GUILD BRIEFING NOTES Issued by the British Guild of Travel Writers

No. 16 - April 2004

Dear All

It�s April already and with the scent of daffodils and chocolate on the breeze, the travel season has started with a vengeance. Our members are out and about across the globe and with what appears to be a long-awaited sense of optimism amongst the travel trade and travel publishers (I do cross my fingers as I write that), let�s hope that this summer will be a return to the good old days with plenty of work and profits for all.

The Guild continues to go from strength to strength under new management. Mary Johns was constitutionally retired after her two splendid years as Chairman and is now sunning on a Greek island between writing reports for BBC Parenting and regularly appearing on our TV screens. I was lucky enough to take over from her at our champagne-soaked AGM in France. Gary Buchanan finally decided that enough was enough and can, no doubt, be found on the deck of a cruise ship enjoying his new found leisure time. He has handed over the enormous task of organising the Awards Dinner to Mary Anne Evans. A full list of new committee members and Guild executives is given below. Feel free to contact any of us with your suggestions or comments.

And remember, if you are looking for a writer or photographer for a particular subject or destination, just contact us via the Secretariat (tel: 020-8749 1128; email: charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com) and we will help you find the right person � one of our members almost certainly has been there or is about to go. It is one of the great perks of my job matching people and commissions.

Best of luck for a fine, busy summer,

Melissa Shales Chairman

WHO�S NOW WHO These are the people responsible for various public Guild functions. Please get in touch with any of us as you feel the need.

Melissa Shales � Chairman Tel: 020-8674 7406; email: m.shales@virgin.net David Prest � Vice-Chairman and Tourism Awards Organiser Tel: 020-7922 1120; email: davidprest@whistledown.net Mary Anne Evans � Awards Dinner Organiser Tel: 020-7611 7885; email: maryanne.evans@where-magazine.com Anthony Lambert � Members� Awards Organiser Tel: 020-8749 5359; email: alambert@dircon.co.uk Sue Bryant � Membership Secretary Tel: 020-8987 2750; email: sue@cruisetraveller.co.uk Alastair McKenzie � Webmaster Tel: 020-8341 2866; email: alastair@travel-lists.co.uk Hilary Bradt � Yearbook Editor Tel: 01753-882 981; email: hbradt@btinternet.com Allan Rogers � Briefing Notes Editor Tel: 01289-308654; email: editor@worldrover.net Maggie McPhee � Advertising Sales Tel/Fax: +44 (0)20 7586 2162; Mob: +44 (0)774 06216 193; email: mcpheemag@aol.com Charlotte Copeman � Secretariat Tel: 020-8749 1128; email: charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com

You may also contact any of us via the website, www.bgtw.org.

HAVE YOU GOT YOUR YEARBOOK YET?

February 10th saw the launch of the 2004 British Guild of Travel Writers Yearbook. It sports a new look and brand new features and continues to be comprehensive source of up-to-date contact information on over 2,500 players in the travel industry worldwide.

For the first time this year, the book is in full colour. It also has an extra 32 pages, a new section on Travel Equipment and a full index at the back to help you find right contact people to help with a commission or project. There have been 14 new Guild members over the last year and their details are included along with updated biographies and contact details for over 200 existing members.

Buy the Yearbook and you also get access to the Guild website which is updated continuously throughout the year, ensuring that you stay in touch with us.

If you would like to purchase the new edition simply go to the website: www.bgtw.org, click on Yearbook and follow the online instructions. We can accept online payments or you can elect to pay by cheque. As in previous years, the 2004 BGTW Yearbook costs �108 including P&P and VAT and includes access to the restricted areas of the website. A limited number of copies have also been put aside to be sold at �50 each to any company that buys at least one copy at full price.

For more details, contact Charlotte Copeman, at the Guild Secretariat, on +44 (0)20 8749 1128, email: charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com, or click onto www.bgtw.org.

GUILD MEMBERS - COMINGS AND GOINGS

ROBIN MEAD

Cunningly escaping from the worst of the British winter, Robin Mead (tel: 020 8346 3772, or email: RobinRMead@aol.com ) has just spent five weeks on a photographic and lecturing safari down the Amazon. He has returned from Brazil with a genuine Indian blowpipe (anyone know where to buy curare?), a wealth of photos, and a very upbeat view of the economic future of this young and dynamic part of the world.

