Copywriting

My children don’t know about brochures. There was a time that every tour operator published aspirational colour publications, at considerable expense, and they did this every year.

For many years I supplemented my journalism with copywriting. I have written brochures for Sovereign, Fred Olsen, Audley Travel, Abercrombie & Kent, Aardvark Travel, Elegant Resorts, ITC and more. This has involved writing about both places and hotels I know well and those that I don’t know at all. I have successfully written travel brochures for Saudi Arabian Travel, replacing all mentions of perfume, sunshine and music with references to waterfalls and streams, and a detailed practical guide to Umrah almost all my source material seemed to be in Arabic. I have written ill-informed tracts about specific Norwegian fjiords as well as quite well-informed safari guides to various African parks. You’d never tell the difference.

My time editing Abercrombie & Kent’s magazine provided me with plenty of practice at writing ad copy, as I was required to write almost all of the advertisements and advertorials. Over the years I have written headlines, ad copy and commissioned features for a range of National Tourist Boards, Hotels, Tour operators and destinations.

The same skills can, of course, be applied to websites, but as these don’t need to be redone every year they tend not to be quite such a gift that keeps giving. As an example, while I used to write brochures and client magazines for Aardvark Safaris for monthly and annual cheques, I only got to write their website twice.

Client Magazines also provided a regular source of income. At the top end of the market tour operators started to think that a regular, aspirational travel publication would help support travel sales.

By far the most loyal and reliable client in this field was Abercrombie & Kent. I’d started out writing their African brochures and went on to write most of them. They had a very tired magazine called Sundowner, and when they decided to revamp this in 1997 I was around to help. For 11 years I edited Sundowner – surviving 7 different Managing Directors – which was a glorious design-led publication. With a circulation of 40,000 it was perhaps the best-respected tour operator publication in the UK at that time – and therefore ever.

Sundowner had a tiny editorial budget and I was able to commission a couple of features. The rest of it I would write. This gave me valuable experience at ghost-writing features out of short telephone interviews and getting these up to a high standard. I’d fit my travels around the bi-monthly writing binges.

Gradually I took on other client magazines, including Audley among other, but none had the budget and ambition of A&K. But gradually it became clear that travel industry margins were just too tight to support such an expensive publication. And the internet threw the cost of print into sharp relief.

Though the golden age of client magazines came to an end I’d learned some valuable skills. I’d learned how to write travel copy about places I’ve never been – and you’d never know.