Are you a travel writer journeying in search of upcoming trends to write about, and supporting data? A recent Travel Writing Webinar had advice for where to look. 

Check out tips and insight from Jenny Southan, editor, founder & CEO of Globetrender, Laura Hall, freelance travel journalist for (among others) BBC Travel, and Kate Colquhoun, associate director of Grifco PR, joined host Meera Dattani, travel journalist and executive editor of Adventure.com regarding the use of data and identifying trends in travel journalism: 

Finding what you need

Laura goes to two main sources if she wants interesting data that not many people know about:

‘Universities hold a lot of information that doesn’t always get into the public. I’ve got really good relationships with University researchers working in tourism and I talk to them about what they are seeing and what’s coming up. Plus, tourist boards also hold lots of data. They have to as they’re publicly accountable, and you can trawl their databases and find all sorts of things’.

It’s also worth considering what the data is. Kate pointed out that ‘there are two different sorts of data. There are the data sets which are about surveys, and they’re about people reporting what they think they would do. Hard data sets from tourist boards and so on, they are actually what people are doing’.

Gathering information more generally, Jenny spoke about the World Economic Forum’s Instagram feed having interesting stories and data, which is normally enriching in relation to the planet. Laura highlighted Skift as a good source for lots of travel reports. She also mentioned Trendhunter, which has a section dedicated to travel, but can also be a good starting point for ideas from the other topics and sectors that it covers.

Sense checking the data

With sense checking more important than ever, Jenny, in her work at Globetrender, doesn’t rely on just one data set or one data point to make a prediction:

‘We all have to be questioning and cautious about the data and where it comes from. Try and cross reference as much as possible and use your common sense and dig into those numbers to make sense of them better’.

This can be more difficult, Laura warned, for topics which are more niche as they will naturally have data and survey results from a much smaller number of people. It’s something that Kate already accounts for in her work. She said:

‘In the UK, the data set should be a minimum of 2000 respondents. Our polls are always a minimum of 10,000 but they might be looking at a number of different European markets, but a minimum of 2000 from the UK. When we’re looking at flights and bookings data, we’re looking at vast sets so it’s even higher’.

The other thing to consider, especially with surveys, is whether it’s reflecting the intention of the people or their actual behaviour – linking back again to hard data sets. Plus, who is pushing this data or survey out there? Looking at the source itself could unveil their motives for doing so.

Using the data and identifying trends

Data can be used in a myriad of ways. For Laura, she uses it to underpin an idea she has and then elevate that story to show what other people are doing, and make it something that matters to a wider audience. Meera uses it slightly differently:

‘I’ve found that the data will be used to grab the reader’s attention. It’s really good in a headline or a hook. Sometimes we don’t really feature it too much in the story, but it’s a brilliant way of getting attention in the first place’.

When it comes to identifying the trends to write about, Jenny advised that ‘it’s about looking for those patterns. The rule is once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a trend’. Kate also looks for the pattern in data, as well as outliers from it, plus trends can be influenced from other areas of life:

‘Last year we saw the Taylor Swift effect, and travel for the Olympics and Euros were big, too. Plus film and TV, we’ve talked recently of the ‘White Lotus’ effect. This can cause real spikes and drive interest in travel’.

The only warning from Jenny is to be careful of ‘bandwagoning’. Trends will very quickly be overwritten about and won’t feel fresh anymore. The key is to pitch the idea ‘just before the wave breaks’ and get it at the right point of interest.

Data, insights, and experts can also be gathered quickly and easily via our Journalist Enquiry Service. And we already have a list of travel experts here to show you the kind of topics that you could get comment for. Plus, if you do want a press release to spark an idea,you can get them via our Press Release Wire.

You can also watch the full webinar which includes the rest of the discussion and a comprehensive list of resources.