BBC Travel is a feature section of BBC.com that offers high-quality stories about destinations around the world that aim to to amaze, immerse, Inspire and connect. It is fueled by unexpected and emotionally engaging new stories from a global community of video writers, writers, photographers and journalists who provide a reliable perspective on the world of travel. We are independent, impartial and honest.
BBC Travel is for curious and passionate readers who want to know more about the world they want to travel to. They are professional, ambitious and intelligent. They care more about the value of an experience than its price.
What is BBC Travel’s editorial strategy?
We explain to readers where they have never been and show them a new side of the places they think they know. With an open mind, an eye for the surprising and a global voice, we inspire our readers to fall in love with the world – everyday.
In a complex world of negative news and xenophobia at one extreme, and 10 main lists and insubstantial roundups at the other, we have lost the experience and the joy of traveling. BBC Travel aims to provide an antidote by celebrating the people, places and cultures that make this world so wonderfully diverse and amazing.
To do this, we tell stories from unexpected angles – on topics such as culture, food, experiences and Discovery – this has not been covered before. Not only are we teaching our readers something new, but we are changing their perception of places and people. Through our travel stories, we connect readers to cultures around the world and attract both those who are not currently traveling and those who are.
How do we do that?
- We create engaging, immersive and contextual travel stories, providing readers with stories that both paint a picture and provide a deep understanding of a place.
- We bring back characters, telling stories through the perspective of remarkable residents. The stories have an inspiring or unexpected angle of human interest that brings a character to life.
- We add an emotional impact, telling universal stories about the human mind. Our stories elicit an emotional response – such as empathy, joy, loss, pride or nostalgia – and help readers relate to the characters involved.
- We inform and make readers a little smarter. Our stories pique the curiosity of readers and teach them something that few people know. They become the “cocktail conversations” of the trip, letting the readers discover a little secret.
- We’re taking our readers to a destination now, making sure our stories have a relevant (non-seasonal) hook, “why now.” Someone who has already been to their destination should be as captivated by the story as someone who is going there for the first time.
- We provide a strong sense of belonging and a full sensory experience. By staging and detailing the images, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings of being there, our readers are more connected to the experience.
- We are looking for photo and video commissions and ensuring that all visuals provide an immersive experience for our readers.
- We create stories that are “shareable”. As social media is an important part of our success, each story must make readers want to share it with their friends – and the world at large.
What will we likely reject?
We will likely refuse articles or guides, lists or roundups regarding Points of Interest (POI) or sites. We will only rarely accept spaces for event rooms.
BBC Travel will also likely reject:
- All too general ideas
- Lists without substance, bullet points of places and ideas with no real writing attached
- Stories related to a seasonal hook “why now” (ie, We should do this story because it’s spring)
- Outdated ideas (trends that peaked some time ago)
- Songs that ignore the general public of the BBC
- Stories that don’t have a clear displacement angle
- Stories about unique events and festivals
Note: you will probably not receive a response from you if your pitch falls into one of these categories.
Pitching
The locations must meet the above criteria. Please submit a title (max 39 characters) and a brief synopsis (50-100 words) briefly explaining the topic / theme / angle chosen, why you think it would work on the site, why it is relevant to our audience, how is it “shareable” and why you should write the story, etc.
Questions to ask when developing a location:
- What is the unexpected or new angle of this story?
- Is this story emotional, relatable or educational? How? ‘Or’ What?
- What is the “why now” (non-seasonal) hook?
- What is the angle of immersive movement?
- Who is the character (s) of this story?
- What makes it “shareable”?
- Could you provide visual elements (photo and video) to accompany the play?
Please note that we receive many locations, so it will take time to respond. And please do not send follow-up emails for the same pitch.
Here is an example of a good pitch:
Sacred Sardinian Pasta
Sardinia is home to one of the rarest dishes in the world: su filindeu (“The sons of God”). It is done by pulling and folding the semolina dough into 256 perfectly uniform strands of dough with your fingertips, then superimposing the fine wires like diagonals in a complex pattern. It is so difficult to prepare that for over 200 years it has only been served to the faithful who make a 30 km pilgrimage on foot from the town of Nuoro to Lula for the feast of San Francesco.
Why hang now:
Today, there are only five women alive who still know how to make su filindeu. The most renowned keeper of the tradition is Paola Abraini, a gentle grandmother who recently started to do something new with the sacred dish: she does it for a handful of restaurants. During a recent return trip to Sardinia, I tasted the paradisiacal pasta su filindeu de Paola for the first time in a bowl of mutton broth soup with grated sharp pecorino. Next week, she invited me to her house to reveal how she does it.
Shareable item:
I will bring back (and film) the well-kept technique behind one of Italy’s most endangered culinary treasures, and I will include a sidebar highlighting the three places around the regional capital of Nuoro where people can go to taste. I will also detail the surprising story behind the dish – it involves an outlaw who hid in a cave. The video can be posted on Facebook to help promote the story.
