Top Ten Travel Markets

by Nita Walker Frazier

Millions of people travel during the holiday season. They seek out friends, family and sometimes overseas adventures. Whether you're hanging your stocking close to home, or traipsing cross-country, these markets will appeal to you.

ASU Travel Guide
ASU Travel Guide, Inc.
1525 Francisco Blvd. E.
San Rafael, CA 94901

Contact: Christopher Gil, managing editor

E-mail: christophergil@ travelguide.com

Website: www.asutravelguide.com

ASU Travel Guide is a quarterly international guidebook for airline employees.

Needs: International travel articles featuring destination pieces only.

Length: 1,800 words

Pays: $200.00

Query with samples of travel writing and a list of places you've been recently.

Insider's tip: Use active tense verbs in your writing.

Midwest Traveler
AAA Auto Club of Missouri
12901 N. Forty Dr.
St. Louis. MO 63141

Editor: Michael J. Right

E-mail: dreinhardt@aaamissouri.com

Web site: www.aaamissouri.com/traveler magazines

Midwest Traveler is a bimonthly magazine featuring travel and automobile safety.

Does no want: Humor, fiction, poetry or cartoons

Query with published clips

Length: 800-1,200 words

Pays $200-$350.00

Insider's Tip: Send queries between December and February. Ask for a media kit. Travel destinations and tips are most open to freelancers. All auto articles are staff written.

Golf Traveler
Official Publication of Golf Card International
Affinity Group, Inc.
2575 Vista del mar
Ventura, CA 93001

Contact: Valerie Law, Editorial Director

E-mail: golf@golfcard.com

Website: www.golfcard.com

Golf Traveler is a monthly E-newsletter that offers members reduced or waived greens fees at 3,500 affiliated golf courses in North America.

Needs: Book excerpts, Essays, How-to, Interview/profile, New product, Photo feature, Personal experience, Technical

No poetry or cartoons

Length: 500-1,500 words

Pays: $75 - $500.00

The online magazine carries original content not found in the print version. Contact: Ken Cohen

Camperways, Midwest RV Traveler, Florida RV Traveler, Northeast Outdoors, Southern RV & Southwest RV Traveler
Woodall Publications Corp.
2575 Vista Del Mar Dr.
Ventura, CA 93001

Contact: Jennifer Detweiler, Senior Managing Editor

E-mail: editor@woodallpub.com

Website: www.woodalls.com

Camperways is a monthly tabloid that covers the RV lifestyle

Needs: Articles of interest to Rvers. Lifestyle articles, destinations, technical tips, interesting events. Also looking for region-specific travel and special interest articles.

Does not want "camping from hell" articles.

Length: 500-2,000 words

Payment varies

Tips: "Be an expert on Rving. Your work should be readable by a wide variety of readers, from novices to full-timers. Accepts queries in June, July, and August for upcoming year. Columns and Departments are on annual contracts with regular writers. Submit ideas via E-mail or regular mail with several sample columns.

The International Railway Traveler
Hardy Publishing. Co.
P. O. Box 3747
San Diego, CA 92163

Contact: Gena Holle, Editor

E-mail: irteditor@aol.com

Website: www.irtsociety.com

International Railway Traveler is a monthly magazine covering rail travel.

Needs: General interest, How-to, Interview/profile, New product, Opinion, Personal experience

Length : 800-1,200 words

Pays: three (3) cents per word.

Tips: Seeking factual articles covering world rail travel that does not appear in mass market travel magazines. "IRT readers love stories and photos of off-beat train trips." Focus on the travel experience, not the view. Does not want a scene by scene view from the window. Include details, prices, passes, etc.

Travel Smart
Communications House, Inc.
40 Beechdale Rd.
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522

Contact: Nancy Dunman, Editor

E-mail: travelsmartnews@aol.com

Website: www.travelsmartnews.com

Travel Smart is a monthly newsletter covering information on "good-value travel."

Needs: Nonfiction covering bargains or little-known deals on transportation, lodging, destinations that are really good values.

No destination stories on major Caribbean islands, London, New York. No travelogues, "my vacation," poetry or fillers. Write for guidelines; then query.

Length: 100-1,500 words

Pays: $150.00 maximum

Travel America
The U.S. Vacation Magazine
World Publishing Co.
990 Grove St.
Evanston, IL 60201-4370

Contact: Randy Mink, Managing Editor

No E-mail or website available

Needs: Destination oriented travel articles, Resort/Hotel profiles and roundups.

Will consider: Humor, nostalgia and Americana.

Length: 1,000 words

Pays:$150-300.00

Submission method: Query first

Tips: Heavily photo-oriented. The most successful approach is to send 2-3 sheets of slides with the query. Include a list of subjects you can provide as a photo feature package.

Travel + Leisure
American Express Publishing Corp.
1120 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Editor-in-Chief: Nancy Novogrod

Length: 3,000-5,000 words (feature articles, 125-500 words (short manuscript).

Pays: $4,000-$6,000 feature; $100-$500/shot piece.

All columns are open to freelancers.

Tips: Queries should not be generic. Suggest ideas for specific departments. There is no single editorial contact for Travel + Leisure. It is best to find the name of the editor of the section you are querying.

Southern Traveler
AAA Auto Club of Missouri
12901 N Forty Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141

Contact: Deborah Klein, managing editor

Website: www.aaatravelerrmags.com

The Southern Traveler is a bimonthly magazine for AAA members in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi

The editorial schedule is available online and is set 18 months in advance.

Submission method: Query

Length: 2,000 maximum

Pays: $250.00

Tips: Query with best chance for acceptance between January and March. Most stories are assigned. Travel destinations and Tips are most open to freelancers. Make story bright and quick to read. No "my vacation" articles.

Accepts previously published submissions.

River Hills Traveler
Todd Publishing
Route 4
Box 4396
Piedmont, MO 63957

Contact: Bob Todd, online editor

E mail: btodd@selmo.net

Website: www.deepozarks.com

River Hills Traveler is a tabloid covering outdoor sports and nature in the southeast quarter of Missouri, the east and central Ozarks.

Needs: stories that relate an adventure that causes a reader to relive his own adventures or to consider embarking on a similar adventure. Think of an adventure in camping or cooking, not just fishing and hunting. "We encourage good first person reporting." Does not want stories about other geographic areas.

Submission method: Query with writing samples.

Length: 1,500 words maximum

Pays: $15-$50.00

Tips: River Hills Traveler is a "poor man's" Field & Stream and National Geographic about the eastern Missouri Ozarks.

Nita Walker Frazier is a struggling writer, trying to go full-time free-lance. She has lived in the West Texas area all of her life. She is the mother of two, ages 21 and 18. She is also foster mother to all their friends. She does not work outside the home due to medical disabilities, but volunteers her time to the local Girl Scouts as a leader and to the literacy council as a tutor. When she was a child, her dream was to own an elephant that she could keep in her back yard. She gave that up in favor of a dog malamute/chow mix and two cats.