the irony of writing this on a Substack.
Now that artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT is here to churn out even more bulk content - most of it perfectly readable but ultimately pedestrian - perhaps we need to ask ourselves a larger question. Is the issue really whether or not AI is any good at helping us plug our content gaps? Or do we actually need this much content in the first place?
Are all these sugary, mass-produced junkfood word blurts doing anything for anyone?
This piece from The Authentic Marketer The AI decision: Is it time to say goodbye to your copywriter? makes me weep a little, when it suggests ChatGPT is a good option “if you have a junior copywriter or virtual assistant who isn't very good at writing compelling copy, and you just need to push social media posts and ‘OK’ content out to get traction.”
Smashing out average, robotic content because even bad content is better than no content? The futility of it all.
I’ve long wished that every year, someone would go through the internet and give it a brisk spring clean. Efficiently clear away all the dead blogs and abandoned social media handles, for starters, and then apply some sort of widely-agreed quality test to weed out the rest of the garbage. I know! You’re appalled - this sounds like censorship, doesn’t it, and it would never happen but I can dream.
Surely though at some point we have to reach Peak Content. “I think all this content, and people becoming content creators, is a bubble,” someone suggested to me recently and I thought that sounded reasonable. Perhaps that’s it. We’re gorging on content calories now but eventually we’ll make ourselves sick. That cheered me up until I did a little digging and realise that as far back 2016, experts like The Marketing Institute were already predicting that online content was in a bubble, and its burst point was upon us at any minute.
And lo! Seven years later, here I am starting a Substack. If it’s a bubble, it must be about the size of a planet by now.
Since the content avalanche isn’t going anywhere any time soon we may as well see what this ChatGPT thing can do.
As is the current fashion, I set a test for ChatGPT to see how slick it was at travel writing and whether or not I can expect to see it bloodlessly hogging my bylines any time soon.
This was the result:
Me: Describe the perfect day in New York including hot new restaurants, noteworthy landmarks, attractions and hidden gems
ChatGPT: There are so many amazing things to see and do in New York, it's hard to narrow it down to just one perfect day! But here's a suggestion for how you could spend a memorable day in the city:
Start the morning with a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the world's most iconic museums. The Met has an incredible collection of art and artifacts from around the world, so you could easily spend hours here.
For lunch, head to one of the city's hot new restaurants, like Atomix or Atoboy. Both of these places are known for their innovative Korean cuisine and have been getting rave reviews from food critics.
In the afternoon, take a stroll through Central Park, one of New York's most famous landmarks. You could visit iconic spots like Bethesda Fountain or Strawberry Fields, or just relax on the grass and people-watch.
In the evening, catch a show on Broadway or check out a performance at one of the city's many jazz clubs. For a unique experience, you could also try to get tickets to a comedy show at the Comedy Cellar, where famous comedians often drop in to perform unannounced sets.
If you're looking for a hidden gem, you could visit the New York City Fire Museum in SoHo. This small museum is packed with interesting exhibits about the history of firefighting in the city, and it's definitely worth a visit if you're interested in the subject.
Overall, the perfect day in New York would be a mix of experiencing some of the city's most famous landmarks and attractions, and discovering some of its hidden gems.
I mean it’s not completely terrible. I can tell it’s dutifully scanned Eater and Time Out circa 2021 for the restaurant recs, which aren’t the worst places to look for them.
Then again, that hedge-y first line is not saved by the forced-jaunty exclamation mark and I counted not one, but two ‘iconics’.
I think I’m safe for now.
The cost of doing business
You know who loves that phrase? My accountant. You know who’s less keen on it? Me.
Many people think travel writing is a cost-free jaunt, an all-expenses-paid way for not-very-rich-people like me to drape ourselves over the most luxurious contours of the world for free. Actually, more often than not we end up paying for the privilege. Not always of course - fully-funded famils generally give our bank balances a welcome breather - but we’re often paying for insurance, gratuities, transport and other add-ons. Sometimes entire trips if it’s somewhere you really want to go, or if you think you can squeeze enough commissions out of it. I spend a lot of time doing mental expense-to-commission-to-tax-deduction mathematical gymnastics - an unwise exercise for someone who can barely count.
