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How to Partner with Tourism Brands in the Next 24 Hours

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Partner with Tourism Brands

Travel Bloggers

 

Partner with Tourism Brands and Grow

Partnering with tourism brands can be difficult. You have all of this passion to travel (and if you’re lucky the freedom to do so), but you don’t know how to grow your professional experience with tourism brands. At one point or another, we have all been there. Back in the day, there were editors and publishers who would like your work up for you. Now, in the “new media landscape,” it’s one freelancer against another in a blogger’s race to traveling the world. So how do you partner with tourism brands?

 

There are many methods of gaining partnerships. Today I am going to gear this towards first-year travel bloggers (that’s not to say this information isn’t useful to more experienced travel bloggers). I want to talk about face-to-face media appointments.

 

A face-to-face media appointment is just as it sounds, face-to-face. This is done at conferences, through speed-dating sessions (like the one at TBEX), and from scheduling media appointments. Anyone can schedule a media appointment, anyone means you.

 

The benefits of a media appointment is so far beyond that of cold emailing PR contacts. You’re practically winning before you even start! A media appointment gives you the opportunity to share your brand with their brand and really present the sweet spot. Here you can show off your brand development, and get them excited to work with you. So where do you start?

 

Partner with Tourism Brands at Home

 

Make a list of every destination within 2 hours of you and either call them to schedule a media appointment or walk right in their tourism office and meet them. I spent my entire afternoon yesterday in Downtown St. Petersburg where I canvassed the city for historic hotels and the tourism office. I shook hands, handed out my card, and made some great contacts.

 

Partner with Tourism Brands Near You While Traveling

 

Just like being at home, make your way around the cities near you and meet and greet! You can plan it out ahead or if you’re confident enough just pick them as you walk by.

 

Anyone Can Do It

I don’t care who you are or where you are in the world of travel blogging levels, anyone can do this. If you have a business card, a site, a media kit, and a smile, there is no reason you can’t make contacts on foot. This is the best way to build your partnerships and gain the experience you need to get to the bigger brands. It will be a learning curve, but that’s the best way to learn. As always, if you have any questions I am happy to help.

If you feel like you don’t have the time to do your own PR, and trust me that’s completely understandable, you might consider hiring your own PR firm like James Dondero who can take a lot of the stress off your plate.

 

Author

Christa Thompson is the Founder and Chief Editor of The Fairytale Traveler. She started traveling the world in 2003 when she attended a summer abroad study at the University of Cambridge in England. Since then, her wanderlust has been fierce. Her three passions in life are her son, traveling, and being creative. The Fairytale Traveler brand gives Christa the opportunity to do all of these things and to live intentionally every day. "It's never too late to believe in what you love and to pursue your dreams." -Christa Thompson

10 Comments

    • Christa Thompson Post Author Reply

      Well the workload is always a struggle. Pending deadlines, PR reps to please, professionalism to maintain, correspondence to handle and then the web development, social media, side projects to launch for multiple income streams…trust me I know. You just need to figure out what is counter-productive and get rid of it. If it’s not getting you on a trip, getting you money or getting you fans, let it go.

      😉

    • Christa Thompson Post Author Reply

      Absolutely! It the first thing any new travel blogger should do and what ever experienced travel blogger should already be doing!

  3. Globe Guide Reply

    Thanks for the post Christa! It’s funny how some tourism boards are so receptive, while others won’t even reply to an email!

  4. Charlie on Travel Reply

    I imagine this can be a really long process, and I personally would find it hard to muster up the guts do it. But, I bet when you have a success, it’s a real success. Thanks for sharing, Christa 🙂

    • Christa Thompson Post Author Reply

      Not at all. I spent the afternoon enjoying Starbucks and working in St. Petersburg (just 50 minutes from my home) and met with 4 hotels and the tourism office. I’ve followed up with all of them and I am making arrangements for adventures over the summer in between my travels. Gives me something to do while I’m home and a change of scenery… Keeps things fresh 😉

  5. The Guy Reply

    Thanks for sharing your experience and these great tips Christa. I think your point of face to face meetings is a really powerful one. It is easy to ignore an e-mail or say no to an e-mail. If you meet face to face it is a whole different realm of negotiation.

    I must admit this is not really an area I’m focused on at the moment, I travel enough as it is with work to have more than enough content.

    However, not so long ago I contacted an organisation and explained an article idea I was going ahead with anyway. I asked if they wanted to contribute some pictures to accompany the article. They were more than happy to do so. Then twice they wanted to invite me to a major event free of charge with a press pass. Sadly this clashed with something else. The point being though is that I was given the offer of something far beyond what I was genuinely looking for. This proved to me the power and influence of what we are doing.

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