The problem with press trips

When The New York Times published an article recently outlining why its staff doesn’t accept press trips or travel freebies, the response from journalists – in particular, freelancers – was a mix of admiration for the ethics and a questioning of how many publications and writers can bankroll that.

The debate has been playing out globally and, increasingly, in the Gulf. Who can afford to be a travel journalist if the economics don’t add up without working with PRs? The answer, for most people writing travel content today, is not many of us.

In practice, an editor might want a hotel review or travel feature, but they often won’t commission the piece unless you’ve already stayed there. They’re not paying for the stay, but they also don’t necessarily want a third party to have paid for it, either. They don’t want anything that reads like sponsored content. What they want is for you to travel on your own dime and then pitch an exclusive story – and then maybe they’ll consider it.

PRs, understandably, operate differently. They want to know the coverage is coming before they book the flights (or at least their clients do). The problem is that it leaves freelance journalists stuck in the middle, often writing reviews on spec with no guarantee of placement – or earnings. It’s a particular pressure point in the Gulf, where fewer regional publications commission and pay for travel content to begin with. International slots are limited and editorial standards around freebie disclosure vary wildly between markets.

The NYT policy is easy to hold when someone else is paying your salary and your expenses, but the rest of the industry is working out the ethics trip by trip.

For PRs representing hospitality and travel clients in this region, understanding how it works on the journalist side is key, so you can better structure a trip that has the best chance of securing the coverage you need. For example: offering journalists something they can take to an editor, such as exclusivity, a clear news hook and angle. A new opening, a renovation, a seasonal programme, a broader destination story the hotel fits into. That gives a freelancer something to sell.

It also helps to be honest about what you/your client is asking for. If a guaranteed placement matters, the budget needs to reflect that, either by working directly with a publication on a paid partnership or by accepting that editorial coverage takes longer and doesn’t come with a guarantee attached.

The approach that works best, in my experience, is building those relationships before you need coverage and working with transparency on all sides. That’s a long game, but for clients with ongoing visibility goals in markets where editorial coverage carries weight, it’s a win-win model that produces results for them, the journalist and the editor.