From Bylines to Bookings: The Value of Press Trips & FAM Trips

Several years ago, I wrote about how to create an ideal press trip, largely from my perspective as a travel publicist. The fundamentals haven't changed much: choose the right people, create an itinerary worth talking about, communicate expectations clearly and understand that editorial coverage is never guaranteed.

Today, my perspective is much broader and keeps being informed by the expanding ways of how we are ‘influenced.’ Travel purchase decisions have many layers as does the industry.

After nearly two decades working across airlines, tourism boards, hospitality, public relations, media relations and now luxury travel advising, I've had the opportunity to see nearly every side of the travel inspiration and sales ecosystem. I've worked with traditional journalists, freelancers, editors, creators, affiliates and commerce platforms. I've represented the companies that transport and host travelers, and now I also work directly with the travelers making those purchasing decisions.

It's made me think differently about hosted travel.

Not because I value journalism any less. Quite the opposite.

I simply think we've been defining value too narrowly.

It has also changed the way I counsel travel brands. The job isn't simply to secure the biggest name, the largest audience or the most impressive masthead. It's to understand which voices can credibly move the right traveler from inspiration to consideration and, ultimately, action. That requires looking across PR, media, marketing and sales rather than treating them as completely separate worlds.

The Economics Have Changed

A hosted trip has never actually been free.

Someone is paying for the hotel room, meals, transportation, experiences and staff required to coordinate it. Add international airfare and a seemingly simple media visit can represent thousands of dollars. A larger individual itinerary or group trip can quickly become a five-figure investment.

Meanwhile, the economics on the other side aren't particularly rosy either.

Media budgets have shrunk. Freelancers can be paid astonishingly little for stories requiring days of reporting. Assignment letters have become harder to secure. Airline support for press trips is increasingly difficult to obtain. Hotels and tourism businesses are dealing with dramatically higher operating costs.

At the same time, creators, newsletters, affiliates, commerce platforms, travel advisors and independent media have created entirely new ways to influence where travelers spend their money.

And somehow, amid all of this, the expectations surrounding hosted travel have gotten higher.

So perhaps the question isn't whether press trips still work.

It's: what are we actually trying to accomplish when we invest in bringing someone to experience a destination?

Guaranteed Coverage Is Mostly the Wrong Question

Publicists hear some version of this constantly:

"What are they guaranteeing?"

For traditional editorial, usually nothing.

That's frustrating for a client spending thousands of dollars, but guaranteed positive editorial isn't really editorial at all. If guaranteed deliverables are what a brand needs, there are paid media and creator partnerships specifically designed to provide them.

The better question is:

What evidence do we have that this person is likely to create value?

For a freelance journalist, that might be a consistent history of placing stories in reputable publications after hosted travel.

For an editor, it may be a clear editorial interest or upcoming package that makes the destination particularly relevant.

For a creator, it might be exceptional engagement with exactly the traveler the hotel wants to reach.

For a newsletter writer, it could be a smaller but highly affluent and responsive subscriber base.

For an affiliate or commerce partner, there may be measurable traffic and transactions.

For a travel advisor, it might be actual bookings and years of conversations with exactly the high-value travelers a luxury hotel or destination is trying to reach.

And increasingly, one person may occupy several of those categories.

That's a much more sophisticated calculation than followers, monthly unique visitors or the logo at the top of someone's latest byline.

Not All Influence Looks the Same

Travel inspiration rarely comes from a single source anymore.

Think about how someone actually decides where to go.

A traveler might first discover a destination through a magazine feature. Months later, they save a creator's Instagram post from a beautiful hotel. They Google the destination, read reviews, open a newsletter, browse an OTA, click an affiliate link or ask friends where they've stayed.

Then they call their travel advisor.

Or perhaps the process happens in an entirely different order.

Having worked with brands across the travel ecosystem, from airlines and hotels to tour operators, tourism organizations, OTAs, affiliates and travel advisors, I've watched that customer journey from multiple vantage points.

It's rarely linear.

That's why I think we've become too fixated on measuring influence through one lens.

A byline creates credibility.

A creator can generate discovery and desire.

A newsletter can cultivate enormous trust with a very specific audience.

An affiliate can demonstrate action.

A travel advisor can turn all that inspiration into a $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000 trip.

None of those voices replaces the others.

Value and influence come in different sizes, and they reach different audiences at different moments.

The better question isn't who deserves a seat at the table.

It's: what kind of value does each voice bring, and is it reaching the audience we actually want to influence?

Don't Overlook the Travel Advisor

This is one area where I think the traditional conversation around FAM trips often falls short.

Luxury travel advisors need to experience the product too.

And there is tremendous value in that first-hand experience.

As a publicist, I want a journalist to experience a hotel or destination before recommending it to thousands or potentially millions of readers.