Spring projects include a new book about "Secret Sussex", a recreation of George Borrow's 19th-century journeys through Wales, and � still turning the seasons upside-down � an early summer trip to Iceland and Greenland.

GILLIAN THORNTON

Gillian was one of four Guild members bestowed with the honour of Knight of the 'Commanderie du Saulte-Bouchon' - the local champagne guild - during the Guild AGM in Troyes in January. Since then she has done a short break to Rome; visited Shakespeare's Globe and Windsor Castle; and spent four days trying out short courses in cooking and furniture restoring in the Ardeche. Cornwall, Caen and Corfu are all in the diary.

Still interested in press trips based on self-catering accommodation, UK or abroad, for travel magazine; behind-the-scenes pieces at UK visitor attractions for women's mag; and anything French.

gillian.thorntons@btinternet.com Tel: 01582 468771

PETER ELLEGARD

Guild member Peter Ellegard has been uploading illustrated diary extracts from his recent three-month journey around China onto his website, www.peterellegard.co.uk.

The trip was for an 11-programme travel documentary series called Travelling in China, which was filmed by an independent Chinese TV production company. The crew visited many different parts of the country, from cities including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu to remote villages and minority tribal communities in Yunnan and other provinces.

As well as presenting the series, Peter has been asked to script and narrate it and is due to return to China to complete the project shortly. The series is being made for screening by TV stations around the world including the UK. Since returning, Peter has been writing extensively about China and has had a number of photographs he took during his travels published in travel trade and consumerpublications. For copy or high-quality images of China, Peter can be contacted on 01702 304023 or by email on peter@ellegard.co.uk .

Other than China, Peter is writing extensively about golf travel for a number of consumer and trade publications as well as general travel articles. He has a large library of golf and travel images in digital, 35mm and medium formats.

Peter Ellegard, 15 Constable Way, Shoeburyness, Essex SS3 9TA, UK tel/fax: +44 (0) 1702 304023 mobile: +44 (0) 7710 270517 email: peter@ellegard.co.uk www.peterellegard.co.uk

SUE BRYANT

Guild member Sue Bryant's company, Marlin Publishing Ltd, is now offering a complete contract publishing service, having formed an alliance with a newly-created ad sales team with many years' experience in travel publishing.

Marlin Publishing already produces Cruise Traveller magazine and provides both print and online editorial content for blue chip companies in the UK and Europe. Contact Sue Bryant on 020-8987 2759; email: sue@suebryant.com; website: www.suebryant.com/contractpublishing.

JOHN RULER

Deserting his beloved horses for a while, John Ruler visited Lille and Arras for the Rubens exhibition in late March. Though not in quite in the same league as the Flemish master, John is a bit of a painter himself, and is also visiting the great man's home town, Antwerp, in May. He also went to an exhibition of his work at Somerset House in London.

So if you want copy on "Following in Rubens's footprints" John will happily paint the picture for you (sorry about that). He will, however, be back in the saddle for a few days in Pembrokeshire, as well as completing a series of rides round London. In September he will hopefully be experiencing estancia life in Argentina. Oh yes, and he might be taking a llama for walk in deepest Sussex...

Tel: 020-8462 3542. Email: rulered@btinternet.com.

MARI NICHOLSON

Says - �I shall be in Dresden and Leipzig in mid-May, looking at Week-end breaks, cultural highlights, and food and shopping in these two cities.

May 29th - June 11th I shall be in Tuscany sampling a large party villa holiday (two adjoining villas), touring the countryside, visiting Siena, Pisa, Florence etc.

Commissions welcome for both destinations.�

Mari Nicholson, 6, Nunwell Street, Sandown, Isle of Wight, PO36 9DE Tel/Fax: + 44 (0)1983 402163 Email:mari@traveljournalist.co.uk

CHRISTOPHER PORTWAY

Is scheduled to visit NE India on the Burmese/Chinese borders, an area which have been closed for years but is now tentatively open he also expects to be in Borneo late July. With him will be his associate photographer, Sophie Barta, who is a wizard at her craft.

Tel: 01273 682783

LISA GERARD-SHARP

Lisa Gerard-Sharp is off to Italy and the C�te d'Azur on assignment, including French travel/property features and research for her new guide to Bologna and Emilia Romagna. Stories are available on recent trips to Sicily, Liguria/Genoa, Tuscany, Venice, Rome, Queensland, New South Wales, Malaysia, Japan, South Africa, the Maldives and Prague.

