Travel writer and publisher Q&A: Julie Schwietert

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Julie Schwietert, known for her work with MatadorNetwork and Collazo Projects, is a writer, editor, and translator whose work bridges the worlds of service travel writing, culture, and politics. Though travel writing is a big piece of her métier, it’s not its sum. This profile of Julie is the first in a Gadling series on writers and publishers who have found a way to turn their enthusiasms for travel into a profession.

Q: How do you fit into the travel writing and publishing world?

A: I’m a freelancer, though I work primarily for MatadorNetwork as writer, managing editor, and the lead educator of their travel writing program. I also write for print magazines. I contributed to the latest edition of Fodor’s Puerto Rico, and I am waiting excitedly for August when it will hit bookstore shelves.

Q: How long has Collazo Projects been up and running, and what is it that you do?

A: I collaborate on Collazo Projects with my husband Francisco Collazo, who is a photographer, chef and translator. Collazo Projects is the online home for our writing and photography and other projects that haven’t found a home elsewhere. It’s in the process of evolving, though. We’re considering turning it into a proper website that functions more as a portfolio with a blog rather than a straight-up photo/writing blog.

Q: Is travel writing a means to an end for you, or is it the animating focus of your work? Or is it something else entirely?

A: I’m slightly uncomfortable with the term “travel writing” or the label of “travel writer” because both feel really limiting. When I say it, sitting next to someone on a plane in response to the question “What do you do?” I always get squirmy because their first association with the term tends to be Travel + Leisure. That association isn’t bad, but glossy magazine writing is just a portion of what I do. I’d like to think that my writing is less about the things anyone “should” or “must” do in a destination and more about what that destination is like when you stop viewing it as, well, a destination.

A diversified income stream is how I survive economically. In addition to my writing work, I’m a freelance academic editor and a translator.

Q: What are your favorite regions?

A: I’d happily go almost anywhere, but I really love to return again and again to places I’ve visited previously and get to know them more deeply. The focus of my work is on ferreting out the untold stories about a place, looking for alternative narratives, and giving a voice to people without a voice. And because I’m fluent in Spanish, most of my work focuses on Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

Q: Any absolutely favorite destination?

A: Mexico, Mexico City in particular. I know what everyone says about Mexico City. They’re wrong. It’s a dynamic, fascinating, complicated city where the traditional and the contemporary are in constant interface. I lived there for two years and loved it. I wish I still lived there.

Q: Have you ever had to travel to a place to follow an obsession?

A: Cuba. I had to meet the family that produced my husband. Once I got to Havana, I had to go on to the town of Mariel, which is the port from which my husband left Cuba in 1980. I went there and was completely underwhelmed. Plus no one wanted to talk about 1980.

Q: What sort of advice would you give to people who want to enter the travel writing and editing world?

A: Do it, and diversify your income. Having a diverse income stream not only ensures you’ll stay stable economically but it also helps you tap into multiple interests.

Q: And finally, what’s in your carry-on?

A: Always books, at least two, and magazines. A journal and a couple pens. A sarong, for which there are at least 96 uses. You can place a sarong on a changing table to change a baby’s diaper and drape it over your head to block out obnoxious passengers, among other things!

So google is buying ITA Software. What does it mean for you, air traveler?

by George Hobica on

First of all, what is ITA Software? Briefly, it’s a technology company based in Cambridge, MA that provides the airfare search software behind such sites as Orbitz, Kayak and many airline web sites. Its claim to fame is that it digs deeper into airline reservation systems than some other technologies, and usually finds fares that are only available via the airlines’ own websites. And it allows users to do an easy flexible date search over any 30-day period.

But: It does not provide searches on Southwest AIrlines, Allegiant Airlines, Ryanair, and a few other smaller carriers. Similarly, low-cost leader Spirit Airlines keeps its best fares for Spiritair.com.

Nor can ITA calculate promo code or some other special airfares that the airlines reserve for their own web sites.