Feature articles (800 to 2,000 words)
We are looking for features that inspire, seduce and excite. The content should be immediately engaging and written in a tight and fast narrative style, packed with insider knowledge and complemented by a strong “why now” hook. Articles must be inspiring with a strong travel angle, and they must be shareable.
If you are a good shooter, we would like you to provide relevant images to support your functionality, as well as legend and credit information. Please provide high resolution images via Dropbox (with a shareable link), WeTransfer or other file transfer system, otherwise we can obtain accompanying images from stock libraries.
In addition, the BBC has adopted a mission to address a long-standing media challenge: too few women as expert sources. As part of a company-wide initiative, BBC Travel asks you to aim for a 50-50 gender balance in your reporting – which means that your sources’ gender parity should be as close 50% women, 50% men as possible.
Here are some of our favorite stories:
The oldest known recipes in the world decoded
Tiny geographic singularity of Germany
Did the Dutch steal this African food?
Mexico’s “walking fish”
Japan’s most distant onsen
The Czech city that invented the dollar
The most powerful fortress of the Templars
A shipwreck worth billions
From Africa to tea with the queen
What Japan Can Teach Us About Cleanliness
Photographic essays (5 to 16 images, plus captions)
Photographic essays should have a strong narrative arc, telling the story through images and informative legends. Horizontal format images are preferred because they are more beautiful on our site. All photo essays will only be ordered after viewing the images – please deliver the high resolution images via Dropbox (with a shareable link), WeTransfer or other file transfer system.
Here are some of our favorite photo essays:
Mystery in the world’s oldest desert
An Indian market run by 4,000 women
The most expensive ham in the world
Is Japan losing its umami?
Welcome to Monowi, Nebraska: population 1
Epic celebration of Mongolia at -40 ° C
Superb marble cathedral of South America
The oldest medieval map in the world
Columns and series
If you have an idea for a new column or series that you would like to write, please send a pitch.
Please inquire for our full list of series and themes that are open for presentation.
Videos
We occasionally accept short embeddable videos (about a minute or less) to accompany text stories. The amount (and duration) will be confirmed to you upon commissioning.
For a main feature film video (such as short documentaries of about three to five minutes), please inquire for our short video.
Voice of the author
The tone should be evocative, authentic, entertaining and inspiring, aimed at professional and well-educated readers. Please browse the BBC Travel content to get an idea of the style and tone we are looking for.
Authors biography
Please provide your Twitter and Instagram credentials, as well as a link to your public Facebook page (if you have one), in your submitted copy so that we can include you in relevant social efforts.
Editing
The BBC policy is to give each piece of content at least two changes. Please let us know if you will be offline for a period of time and unavailable for changes.
Hyperlinks
Please create a hyperlink between any POI and the actual web address of the place. If it does not have its own web page, use your judgment to link to an information source (not Wikipedia or TripAdvisor). Please do not create a hyperlink to a subtitle when it is the name of the place, but link the first reference after it in the text. When you can’t find a website for a place, please include the address and phone number in parentheses.
Verification of the facts
Please be sure to check and verify all information, facts and documents, especially those searched on the Internet. This may include confirming with a person or organization that they have posted the material and that it is accurate.
With your draft, please submit:
- A list of all written sources, including books and academic articles (with links, when available).
- The name, title and contact details (telephone number, e-mail – preferably both) of each source interviewed, even if they are not directly cited.
- A brief description of the information collected from each source.
Press trips, sponsored trips, gifts, comps and discounts
BBC Travel does not allow press travel, sponsored travel, gifts, comps, funding assistance or media discounts, except in rare cases where this is the only opportunity for the press to participate of something before the public launch, it is the only one otherwise, access to something or history would be logistically impossible. In all cases, this decision is at the discretion of the publisher, and any proposal to accept or attempt to receive such financial assistance should be referred to a senior editorial staff who will ensure that acceptance of this aid does not compromise the editorial integrity of the BBC. .
Given the many permutations that a sponsored trip can take, we expect you to inform us during the presentation if the story stems from an experience for which you have received financial assistance or if you will have to request financial assistance to complete the mission. In any case, we must approve it before commissioning, there is no coverage insurance in exchange for these services and the providers will have no say in the content.
Exclusivity
We require all rights to the photographic articles / essays and will not purchase a part that has been / will be released elsewhere. We expect the story to be original content. For images, we need a license to execute the photo (s) with your play or to promote your play.
Kill costs
If, for any reason, we cannot meet the editorial standards set by the BBC for publication, we reserve the right to pay killing costs for your time.
Social media
We want to both engage our community of travelers and raise the profile of our authors. If you are on Twitter or Instagram, or if you have a public Facebook page, send it via your credentials. We will categorize and use them when posting your stories or “cropping” your photos.
You can also use the hashtag #BBCTravel when posting Instagram travel photos. The BBC Travel Instagram account will “crop” these photos and credit your personal account.
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Contact
Writer – Anne Banas
Deputy Editor-in-Chief – Eliot Stein
Senior reporter – Ellie Cobb