You Are Invited

At the heart of a lot of travel writing is a term most stock photographers have never heard of, the famtour.

"Fam" is short for familiarization. The famtour is a press trip organized by a resort or cruise ship, a state, or even a country, to familiarize travel writers and photographers with what their destination(s) offer the vacationer or traveler.

If you want to travel to, say, Brazil, you call the Brazilian consulate or U.S.-based tourism office, find out the name of their PR firm, and get in touch by phone or letter. Send the PR firm a sample of your previously published photos, and tell them who your contacts and buyers are. (Many of your newspaper or magazine buyers will represent audiences of 100,000 to a couple million.) Ask if their tourism office provides famtours. If your outlets are markets the tourism office seeks, you might just get invited on the next famtour which usually includes free lodging, meals, and in some cases, airflight. Sometimes spouses may join the famtour. You are not required to write glowingly about the destination. Besides, travel editors usually strike out any puffery.