The job that gives birth to the travel writer is that of a journalist. Being a travel writer puts you in the position of a travel journalist. Specializing in the travel niche comes from a passion for travel. You travel to different places worldwide and then tell people about them. In a way, you’re people’s ‘scout,’ even if, on the surface, hardly anyone knows you’ve been given this job.
5 Ws and an H
Before setting out on the road, every travel writer should consider six essential questions to which they need to find the answers. There are six questions that every journalist needs to have in their pocket at all times to do their job to the best of their ability and get any story written. These questions are:
- What?
- Who?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
- How?
These questions, when answered, will help you enormously in the whole construction of the story of the final article and will give you the impetus to find new angles and ways of constructing it. Whether you’re interviewing people along the way or asking these questions yourself, never let them out of your sight. Remember that a good journalist – and, automatically, a good travel writer – must have one fundamental quality: curiosity. And this quality is “dressed up” in the six questions above—an always fashionable suit.
It’s not the order in which you answer these questions that matters, but the essence of the answer, which you then begin to build on, and then, on the spot, multiply these questions into every aspect of your trip. Let’s say you are going to Africa to see the great migration of animals in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It’s a fascinating trip that can make for a great article to sell to a travel publication or post on your blog.
What?
The Great Migration is the movement of large numbers of animals in the Serengeti National Park, which move in a fairly predictable annual pattern, giving visitors a unique natural spectacle.
Who?
There are over 2 million animals, primarily wildebeests, accompanied by numerous zebra and smaller numbers of Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle, eland, and impala.
Where?
The phenomenon occurs in the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania, a UNESCO World Heritage site teeming with wildlife. You can see the Great Migration in Tanzania throughout the year, with animals migrating in a circular movement around Serengeti National Park. So Tanzania is the destination.
When?
Between May and July. Although the migration is virtually round-the-clock, with the animals traveling back and forth, this is when the wildebeests, after feasting on the short green grasses of the southeastern Serengeti and giving birth to cubs, begin to prepare for the 800-kilometer journey. Their actual departure date can be anytime between late April and early June.
Why?
The reason why almost two million animals move across the Serengeti and Mara plains is because they are in search of food and water. Faced with numerous dangers, such as land predators and crocodiles, wild antelopes travel 800 km round trip during migration.
How?
The migration begins in southern Serengeti Park when wild antelope calves are born. Predators such as lions and hyenas constantly hunt the cubs, and thousands upon thousands of calves are born within weeks of each other – a feast for wildlife enthusiasts’ eyes.
When the drought comes in May, herds of antelope move north to Kenya’s Masai Mara, eating the tall green grass, quickly followed by gazelles and zebra. The migration is not without risk: crossing the rivers means encountering some 3,000 crocodiles waiting patiently for prey. They are joined by the Serengeti’s famous lion population – by far the largest in Africa.
The seventh question: “Who cares?”
This is the most important question, and it’s one you should start with before taking action. Who cares about what you write? Are there people who will be interested in your article or travel story? This question actually begets the rest of the other six questions. Who will read it? What will they read? When will they read it? Where will they read? Why will they read? How will they read?
Imagine you are about to take this trip to the Serengeti National Park to follow the great migration of animals. Imagine telling a friend about it and thinking about what might make them pay attention and capture their interest. Have you found the arguments? Then your friend has the potential to “multiply”, and your text has every chance of being successful once you’ve written it.
So before you ask others the six questions, ask yourself the seventh and most important one: Who cares? It is the one that, perhaps without being very direct, will set the tone for all your “action”, and will set the path, the guiding thread that you must never lose sight of.
I write about animal migration in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park because there are African wildlife enthusiasts. People who have wanted their entire lives to go on a safari to see wildlife live in their environment but didn’t have the chance to do it. Or for people who once made it to the Serengeti and are curious to see through other’s eyes how this fantastic phenomenon they had the opportunity to observe is described. These people will care about what you write. You have a potential audience that is half-won. The other half depends on other elements.
Conclusion
To wrap it up, as a travel writer, always be prepared to ask the six basic questions: what, who, where, when, why, and how? The five Ws and an H. And add the ultimate question: Who cares? Only by having the answers will you be able to paint the whole picture of a successful travel story.
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