MEDIA, ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM

Summary, Part 1 of 3

MEDIA FORUM

www.flickr.com

PHOTO GALLERY: Planeta

WHO TOOK PART?

More than 160 people registered for the MET Conference which originally took place online in November 2001. Active participation was limited to media professionals (see the Directory of Participants) and we other stakeholders, including tourism leaders, environmentalists and others, to listen as quiet observers.

To gage who was taking part in the MET Conference, we polled participants where they lived and what areas of the globe they covered in their professional work. The following results are not scientific since many participants had trouble accessing the Polls section online Yahoo Groups.

Question: Since so many of us are on the road, where do you live more than six months of the year?

- Asia, 0 votes, 0.00%
- Africa, 0 votes, 0.00%
- Canada, 1 votes, 5.26%
- Caribbean, 0 votes, 0.00%
- Central America, 1 votes, 5.26%
- Europe, 3 votes, 15.79%
- Mexico, 2 votes, 10.53%
- Pacific Nations (including Australia and New Zealand), 0 votes, 0.00%
- South America, 1 votes, 5.26%
- United States, 11 votes, 57.89%

Multiple Choice Question: What regions have you covered in depth within the past two years?

- Asia, 2 votes, 4.55%
- Africa, 0 votes, 0.00%
- Canada, 4 votes, 9.09%
- Caribbean, 2 votes, 4.55%
- Central America, 3 votes, 6.82%
- Europe, 3 votes, 6.82%
- Mexico, 7 votes, 15.91%
- Pacific Nations (including Australia and New Zealand) , 4 votes, 9.09%
- South America, 8 votes, 18.18%
- United States, 11 votes, 25.00%

SURVEY

At the end of the MET Conference, participants were asked to evaluate the event. The results are as follows:

POLL QUESTION: In terms of timing, was the MET Conference...

- Too short, 2 votes, 28.57% - Too long, 1 votes, 14.29% - Timed just right, 4 votes, 57.14%

POLL QUESTION: During the MET Conference, did you consult the conference's home page/archive on Yahoo Groups?

- Yes, 5 votes, 71.43% - No, 2 votes, 28.57%

POLL QUESTION: On a Scale from 1-5 (with 5 being the most), how useful was the Media, Environment and Tourism Conference?

- 1-Waste of time , 0 votes, 0.00%
- 2-Not very useful , 0 votes, 0.00%
- 3-Moderately useful , 2 votes, 28.57%
- 4-Very useful; I am glad I participated , 3 votes, 42.86%
- 5-Terrific. I'm glad I participated and will recommend this to others , 2 votes, 28.57%

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

Richard Mahler -- I have always found one of my biggest challenges as a full-time freelancer is being pro-active -- trying to sell stories that I genuinely feel are important -- rather than being reactive -- simply responding to expressions of interest by editors. A key problem is that few publishers seem to have much skill in this arena. They know how to create and print a book, but what happens next is beyond their repertoire. It reminds me of people who are very good at producing a child, then don't know how to feed, clothe, nurture, and house it, much less raise it to be a fully functional human beings. So many publishers send their "children" into the world to, basically, fend for themselves, then act surprise when they get smooshed. What to do? Take more responsibility for what we create, including its distribution and promotion. More work in a poorly paid profession, but, I fear, even more necessary than ever if we are to succeed.

Helena Katz -- I decided to join this conference because I'd like to learn more about ecotourism and figure out ways to take my stories beyond the standard destination pieces. The news reporter in me wants to learn more about the communities I visit and share that with readers. I'd like to figure out how to point them (and me) in the right direction so that they can distinguish between "real" ecotourism and what is only labeled as such for promotional purposes.

Nancy Johnson -- I am by nature an eco-tourist, but in the six years I have been freelancing I have struggled to find paying markets. If it isn't life-threatening, the adventure magazines are not interested. I don't stay at resorts owned by multi-national corporations, so I don't do spas, and consequently Conde Nast doesn't do my stories.

Bonnie Hayskar -- I believe that in order to protect the natural world and indigenous cultures, we must come to know them. Once you know the penguins at Punto Tombo or the birds of the Seychelles or the Turkana peoples of Kenya, you have a reason to care about them and their well-being. Knowing can be through personal experience, if we are lucky enough to have that opportunity, or it can be through the written word or through images. All contribute to our connectedness.

George Leposky -- As a young reporter covering the environmental beat for Chicago's American in the mid-1960s, I inadvertently killed the oldest living thing in Illinois by writing about it. The victim was a 10,000-year-old cedar tree growing on a bluff overlooking the Fox River southwest of Chicago. The venue was a Sunday magazine article about efforts to designate that stretch of the river as an official state canoe trail. After the article appeared, the owner of the land on which the tree grew cut it down to discourage canoeists from climbing the bluff to see it.