Travel writer and Substack writer Lottie Gross is someone who is also doubtless looking forlornly at her empty January bank balance right now (oh, how we freelancers yearn for the day the finance departments return to the office in the new year and start madly processing our stacked-up invoices).
She wrote about the ‘Bad Business Decisions’ travel writers make over on her Substack last week:
It’s easy to bat away concerns about expenses when we are having a good time (“I’m on a £10k safari for free, so what’s a mere £30 on a taxi, really?”), but as fun as this job is — and long-time readers will recognise this phrase — it is a job. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we are each running our own individual businesses and we need to think more like a business in order to keep that bottom line looking healthy.
Also, if you’re wondering about the ethics of paid-for famils, consider the travel writing guidelines for The Washington Post that I came across earlier this week. They begin by saying they are particularly interested in receiving pitches from ‘underrepresented groups’. They then go on to say they do not accept submissions that are in any way attached to press trips, including any that piggyback off any other paid press trip. Nor do they pay any travel expenses.
Which all sounds very noble in theory but what that translates to in reality is that you’d better be independently wealthy if you want to write for The Washington Post. Perhaps that’s why they don’t seem to have much luck attracting ‘underrepresented groups’?
How does everyone else deal with this? How much do you personally shell out for this job and where do you draw the line? Do you vary what you will and won’t pay for between different employers/publications?
My guess is none of you will reply in the comments below (chickens!) but you’ll send me some emails I bet. I’d love to know if you feel you overspend in this gig.
Let me know your thoughts.
TTC Playlist
One of Nina Simone’s best songs is a cover and also a withering takedown: Baltimore is a kick in the teeth to a city she never even lived in. In fact many residents still bristle at its uncharitable lyrics - this piece in The Independent claims online message boards are full of enraged Baltimoreans howling insults to the original songwriter, Randy Newman, that are so colourful l won’t repeat them here. It does seem a touch extreme for what is ultimately a very beautiful song even if it is sticking the boot in to Maryland’s largest city.
Can we call this a travel song? The lyrics ‘never gonna come back here/til the day I die’ don’t exactly make you want to book a flight. Still great though. Chuck it into your Spotify if it isn’t there already.
Things I like:
Travel writing or photography newbie? National Geographic Traveller UK is running a bunch of travel writing and photography masterclasses in March. They’re on UK time so get your timeanddate.com on to make sure the timings work for you.
These retro, pastel prints from New York-based, Melburnian photographer James Needham are bewitching. He creates them by overlaying several photos together, creating a perfect, slightly surreal world.
Speaking of perfect, slightly surreal worlds, I’m obsessed with a small town on the Florida Gulf Coast with the unsettlingly charming name of Seaside. It was designed from scratch by architects in 1981 to be the idealised American town. To underscore its slightly creepy, glazed-eyed pleasantness, much of the movie The Truman Show was filmed there.
Seaside even has its own merch.
Smirk you may but Seaside is, by all accounts, a genuinely nice place to live. The streets are wide. The beaches are beautiful. The buildings are spacious and functional. People seem very pleased with their preppy pastel sweatshirts. If you have a spare $USD1.6 million (minimum) you could even get into the real estate market. And as far as we know, Nina Simone has never sung a scathing song about it (though I bet she would’ve torn it a new one if offered the opportunity…).
Did you find any of this pleasant? Then I’d love if you’d share it:
Til next time, I hope you’re going somewhere nice soon,
Alex x
Love the bit about January bank balances! Feeling it right now.
Re famils: my philosophy is it’s OK to spend as much as I would in a week at home on groceries, eating out etc on taxis, tips, whatever when I’m away. I hate it when other travel writers grimace at putting their hand in their pocket for anything!