A Conversation with Ramsey Qubein

Ramsey Qubein is a travel journalist who covers the hotel and airline industry from every corner of the globe. His work appears in consumer and industry publications like Travel+Leisure, Business Traveller, US Airways magazine, Northstar Travel Media, and Expedia’s AirfareWatchdog. He serves as the National Hotels Travel Examiner and writes for numerous blogs and web sites. Follow him on Twitter at DailyTravelTips.

How did you “break in to travel writing”? What have been the keys to your success?

I had a friend who worked in a travel media company who knew that I traveled quite frequently already. She recommended me to an editor, and it’s been an incredible journey ever since. The key to success is to treat others the way you would like to be treated. Good things always come to those who wait and do the right things to position themselves appropriately for their goals. Also, I have found that being open and sharing resources and contacts with fellow travel writers is far more beneficial than keeping that information to yourself. Some people guard their contacts like a treasure, but the Golden Rule has always served me well.

Where do you see your career as a travel writer being three years from now? How will your income mix change and what are you doing to adapt to the changing media landscape?

I hope to continue to grow in my niche areas of airlines, hotels, and loyalty programs while also continuing to position myself as an expert on Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. I typically travel twice a month to one of these places and have visited almost every country in Europe and the Middle East (many more than a dozen times). I need to do a better job of promoting my travel background to maintain and grow my income opportunities. I do a lot of writing for the web in addition to print and broadcast outlets, which has helped me follow the consumption patterns of modern-day readers.

Knowing what you do now, if you were starting from scratch today to become established as a travel writer, what steps would you take to ensure success?

I’ve learned that this career (like many) comes with a snowball effect. You have to start small, and one thing leads to another. If I were starting all over again, I probably would have reached out to more local publications to build my portfolio before jumping into the game. I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of great writing jobs, but maybe they would have come sooner if I had a larger portfolio of smaller outlets at the beginning.

What advice would you give to someone near and dear to you who wanted to become a travel writer—assuming they had zero credits to their name. (Besides “Don’t do it”?)

I recommend to begin writing for local outlets such as a newspaper, city/regional magazine, or online outlet. These may not pay very much (if anything), but they allow one to build their portfolio of work. Even start your own blog…you may not have a million readers, but it gives editors and public relations professionals a way to see your writing style and interests. Show people what you can do so that they can help you do it!

I once asked you how you make the numbers work in your travel writing endeavors and you answered, “I use a lot of frequent flyer miles.” Tell us how leveraging mileage and reward programs has helped you take on more assignments and get writing jobs.

At least for my assignments, a lot of it is based on covering hotels or sights in a destination. Getting to the destination is not part of the assignment so I use my miles to help me get there otherwise it would come out of my own pocket. Some writers work with airlines to get media rates, but sometimes I just don’t have time to do that. Plus, paying for airline tickets to far-flung destinations can sometimes be more than what you are making. Miles give me incredible flexibility and the opportunity to go to multiple destinations on one trip easily. I always build in stopovers on my trips to take advantage of that benefit of mileage tickets and cover more than one place or visit a new place on a trip. My goal is to visit every country and significantly sized city in the world; this helps me get to that goal affordably.

You write for consumers on Hotel Examiner blog and Practical Travel Gear, but you also do a lot of work for trade publications. What do you see as the main differences in writing for travelers and writing for providers of travel?

Providers of travel are savvy about the marketplace, about the types of destinations and how they fit into the overall picture, and about what one can expect there. Many times, consumers are not aware of this information, which is why they are reading our articles. Our job is to know when to go into significant detail on certain topics for consumers or when to breeze over certain areas and delve into other intricacies for the trade. In addition, most consumers do not care about meeting space, agent commissions, or new service efforts. The trade makes their living on that information!

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Ramsey Qubein is a travel journalist and regular correspondent for Northstar Travel Media covering the hotel industry from every corner of the globe for its Star Service publication. His travels have taken him to 126 countries on six continents, but his favorite hangouts are spread across the coastlines of Italy and Spain. He has lived in both Madrid and Paris and spends much of his time exploring the Middle East and Europe. You can read more about him at www.RamseyQ.com.

Interview conducted in April, 2012 by Travel Writing 2.0 author Tim Leffel and edited by Kristin Mock.