As a luxury travel advisor, I feel exactly the same responsibility.

I'm just accountable in a different way.

When I recommend a hotel to a client, I'm putting my own reputation behind that recommendation. If I tell someone the service is exceptional, the rooms are worth the premium, the location works for their particular trip or a certain suite category is worth spending more for, I need to believe it.

Because if it doesn't live up to my recommendation, my client isn't calling the hotel first.

They're calling me.

That responsibility also shapes how I talk about travel publicly. I want my own audience to get a personal account of the places I experience, not simply another beautiful hotel recommendation. Sometimes a property is exceptional but right for a very specific traveler. Sometimes the room everyone photographs isn't the room I would tell a client to book. Sometimes a celebrated hotel simply isn't the best fit for the person in front of me. My job is not to make every property right for everyone. It's to speak truthfully enough about the experience that the right client goes to the right place.

Advisors also learn things on FAM trips that don't necessarily make it into editorial coverage: which room categories actually feel different, where connecting rooms are located, how breakfast works, whether a property feels appropriate for children, what the transfer experience is like, whether the beach looks like the photographs, which restaurant I'd book for a client's anniversary and whether the service level truly matches the rate.

Those details become incredibly important when you're actually selling the experience.

And unlike a single article or social post, that knowledge can influence bookings for years.

A great FAM may lead an advisor to send one client to a property next month and another five clients over the next several years. Those clients may return, tell friends or book another property within the same hotel group.

That isn't traditional media exposure.

It's still influence.

And in luxury travel, where one trusted recommendation can represent tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, it can be extraordinarily valuable.

Editorial, Influence and Conversion Are Different Things

One of the biggest changes in travel media is that the old categories don't fit particularly well anymore.

A traditional journalist can have a substantial social following.

A creator can contribute to major publications.

A Substack writer may have more influence over a luxury travel purchase than a much larger lifestyle website.

A travel advisor may have a relatively modest public audience while directly influencing millions of dollars in annual hotel bookings.

An affiliate publisher might reach someone at the precise moment they're ready to make a purchase.

And some people sit at the intersection of several of these worlds.

That means brands need to decide what they actually need.

If the goal is credibility, earned editorial may still be the gold standard.

If the goal is awareness, an aligned creator or personality may be more valuable.

If the goal is content, commission the content and establish usage rights.

If the goal is traffic or attributable sales, affiliate and commerce partnerships can provide measurable results.

If the goal is high-value bookings and long-term advocacy, don't overlook the travel trade.

If the goal is all of the above, build the group intentionally around different forms of influence rather than inviting six people and expecting every person to produce the same result.

A Hosted Trip Is Still a Professional Trip

This is where I think both sides sometimes lose sight of what we're doing.

Press and FAM trips can be extraordinary. I've been fortunate enough to organize and attend many of them throughout my career. There are incredible meals, beautiful hotels and experiences most people would happily pay for.

They're also work.

The journalist is taking time away from other assignments, pitching editors, reporting, taking notes and eventually writing. Creators are shooting, editing and publishing. Advisors may be inspecting several hotels in a day, documenting room categories and thinking through which clients could be a fit. Publicists are usually working extremely long days while managing clients, partners, logistics and personalities behind the scenes.

The destination is working too.

So when a journalist says, "I need to experience it before I can cover it," I generally agree. First-hand experience is one of the things that makes great travel journalism credible.

The same is true when an advisor wants to inspect a property before recommending it.

But accepting hosted travel should also come with professional intent.

That does not mean promising a glowing review. It does mean there should be a legitimate reason for taking the trip and a realistic path toward doing something meaningful with the experience afterward.

And if circumstances change? Say so.

Editors kill stories. News cycles change. Pitches don't land. Publications fold. Budgets disappear. Clients change their minds. I've worked in PR long enough to understand all of it.

Silence is different.

A professional follow-up asking where things stand shouldn't be considered an affront to editorial independence. It's part of managing a business investment and reporting back to the people who funded it.

Reach Isn't the Same as Influence

This is especially important in luxury travel.

Someone doesn't necessarily need one million followers to move a $2,000-a-night hotel room.

The person with 25,000 highly engaged followers who trust their hotel recommendations may be significantly more valuable than someone with 500,000 people watching them travel around the world without ever buying the products they feature.

The advisor with no meaningful social following at all may quietly book hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury hotels every year.

The freelancer whose individual article doesn't generate millions of page views may be repeatedly read by exactly the right affluent traveler.

The newsletter writer with 15,000 subscribers may have built an extraordinarily intimate relationship with an audience that opens every recommendation.

Scale matters.

But so do trust, relevance, purchasing power and intent.

Increasingly, I want to know:

Who trusts you? What do they come to you for? And what happens after you recommend something?

Those are much harder numbers to put into a media report.

