Travel Magazines

Travel magazines are a niche but significant market in the magazine trade. They provide several services to their readers. The main purpose of travel magazines is to provide advice for holiday makers, give them ideas and cost information about possible holiday destinations. The modern holiday maker is more adventurous that their predecessors who were satisfied with two weeks on the newly created package holidays on the Costa del Sol. Package holidays are a bit passé for the modern sensibility and people are looking to be a little more adventurous. People increasingly want to explore new and exotic locations, somewhere that is off the beaten track and unspoilt by the holiday industry. Travel magazines inform people about the possibilities of new and exciting destinations.

Just providing information about possible holiday locations would be a little boring, so travel magazines are entertaining in their own right. They provide a home for travel writers, some of whom have become famous for publishing their writings as bestselling books. Travel writers provide a unique view of a location and tell stories about a place that would not otherwise be told. This could be small and personal stories about people they meet and situations they encounter, often humorous and moving. Sometimes they will write about the bigger picture, taking in the government and politics of countries, often exposing situations to the public gaze for the first time.

Travel writing is successful enough that travel magazines are often read, valued and enjoyed by people who never leave their own home town.