How to be a Travel Writer / Lonely Planet
How to be a Travel Writer / Lonely Planet

On the move: how to be a travel writer



No other form of journalism is possibly so underestimated as travel writing, and probably no other profession so glamourised. As both a travel writer and editor, I am constantly surprised at how poorly even accomplished journalists and authors write about travel, how lazily they pitch their stories and how difficult they find it to turn it in copy. Too many travel pieces, even published ones, are laced with clichés, devoid of any meaningful context, historical or otherwise. Criticism suddenly becomes a lost art form.

Probably the best achievement of a brilliantly practical new book by Lonely Planet, How to be a Travel Writer, is its swift debunking of this myth. "Ninety-five per cent of the job involves a lot of hard work," it states. "It's gathering minute details on hotels, bus timetables, restaurants and walking tours. It's researching which god did what, which ruler took over from whom when, and what is signified by the curious ceremony that's performed every third Friday in May. It's waiting for planes and trains, buses and ferries, tuk-tuks and trishaws. It's swatting mosquitoes and squatting over hole-in-the-floor toilets." And that's still the easy part.

After first looking at the qualities needed (they include stamina, tenacity, flexibility, curiosity and an ability to live modestly), it moves swiftly on to journalistic skills and exercises on the “how-tos” of writing a travel story – the importance of research, focus, interviews, structure and self-editing. One of the most crucial is “descriptive accuracy”, because it is only through this that your trip becomes interesting, relevant and useful to others. If everything is “awesome”, “breathtaking” and “stunning”, it is just a letter to your mum, and a bad one at that.

The realities of getting published – where, when and how, from newspapers and magazines to blogs – is looked at, along with pitching to editors.

While travel writing is extremely competitive and it is hard to make a living out of it, I say no to about 90 per cent of pitches because they are either irrelevant to our readers, a repetition of stories we have already run or pitched at completely the wrong time of year.

I am always looking for experienced writers who have researched angles that work with our location here in the UAE, offer an imaginative update on an already popular destination or a look at a completely new one, such as that offered by a new flight route.

Despite the difficulties involved, this is a wonderfully can-do book packed with tips that are useful even to seasoned travel writers. I wish every journalist who really wants to learn to write about travel, rather than just have a free holiday with a piece as the pay-off, would read this book.

How to be a Travel Writer by Don George with Janine Eberle is published by Lonely Planet and costs £12.99 (Dh63)

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”