Please take note of the new email address (postal address remains the same).:

Lisa Gerard-Sharp 39, Compton Road, Wimbledon London SW19 7QA Tel/Fax: +44 (0)20 8944 9640 Email: lisa@gerardsharp.com

RON TOFT

Natural travel writer/photographer Ron Toft will be going on walking and houseboat safaris in the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta, Botswana, in late April/early May. In September he will be off to South Africa to see one of the world's newest and biggest astronomical telescopes, among other things.

In October, Ron will be in northern Arizona, visiting Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and Native American ruins.

Tel: 01962 761206. Email: ron.toft@btinternet.com

MARY JOHNS

Mary Johns now writes the travel pages for the new monthly BBC Parenting Magazine so is interested in hearing about all types of family holidays. The magazine focuses particularly on families with children up to six so any tour operators who offer cr�che facilities, nannies, baby sitting services, kids clubs etc would be very useful. Facilities for older children are also a bonus.

You can email Mary on mary.johns@virgin.net

MELISSA SHALES

Melissa, in between Guild meetings, is spending most of this spring in a plane. She has recently returned from a trip to Ghana with a wonderful array of ideas and photos on this under-explored but utterly fascinating destination. She is also off to Paris; is attending Pow Wow in Los Angeles, with a follow-on trip around southern California; is researching Coimbra and the Beiras in central Portugal for Fodors (returning in time to do Euro 2004 articles � two matches are being held in this relatively unknown region); and is writing a new guide to Croatia for New Holland. Commissions on any of these destinations would be welcome. She is also looking for information and press trip assistance over the summer to help with Croatia.

You can contact Melissa Shales on tel: 020-8674 7406; mobile: 07798-74 54 73; email: m.shales@virgin.net.

ALASTAIR MCKENZIE

Alastair McKenzie is always keen to hear about small niche operators and travel companies, particularly in "developing destinations", for his subscription-based travel directory www.travel-lists.co.uk. He says there�s lots of interest from visitors in finding tour operators for new destinations such as the Baltic States or Libya.

Directory pages or lists covering mainstream destinations and categories (eg. the list of 126 UK Ski Operators) remain popular but there�s a definite hunger for information on travel companies doing unusual things and visiting new places.

The Latest Holiday Ideas and Bargains & Late Availability pages are updated regularly and syndicated as RSS newstreams. They feature in a growing number of blog directories.

Send press releases by email to: newsdesk@travel-lists.co.uk

For fellow journalists wanting to take a look: please apply to Alastair at the same email address for a complimentary login.

PAUL MURPHY

Paul Murphy has a change of email address. It is now pw.murphy@tiscali.co.uk

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GUILD MEMBERSHIP RULES

At the AGM in January, we decided we were losing out on a lot of potentially good Guild members because of the rule stating that over 50% of your time must be spent on travel writing. We have therefore changed the wording to say that travel writing (publishing, broadcasting or photography) must form a significant component of your work. You will still need to conform to all the other membership criteria so there will be no dilution of the high professional quality of our membership. However it does allow us the leeway to include people such as commissioning travel editors who are also responsible for other features and may have been excluded in the past.

If you are interested in joining, full details are available on the website, www.bgtw.org, or contact Membership Secretary, Sue Bryant on tel: 020-8987 2750; email: sue@cruisetraveller.co.uk.

GUILD AWARDS DINNER

Work has started on the 2004 BGTW Awards Dinner at the Savoy, with Mary Anne Evans taking over the role of organiser from Gary Buchanan, who did a fabulous job for several years.

As ever, we are looking for raffle prizes and sponsorship of the members' awards. If you are interested in supplying either, please contact Mary Anne on 020 7242 5222, email maevans99@hotmail.com.

You will shortly be invited to apply for tickets, but anyone who would like to pre-register an interest should contact the Guild Secretariat, Charlotte Copeman, on 020 8749 1128, email charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com.

BGTW TOURISM AWARDS

Do you have a new tourism project which may be eligible for a BGTW Tourism award?

