Press Trip Etiquette

If you blog about travel, eventually you’ll find yourself invited on a press trip. But whether you’re travelling solo, with your family or as part of a group, these tips from Cathy Winston who blogs at MummyTravels can make sure that you get the most from your travels – and ensure you’re invited back again.

1. Plan in advance

It’s far easier to make changes to an itinerary before you get on the plane, so if there’s something you particularly want to cover – or something you know you won’t write about – discuss it in advance. If it’s an individual trip, most tourist boards and tour operators will be happy to tailor it, as long as it’s still promoting their key message.

Group trips may not always be as flexible but it’s still in everyone’s interest for you to get great content – if there’s a full day scheduled which just doesn’t fit your blog, can you arrange something else? Or be left to explore solo? Flatly refusing to go once you’ve arrived just looks unprofessional.

2. Agree your part

Make sure that everyone’s clear on what blog content you’ll be producing as a result of the trip, and at the very least, talk to the organisers about post quantity and deadlines. That way, there’s no nasty surprises if the PR is expecting posts to go live while you’re away, a dozen tweets a day and a video 24 hours after you’re home.

If you don’t want to be too specific, simply outline the number of posts you’d expect to produce, which leaves room to decide how you want to break up the content. As the saying goes, under-promise and over-deliver.

3. Be professional

Press trips are not a holiday, as anyone who has taken one will know. Always think of this as another day in the office – just a very fun office with a fantastic view. That means always be professional, always be punctual and be prepared to work hard, whether that’s chatting to the hotel manager, knowing the list of social media handles and hashtags to use or simply not being the one who drinks all the free drinks.

Do take notes (ideally in a notebook so it’s clear you’re not bored and texting your mates) or photograph signs, menus, business cards for later.

The world of travel is a very small industry and all PRs have a blacklist of hair-raising antics on the part of writers (both journalists and bloggers), from draining the mini bar and refusing to pay, right up to completely failing to show up. If you put the PR in a difficult position, it will be remembered – and shared.

4. Get the balance right

If you’re on a group trip, there’s always a balance – assertive enough to get what you need for your posts but still a nice person to spend a few days with. Press trips are famous for packed itineraries and spending every waking minute together: you don’t want a reputation as a press trip diva.

On a group trip, everyone will have a slightly different agenda so don’t make it all about you. It’s one thing to ask the group to hang on briefly while you take a photo or squeeze in a quick Facebook Live broadcast, but constantly disrupting the plans to do your thing will go down like a bunch of lead balloons.

5. Report back afterwards

Someone will have to compile a report from the trip afterwards, and while PRs won’t necessarily expect you to (especially if it’s not a paid trip), even a quick courtesy email outlining the content plus links will earn you brownie points as chances are they’ll be the ones hunting it out if not.

If you can flag up anything else – twitter reach, number of RTs, engagement on Instagram, comments received, and so on, then do. Apart from helping them out, the better you look, the more likely you are to get invited again!

Biog:

Cathy Winston writes the award-winning family travel blog MummyTravels. She is also an award-winning travel journalist who has been on more press trips than she dares count, published in various national newspapers, magazines and websites including National Geographic Traveller, the Independent, Metro, Family Traveller, the Sunday Times Travel magazine, MSN and Gurgle. She started her blog when she was pregnant, to find out if you really can travel with a child. Her four-year-old daughter has now taken 15 overseas trips…

You can also find her travels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.