✨ Welcome back to our series, TravMedia's Travel Writer of the Week! ✨
Each week, we'll be shining a spotlight on one of the incredibly talented, passionate, and inspiring Journalists or Editors from our amazing community.
This week, we'd like to shine the spotlight on freelance travel writer - Ruby Deevoy.
We hope you enjoy - happy reading !!
Where are you based?
Scotland, just outside Edinburgh
What outlets do you write for?
Conde Nast Traveller, New Scientist, The Telegraph, The Independent, Stylist, Women's Health, Fodors and many others!
Who is your audience?
Families who enjoy child-friendly luxury, natural health and wellness fanatics, UHNW individuals
What are your travel specialties?
Family travel, health and wellness travel, luxury travel
Are you in-house or freelance (or both)?
Freelance
What are your professional pet peeves?
I know this is a touchy one but…needing a commission before being able to visit or join a press trip. It's presenting such a huge problem for travel journalists right now. I completely understand the PR's plight with this - there's a risk for your client without a confirmed commission in advance, but if you vet your journalists and see a decent, regular body of work, taking a chance can work out very well. More often than not when I'm asked to do a feature or roundup I don't have time to travel before the tight deadline, so I usually feature hotels/spas/resorts/restaurants who had faith to let me visit in advance and I know are great. Some editors don't want the pitch until we've been on the trip. Sometimes we'll get the advance commission then the trip won't go ahead (this has happened many times!), which damages writer/editor relationships. So we're at risk too when we're having to pitch without the experience. And of course the best pitches always come from the inspiration of going on the trip anyway. Being invited places with no flights offered is a big challenge as well. We career travel writers aren't paid enough for that and we travel a lot! We can't afford to buy our own flights, it makes the job totally unsustainable for us.
In your past professional life you were…
an elf in the Harrods Christmas grotto, an interior accessories buyer for middle eastern palaces, a nanny, a shop girl, an artist, an SEO pro, a PA, a jazz singer, a wedding photographer, a retro pin up model...all sorts!
Where would you like to return to?
Japan - my favourite country in the world!
What's on your bucket list?
Bhutan is probably number 1 at the moment. I'd love a super special tour of the Egyptian pyramids. Most places in South America (I loved Peru!), particularly Panama and Chile. I always want to do more countryside in Japan. Anywhere new with potent spirituality and mysterious ancient historical sites I can visit!
Where do you travel for fun?
All of my travel is work travel, but all my work travel is fun!
Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is…
So many from my amazing trip to Zambia with the Bushcamp company last year: when my eye started streaming on day one and I had to permanently wear sunglasses going round the local school and the farms like a diva. Or when a bee would not leave me alone as I needed to sit still and silent with a leopard right next to our open vehicle. Or when an elephant charged us! When my partner didn't want to eat what looked very much like brain soup in Japan and he tried to smuggle the scalding hot bowl liquid to the toilet in his trousers to avoid appearing rude, that was hilarious. Oh and the time I went on a wonderful 'holibonds' trip to Peru with my mum, we drank a little too much mezcal and ended up singing 'Purple Rain' in the streets of Lima as purple blossom fell on us as we walked - we laughed and laughed!
What advice would you give your younger professional self?
Set office hours so you don't become a workaholic and work in a dedicated work space, not your bed. I could still stand to take my advice on that, actually...
What nugget would you like to add that we haven't touched on?
The best press trips I've been on, I've had great excursions, activities and meals offered, and the PR has been wonderfully supportive (looking at Cecilia from August28, star example!) but I've had time to relax and explore on my own too. That's really important. Trying to cram too much in, especially into a short trip, can be a bit overwhelming and it can take away from the experience and prevent us from finding a unique story. I know some PRs feel pressure to keep journos constantly entertained but I think for many of us less is generally better than feeling rushed. A little downtime is great if possible. Also, we do love you PRs, we appreciate all you do! Thank you.
How best should people contact you?
Email me please! I'm on rubydeevoy@gmail.com
