I’m feeling reflective about pitches and travel features, and have spent time this week revisiting and reviewing my contacts list. And with World Travel Market on the horizon in November it’s a prime time to focus on the type of leads and people that really deliver.

With my background in guidebooks, my professional network consists of authors and photographers, the packagers and editorial teams who manage guidebook production for some publishers, travel booksellers and contacts working across the travel industry for tour operators and websites. They’re all great to call upon for ins on product information and for interviews. I also contact key people that I see referenced in the travel news, backing up my speculative query with my credentials. I find this really successful. But am I missing out on other fronts?

When you’re not actually on the road finding interesting angles and taking notes to write up later, where do you find the ins that inspire your pitches and the actual content of your writing? Tim talked about following Twitter feeds for the very latest thoughts from those with something to share, which is definitely one to add to our armoury. But where do you think the best opportunities spring from? Where else could we be focusing our researching efforts?

For example, how useful have you found tourist board press releases and relationships with Travel PR agencies? Does joining your country’s Society or Guild of Travel Writers really raise your profile and help you bank more work?

I’d be really interested to hear from everyone.

Right… back to reviewing my contacts and booking appointments for World Travel Market.

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