I managed to upset a few people in the travel industry a couple of months ago. I was speaking at the congress of the Association of South African Travel Agents (ASATA) about the relationship between the travel industry and journalists and informed my audience that I now refuse to fly economy class on freebies. Most of the ASATA delegates knew exactly where I was coming from but someone from one of the airline representatives thought my statement very arrogant. We poor journos must apparently be grateful for any scraps thrown our way.
It’s quite possible that other parts of my speech also upset my critic because I made it quite clear that going away on an all-expenses-paid journo junket isn’t nearly as much fun as people like to believe. For a start, we are normally in the company of other journalists so there is rarely any exclusivity to a story. Within a few weeks of returning home every paper and magazine represented on the trip serves up a thousand words on the Seychelles or wherever it is they have just been.
If you happen to be a freelance writer there is a very definite cost factor to these jaunts. Full time newspaper employees are often given a small amount of spending money but that doesn’t usually apply to freelancers, even if they have been commissioned to write an article for a particular publication. It’s not difficult to spend the equivalent of R500 a day on sundries like taxis, snacks and drinks in Europe. Then there’s the opportunity cost to consider. If you’re away from home for five days that should be regarded as “down” time. You can’t do any other work during that period and you’re not around to accept new commissions. By the time you have sold your story at the splendid freelance rate of R2 per word you will probably find that, after tax has been deducted, it actually cost you money to go on this so called freebie. That’s as good a reason as any for insisting on being flown business class on long haul flights.
For obvious reasons the travel industry often fly journalists to destinations during low season. It’s called low season because nobody in their right mind would want to go there at that time of year. The flights are cheap, the hotels are offering rooms at rock-bottom rates and everything of interest is closed because it’s low season and there’s hardly anyone around. If you have a vivid imagination (and that’s what journalists are supposed to have) you can just about visualise what the place might look like when it is about twenty degrees warmer and bustling with people. Just to help your creative juices flow they will give you a tour brochure with colour photographs of people enjoying themselves in high season. Hardcore freeloaders will always grab anything that’s going but serious travel journalists should politely decline such invitations because they make about as much sense as a restaurant critic reviewing yesterday’s leftovers or a motoring journalist writing about last year’s model.
Having frequently turned down low season invitations and offers of economy class flights I now find that I have been dropped from the list of potential invitees by many travel companies. Word has finally got out that I’m arrogant, choosy and difficult to please. Which is great news because with a bit of luck my only invitations from now will involve travelling down the sharp end of the aircraft, staying at the world’s best hotels and eating in the finest restaurants. After all, you can’t write for an LSM10 readership if you lead an LSM6 lifestyle.