As usual, the BGTW Tourism awards will be presented at this year�s Awards Dinner on Sunday 7th November. These awards are much coveted and recognise outstanding new tourism projects both in the UK and Overseas. These awards are nominated and judged by BGTW members and are intended to reward responsible tourism developments which offer strong local, economic and community benefits

If you believe you have a project that is eligible for one of the awards, then you will need to find a BGTW member to nominate it. Nominations will be closing in mid-August, so you need to make sure than a Guild member has visited any potential winning projects before then. Projects then go through to our awards selection evening in September, and a vote is then taken of all BGTW members with the results being announced on the night of the dinner.

The Categories are as follows: Best Overseas Tourism Project is given for the best new (less than 2 years old) overseas tourism project that not only has a tourist potential but is of benefit to the local community and environment.

Best UK Tourism Project is awarded for the best new (less than two years old) tourism project in the UK, which likewise has tourist potential but also benefits the local community and environment.

The Globe Award is given to a major new (less than 2 years old) tourism project worldwide, with projected ticket sales of over 250,000 per year. Like the other awards, it should combine responsible tourism development with local economic, environmental and community benefits.

If you require any further information, or require some guidance on finding a member to nominate your project, then please contact Tourism Awards Organiser, David Prest, on 020 7922 1120 or email davidprest@whistledown.net.

YEARBOOK ERRATA

We try very hard to get things right but inevitably a few mistakes get overlooked in printing the Yearbook.

The correction contact details for Voyager PR are: Voyager PR, 4 Regatta Point, 38 Kew Bridge Road, Brentford, Middlesex TW8 0EB. Email: yasmin@voyagerpr.fsnet.co.uk. Phone: 020 8630 9487/9097. Fax: 020 8630 9487. Mobile: 0777 557 4183.

Jane Memmler is the Travel Editor of both the Daily Express and Sunday Express.

BE WEB-WISE - use the notice board

The members-only section of the BGTW website has a noticeboard on which we post various things of interest/use to Guild members. This does not include general press releases, but it does include press trip notification, news about awards and jobs. From time to time PR companies & tourist offices send us details of forthcoming press trips for which commissioned journalists are invited to apply, and we are happy to pass them on to the membership. We will also happily advertise any jobs you have on offer, whether a one-off feature or full-time employment. Please send the details by email to our webmaster, Alastair McKenzie (alastair@travel-lists.co.uk).

If you would like us to send out press releases on your behalf, either via email or on hard copy, we do make a small charge to cover our admin costs. Please ask for details from the Secretariat, tel: 020-8749 1128; email: charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com

Collision Calendar: Are you making maximum use of the Collision Calendar on the BGTW�s website? It's a good way to check that your client's next launch won't be competing for media attention with another travel event on the same day. All you have to do is login to the BGTW website (www.bgtw.org), go to the calendar page and view what's there and/or enter your own function. Alternatively, send details of any event you wish to list to our webmaster, Alastair McKenzie (alastair@travel-lists.co.uk). Most PRs want to be selective about invitations. When placing an event on the calendar you don't have to invite the whole guild! You can always say something like "By invitation only" or "Guest list full - no more space, sorry!". The calendar serves two functions: it is there to let BGTW members know about events in the pipeline in which they might have an interest, and to be a useful collision avoidance tool for PRs.

Yearbook Listings and the TID: The BGTW Yearbook and online Travel Industry Database now have over 2,500 crucial travel industry contacts, as well as biographical details of our 220 members. If you are not yet listed, but would like to be included, we would be happy to list your company name, address, public and PR contact details, including the name of the in-house PR person and your PR agency. If you are a PR agency, please send full contact details for all your new clients. Please send the details to Alastair McKenzie, email: alastair@travel-lists.co.uk

Extended entries The web version of the listings - the Travel Industry Database - is constantly updated all year. It is also fully searchable and for only �25 + VAT per listing (payable online by credit card), you can extend your entry to include a logo, brochure shot or photos, text about your product/client, hot links to the account handlers and your own website and, perhaps most importantly of all, key words that will ensure that we can always find you when we need information. Simply log onto www.bgtw.org hit the button that says TID and follow the instructions.

BRIEFING NOTES

Briefing Notes is published quarterly by the British Guild of Travel Writers and is edited by Allan Rogers. We'd like to hear from you and find out what you think about our newsletter. Send any suggestions or comments you may wish to make to the editor on email: editor@worldrover.net. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe, contact charlotte.c@virtualnecessities.com.

� The British Guild of Travel Writers April 2004

British Guild of Travel Writers Tel/fax: 020-8749 1128; web: www.bgtw.org