Aloha Oy II: The Grand Fiction of the Press Junket

Every day I set aside a little time to scribble emails and make phone calls to tourism providers in Hawaii. Most of the time it’s fun, there’s a little internet sleuthing as I dig for what entity, exactly, runs that particular property. And I enjoy talking to some Vitamin D replete individual who tells me how great it’s going to be. The calls tend to be with chatty, interested individuals who genuinely want to help me, after all, it’s their job to get the word out about how You Want To Be In Hawaii Right Now.

This doesn’t immediately translate in to them giving me oodles of stuff. I know you’re sitting there thinking that I’m going to be sprawling on king sized beds with views of gently swaying palms, the sound of the ocean just there, my skin treated with high end complementary hotel sized servings of moisturizer. Well, yes. And no.

See, it’s also the job of those tourism providers to tell me no when they can’t tell me yes. As they do so with great grace and charm, I find myself understanding exactly why they’re telling me no even while I’m seeing the dollars disappear from my bottom line.

Consider this example: I had a very nice conversation with an airlines about comping my flights to the islands. The airlines was willing to talk with me about this if I was willing to give them exclusive coverage. Sadly, honestly, I told the PR rep this: No can do. Why? Because they’re not the only airlines that flies to Hawaii. I need to provide options, not advertisements. I wanted to lie. In fact, I told the nice woman this: “I want to lie to you, but I just can’t. I’d be doing the readers a disservice. But thanks for spelling it out for me. I understand.”

Another example: The hotel chain is happy to give me a few nights stay, but they need to know that their rooms will be bookable through the publisher’s booking engine. Again, no can do. I can list the property as an option for that region, but as a freelancer, I’m not associated with the booking wing of the company and as such, have no say in what shows up in their selections.

I totally get it. It’s a business and in a market as active as Hawaii, I’m sure these people have “journalists” and “media contacts” breathing down their necks all the time. Also, by giving away their services, the providers are essentially buying advertising and they want to be sure it’s worth it.

And everyone has their own agenda. The PR people want maximum quality exposure for the properties and services they represent. I want to have a great trip, make some money, and to write a really good guide book to Hawaii. The publisher wants to add more variety to their offerings without spending a pile of cash. The publisher contacts me who contacts the PR people who contact the providers who either say yes or no.

I recently read Linda Ellerbee’s Take Big Bites. She goes boating for the day with Malcolm Forbes, but before she does this she has to run the gauntlet of his PR people. “Journalists are always calling people up and asking them for ridiculous things,” she writes. And then, she hangs out with Malcolm Forbes because the PR people said yes. I think of that often as I pick up the phone and call the islands to ask for ridiculous things. I’m a big believer asking for what you want, after all, hearing “No” is not going to kill me. “No” carves away at my imaginary profit margin, but at least the margin is being carved away in Hawaii while I’m doing work I really enjoy.

In between the chatter with PR people and filling out media questionnaires, I’ve done a few other things. I’ve asked everyone I know if they know someone we can stay with in Hawaii. “We’ll be lousy guests,” I say, “because we have work to do. But we’ll be really really really thankful. Plus, we’re pretty inoffensive to have around.” I signed up for Couch Surfing because, hey, what the hell? And I took out a Craig’s List ad for short term cheap island digs.

All of these things are starting to pay off. I’m really looking forward to the hotel stays because even though I travel a lot, I’m not a hotel and resort kind of traveler, so there’s a novelty and excitement in that. The people who work in those facilities are vacation experts and I’m looking forward to talking with them about what things I Simply Must Cover because they will make my work easier. I’m also hoping there’s time to hang out with some of the nice folks that answered my Couch Surfing ad because I love to hang with locals. So far, no one has offered us the fold out, but they have offered to meet for coffee, a walk on the beach, advice, other things of intangible value. I love that. And the Craig’s List ad looks good too. I got a nice email from some people with a guest room on Maui so if all the PR contacts are dead ends, we’re not sleeping in the rental car.

When I started to write about travel for real, maybe five years ago, I was a sucker for all these articles that implied that once you were a Travel Writer, free stuff would come rolling in and you would find yourself awash in luxury that cost you nothing, all while getting paid for it! Hey, about that… um, yeah, it’s bullshit. Don’t believe the hype. I think it might be possible, as some kind of celebrity journalist, to land that kind of luxurious deal, but years of hard work at a loss go in to the making of a celebrity journalist. I’m thinking of Anthony Bourdain or Samantha Brown or oh, I don’t know who else. But you know what I’m saying. It would rule to be a Travel Channel celeb, but I know that I have a lot more hours of jet lag and out of pocket expenses before that’s going to happen, plus, by then, I might be to wrinkly for the Travel Channel to want me.

I swear, I’m not complaining. I am enjoying (almost) every minute of it, even the rejections. Because have I mentioned how much I love to travel and how much I love to write about travel? And, it turns out, I even like writing about writing about travel, which is a nerdy meta thing to say, but there you have it.

Plus, there’s this: I’m going to Hawaii.

Related

• Here’s the song I’m learning to play and sing on the beach when we get to Moloka’i. Yes, I’m learning the Hawaiian words. Quit laughing at me.
• Aloha Oy I: Or, A Travel Writer’s Angst

[tags]travel writing, Hawaii[/tags]