Recently, for example, US Airways tweeted fares from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv for $99 each way plus tax, summer travel. JetBlue tweets frequently as well, with $10 fares. United recently tweeted 20% off discount codes. These deals were not picked up by ITA Software. If airlines increasingly market their best deals through narrow channels, and keep them from ITA, it will further change the fare finding game. My thinking is that if airlines can figure out how to eliminate all third parties, such as profitable Southwest has done, they’ll do it.ITA also doesn’t include the “name your own price” fares you can find on sites like Priceline.com, which are often quite good if you don’t have a sufficiently large advance purchase window. And it doesn’t include consolidator airfares. In fact, no airfare search site includes all of these things.

So will the Google acquisition change airfare search for the better? Online airfare search “is ultimately not a very good user experience,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on a conference call. “There’s clearly room for more competition there.”

That’s an interesting statement. More competition? Compared to other categories, airfare search is anything but devoid of competition. Recently, TripAdvisor got into the game, as did Travelzoo with its fly.com site. That’s in addition to sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Hotwire, Booking Buddy, Farecompare, Yapta, Cheapair, and about a dozen others. ITA Software powers many of these sites already.

ITA does not sell airfares directly. It only shows what it believes the lowest fare to be on any given route, and then you need to conduct a separate search on the site of your choice to find the fare. Most people go directly to airline web sites to complete purchases, although sometimes the cheapest fare will be outbound on one airline and a return on a second airline, which is where the online travel agencies (OTAs such as Travelocity and Expedia) have an advantage, since they show fares on more than one airline. Will Google turn ITA into a fare-selling engine, in competition with its paying customers? Who can say?

Of course, Google is already in the fare search business. If you Google a term like “Boston to New York depart Dec 13 return Dec 15 2010” (try it), the top unadvertised search result will be a google-generated search box allowing you to click on many major OTA’s and meta-search sites.

But it will not actually return fares without further clicking. Perhaps at some point an ITA-generated fare result will pop up, showing the lowest price your Google search, instead of sending you to an OTA’s link.

Airfare search is such a crowded, ever-changing business, fraught with uncertainty and risks that it’s interesting that Google wants in. But I’ll have to assume they know what they’re doing.

George Hobica is the founder of Airfarewatchdog™, the most inclusive source of airfare deals that have been researched and verified by experts. Airfarewatchdog compares fares from all airlines and includes the increasing number of airline-site-only and promo code fares.

[Flickr image: tortuga767]

For last second fares, watch for United’s Twares

by Grant Martin on

As the social media monstrosity known as Twitter continues to grow by the nanosecond (did you know that the Whole Foods in Evanston, IL is now on Twitter?), more and more companies in the travel industry are now taking advantage of their followers to lure in new sales.

Sure it’s just another marketing technique, but where travel consumers and producers can really benefit is in the wholesaling of last minute capacity.

In United Airline’s case, the product is called a Tware. We first covered these Twitter Fares around this time last year, and since its inception the concept has really taken off.

In a nutshell, here’s how Tware’s work: Airline capacity managers identify a group of routes that are significantly undersold over a period of time, say, all flights from the US to Australia over the course of June. Knowing that there’s a low probability of all of those seats being sold at the current market prices, the capacity managers block off a bucket full of seats on select flights, heavily discount the fares and call the folks at the Twitter desk.

At the count of three, cheap seats open up and an advertisement goes on Twitter announcing that “A Tware to Australia!” has started. 70,000 highly focused, highly motivated followers suddenly tune in, everyone starts booking and the seats sell like hotcakes.

In the end, United makes some cash, when they formerly would have been flying empty seats and a few passengers get a great deal on tickets. Oh, and United gets a ton of free PR.

The only catch? Since the airline is clearing out empty seats most Twares are for travel within the next month or two. But if you’re flexible, adventurous and have a few extra dollars the formula is perfect for a quick jaunt to paradise.

You can follow @unitedairlines to tune into upcoming Twares. Be forewarned that most Twares only last a few hours, so have your credit card and calendar ready!

[Image credit, Pylon757]

A conversation with Joe Diaz, co-founder of AFAR

by Grant Martin on

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year you’ve heard of AFAR media and their new magazine that’s currently making waves around the travel industry. As one of the few companies to risk starting a print publication in a transitioning media landscape, there’s plenty at risk in this endeavor, but the strategy runs deep at AFAR and the innovation is plenty.

