Free travel writing course – week two notes – travel writing versus tourism writing

Most writing in the newspapers, magazines, blogs and travel websites cater for ‘tourism’. When you hear “tourism” you associate the word with travel, though from a literature point of view, the information provided whilst scanning tourism sites is far from meeting the requirements of being travel writing (travel writing and travel literature are used interchangeably throughout this course).

After reading last week’s notes you should be able to see differences between quality travel writing and convenient tourism writing. This week’s notes will aim to breakdown some of the qualities you will need to consider when creating travel writing. This is not to say that convenient travel information doesn’t serve its purpose. It may be tailored for tourists who need a holiday that goes to plan and may not have time to be the travelling opportunist – the ‘traveller’ (an adventurist plans to turn any stone they can).

Travel writing as a genre goes deeper…