They're also increasingly the numbers that matter.

The Guest Question

Another increasingly common request with individual hosted trips is bringing a guest.

Sometimes this is incredibly easy. If a hotel is already providing a room for two, having a partner there can actually make the experience more natural and give the writer or creator a better understanding of the product.

But a guest isn't always "free."

Add international airfare, transfers, meals, activities, multiple hotels or several destination partners and suddenly one additional person requires a considerable amount of money and coordination.

Ask early. Explain why. And understand if the answer is no.

The same applies to premium airline tickets. An $8,000 or $10,000 business-class seat is not an incidental perk. Airlines have their own commercial priorities, limited media allocations and internal requirements.

Having represented airlines myself, I can tell you there isn't an endless bucket of complimentary seats sitting somewhere waiting for press-trip requests. If the airline itself isn't central to the story, it can become very difficult to justify, nearly impossible to secure even a trade rate.

Group Trips Need to Evolve Too

Traditional group press trips still have tremendous value, particularly when a destination has a major story to tell and multiple partners can share costs.

But I increasingly think some of the best FAMs may not always be composed exclusively of traditional media.

Imagine a carefully selected group that includes a respected travel editor, a freelancer with multiple relevant outlets, a creator whose audience closely matches the destination's customer, a newsletter writer with an affluent subscriber base and a luxury travel advisor who can actually sell the trip.

They aren't competing to produce the same thing.

They're experiencing the destination through different lenses and potentially creating value at different stages of the traveler's decision-making process.

The editor sees a story.

The creator sees something worth sharing.

The advisor sees which client should book the corner suite.

That is much closer to how consumers actually discover, evaluate and purchase travel today.

It also creates a more diversified return on what can be a very substantial investment.

The Future Is a Portfolio, Not a Press List

I don't think traditional travel media is dead. Far from it.

A great piece of earned editorial can have extraordinary longevity, credibility and SEO value. I've watched stories continue to influence travelers and appear in search results years after publication. There is a reason PR professionals continue chasing those placements.

I'm also regularly asked by media to provide expertise and commentary about travel, which has only reinforced my belief in the importance of credible expert voices and quality journalism.

But editorial shouldn't be asked to carry the entire burden anymore.

A smart travel communications strategy should probably contain some combination of earned editorial, creators, social media, newsletters, affiliates, commerce, advisors and paid partnerships.

For hotel partners, that is also why I think this conversation has to move beyond simply building a media list or filling seats on a FAM. The most valuable PR relationship should include strategic counsel: Who are you trying to reach? What does that traveler need to hear? Which voices have credibility with them? Where does editorial make sense, where might a creator be stronger, and where can the travel trade help turn awareness into revenue?

The answer won't be the same for every hotel. A great communications counselor should be willing to say that, too. Sometimes the smartest recommendation is a major editorial push. Sometimes it's cultivating a small circle of advisors. Sometimes it's a creator partnership, an affiliate opportunity or a combination of all of them. Strategy comes from understanding how those channels work together and being willing to recommend what actually serves the business rather than simply what falls under a traditional PR scope.

And the investment should correspond with the expected outcome.

If you need guaranteed content, pay for guaranteed content.

If you want independent editorial endorsement, accept some editorial risk.

If you want measurable traffic or transactions, build affiliate and commerce relationships.

If you want direct luxury sales, invite and educate the people actually advising those travelers. Create easy ways to book for the advisor and value through that channel.

If you're investing heavily in a FAM, build a group whose collective value gives you multiple opportunities for return.

Most importantly, vet people.

Look at what they've actually produced after previous hosted trips. Look beyond follower counts. Ask colleagues. Review recent clips. Understand their audience. Look at engagement. Ask about sales where appropriate. Talk openly about what they're hoping to get from the experience and what you're hoping to achieve by hosting them.

None of that compromises editorial independence.

It's simply good business.

The Honor System Still Matters

Travel has always been an unusually relationship-driven industry.

Publicists talk to one another. Writers talk to one another. Editors talk. Tourism boards talk. Hoteliers talk. Advisors certainly talk.

Reputations travel quickly.

The people I will go to bat for again and again aren't necessarily those who produced the biggest story from every trip. They're the people who communicate, behave professionally, understand the investment being made and make a genuine effort to turn an experience into something meaningful for their audience.

Sometimes that becomes a feature story.

Sometimes it's five stories over the next two years.

Sometimes it's social content.

Sometimes it's a booking.

Sometimes it's a client recommendation that turns into dozens of room nights.

And sometimes it's simply a relationship that unexpectedly pays dividends much later.

That's why I don't think we should stop investing in hosted travel.

I think we need to get much better at understanding who we're investing in, why we're investing in them, who they influence and what kind of value we're actually hoping they'll create.

The press trip isn't dead.

But the press list might be.