Hard news in Travel
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Travel editor Catharine Hamm hears the question often: ‘News? Does Travel have news?’
Truly a question asked by someone who doesn’t read The Times’ Travel section. As Hamm puts it: ‘Of course it has news. As an industry, it ranks right up there with the arms industry.’
A recent article, and reader reaction to it, underscored the point that Travel coverage isn’t all sunshine and light.
The ‘Travel Insider’ column was about a Wood River, Ill.-based company proposing what’s known as a multilevel marketing plan. The Nov. 25 piece brought in reactions ranging from ‘smear campaign’ and ‘hit piece’ to thank-you notes -- including this from someone very familiar with the company: ‘I thought I was the only dope that believed in this company.’
The coverage of an increasingly controversial practice -- consumers pay a fee, become ‘travel agents’ and receive the credentials that they hope are their ticket to discounts on hotels, cruises and more -- is just one recent story Hamm can point to for those who assume the Times Travel section has no hard news.
Hamm says that as people find it increasingly easy to make their own travel plans, the Travel section becomes a more critical tool.
She explains: ‘As one of the largest industries in the world, travel and tourism has lots of news. Certainly, we enjoy writing and editing destination pieces, in which we live vicariously through a reporter (or we are the reporter). But the rise of the Internet has allowed consumers to become the captains of their own travel ships. Booking a journey is easy. You punch a few buttons and what can go wrong? Plenty. So although we can’t always fix what’s happened to a traveler, we can try to tell our readers how to spend their money wisely so they can sit back, without a care in the world, and watch the sun sink slowly into the horizon.’
Hamm also writes a consumer education column, On the Spot, a Q&A feature taken from readers’ questions. It’s designed to help consumers learn from others’ travel travails.
The L.A. Times ethics guidelines address one other aspect of Travel reporting about which readers might make an incorrect assumption. A key passage: ‘The Times ... pays for travel by staff members on assignment. They may not accept free or discounted transportation or accommodations unless the same discount is available to the public.’