Earlier this month, Gadling’s Editor in Chief sat down with AFAR co-founder Joe Diaz to catch up on new developments at the startup.

Grant Martin: Congratulations on the success of Afar to date — how are things settling in for you as the co-founder of a major publication?

Joe Diaz: Things are going well. We have the opportunity to work in media in such an exciting and evolutionary time. AFAR has entered the game at an opportune time. Others call this the “bottom” or “worst time ever” to start a media company. Obviously, we see it another way and believe that the demands of today’s consumers were not being met in the travel space. Judging from the success of our launch it looks as though AFAR is fulfilling the desires of today’s experiential travelers. Our magazine launched with much success and I’m really excited about the upcoming launch of AFAR.com

GM: Right, your magazine is only a small part of the Afar portfolio with a large portion of Afar Media set to unfurl on the web in 2010. How is that progressing?

JD: The entire team is really excited about the launch of AFAR.com, a social network meets social search site that gets people like you to answer questions you have about travel. We are headquartered in San Francisco for a reason and that reason is AFAR.com. We plan on entering our beta in late June of 2010. We are now beginning to invite well-heeled travelers and members of the tech community to join us in shaping and improving the site. I encourage you to “try out” for our beta at http://private.afar.com.

Although we see our site as a revolutionary progression in the online travel space, our platforms always drive back to our company’s core values. In this case, it’s all about connecting travelers to other travelers, locals and businesses in ways that fit their individual way of traveling.
GM: So upcoming components of AFAR.com will be socially interactive. How will it be different from, say, Facebook or Dopplr?

JD: AFAR.com will differ from Facebook in terms of the approach. Facebook is effective when you want your “friends” to answer questions that you might have about anything in particular. When traveling, how many of your “friends” have been to the places you’re thinking about going? Then take the number of friends that have been there and ask yourself, “How many of them like to travel the way I do?” Probably not that many. We think there is a whole community of like-minded travelers that you should be able to tap into to give you recommendations that fit your psychographic.

GM: AFAR events is another branch of AFAR Media that’s kicking off this summer. What have you guys got planned around the country?

JD: We are planning an AFAR.com launch party in San Francisco for late September/early October. Stay tuned!

GM: Going back to the magazine that we all know so well, you recently made some editorial changes at the top. What motivated these changes?

JD: Things evolve and change over time and as a company we need to adapt to those changes. The initial launch of our company required a different approach than the stage we are currently in. AFAR is a media company and although the magazine is an important part of our strategy, it was time to move away from magazine-centric thinking and really embrace an audience of experiential travelers rather than any one single platform.

GM: And you’ve been getting some pretty big names in that industry involved — we just saw our friend David Farley off the Belarus on a top secret mission for you guys. Who else have you got coming down the pipeline?

JD: Yes, we’re acquiring top-notch creative talent for the magazine. It’s exciting to see writers like David Farley, Susan Orlean, Andrew McCarthy, and Tim Cahill working with us. I think it speaks to the uniqueness of AFAR and this magazine’s ability to talk about travel in a real way. Photographers who get shunned from other travel magazines because they like to photograph clouds hanging over those white, sandy beaches…no problem. AFAR likes clouds.

Farewell Browser, Airfarewatchdog watchdog

by Grant Martin on

In the short years in which I’ve worked in the travel industry, I’ve been privy to a lot of introductions. Famous travelers, pundits and celebrities have all passed my desk, many with a forced, tight smile and the faint din of one handshake too many.

Few cases have brought true affection and genuine appreciation for one’s presence – and most of them were in the company of Browser, the mascot, pet and office mate of the folks over at Airfarewatchdog. High above the tower skyline of Manhattan we used to meet at the AFWD offices, productive music pumping and fares passing across keyboards of the talented, bargain searching staff.

The air in the office may have been focused and intense, but Browser had a way of mashing into a room, digging into your lap and making it known that you were noticed and loved. It was calming in a way, a release mechanism to step back from the computer, forget a few tweets and spend some real time with an altruistic, friendly creature.

Browser passed last week at a ripe age of 14 years – old for a dog perhaps, but far too young for an animal of such joy and love. You’ll be missed in the travel community, my friend.