After that, I became much more cautious about reporting specific information -- especially when dealing with privately owned land. Specifics can help to gain support for protection of environmentally sensitive ecosystems and endangered species, but how much detail is too much? After almost 40 years as an environmental writer, I'm still struggling with that question.

BUILDING AUTHORITY

Herb Hiller -- As a Floridian, I could turn out endless destination pieces. Instead, it's Florida tourism rather than Florida travel that interests me. Tourism has warped Florida culture for more than a century. Among upshots of the state's overweening dependence on tourism, "anything goes" dominates Florida's economy. Terrible disconnects result, such as the constant drive for low-paying tourism jobs without regard to the social fallout (so troubling today with widespread job layoffs that stem from the 9/11 impact on tourism). Seventy-five years ago, Florida abandoned any attempt to generate revenues through income or estate taxes, instead chiefly relying on a sales tax, as a way to encourage the wealthy to visit and consider permanent relocation here. Accordingly, Florida has been terribly constrained in its ability to provide for the basics from education to health care and has to rely on more and more people vacationing and moving here to buy things. Tourism has turned Florida doubly tacky: first for the kitsch it promotes and second for how it drives endless consumption. For an overview of how tourism dictates Florida policy, see my guest column in the Sept. issue of Ecotourism Observer [http://www.ecotourism.org/observer].

When I found that editors did not want to buy my critical pieces about Florida (invariably about or otherwise related to issues concerning tourism), I began to make myself authoritative about the state. I gained a contract for an inns book that allowed me to travel throughout the state. I pursued my advocacy interests by starting up today's Florida Bed & Breakfast Inns, then revived the long moribund state bicycling movement. A critical piece for Forum, the quarterly of the Florida Humanities Council, resulted in nomination to the council board.

In writing, I've since found outlets for op-ed pieces and otherwise sold critical essays to outlets such as Florida Naturalist, Florida Wildlife, Florida Trend and other magazines normally not open to travel writing. Interestingly, by building my Florida authority I've been able to sell more regularly to Sunday travel sections, always with an aspect of advocacy in what I have to say. To me, the question of becoming authoritative is critical to making a living and enjoying a life that has evolved from travel writing to writing more focused on place

Ron Mader -- Herb Hiller wrote eloquently about the need to connect to place and establish one's authority as a writer. But what if people don't care about where you live?

First and foremost is the disinterest and sometimes rabid ignorance about international [read: outside the United States] affairs. I certainly have not been able to cache in on my "authority" on LatAm ecotourism when it comes to selling more than a few articles and books. Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of my publications and the relationships I have with publishers (two of whom are participating in this event). But this work has not been enough to a build a sustainable livelihood. The biggest obstacle -- Mexico and LatAm are still off the map for most editors.

One of my favorite rejection letters came from American Airlines magazine which I had pitched a story about Mexican whales or Monarch butterflies. "No," they replied. "We covered Costa Rica last year."

I just wish there were more financial incentive to write about "renewable energy and tourism" or how successful environmental groups are -- or are not -- when it comes to working on conservation issues with locals.

ARE WE PART OF THE PROBLEM?

Joe Franke -- I do not see travel writing as some sort of benign activity that can be in any way value-neutral. We like to pretend that we just report the facts, when in reality we can cause a great deal of harm just telling people about the existence of a new hotel complex on what was once a turtle nesting ground or a former rice paddy. We can write about these places disparagingly, but 90% of tourists will still go there if the pool is clean and the employees sufficiently subservient, putting most of the money spent into the hands of people who will go on to destroy more places. My question is this, are travel writers a good deal more of the problem than we'd like to admit?

Peter Hutchison -- Joe wrote: My question is this, are travel writers a good deal more of the problem than we'd like to admit? Unfortunately the answer is yes. It is not just about tourists wanting lobster - it is about locals wanting employment. A few people on (or at?) the MET Conference have good knowledge of Costa Rica. Last trip I took out to Tortuguero the wonderfully neutral Tico guide we had actually explained how most of the bananeros were going to be out of work because the World Trade Organisation required free trade on the global market. It's not a straight forward situation and I'll spare the details but when you're on a bus loaded with people who are paying a daily rate equivalent to that earnt by a banana worker in a couple of months you've got to think something isn't quite right.

It goes back to the earlier posting about killing the 10,000 year old tree. As soon as a light is shone on an area it is changed. Our role is within the overall situation as an element working to manage that change. I for one spend a great deal of time trying to work out effective ways of tackling that process personally - and that framework goes far beyond choosing where I might take a vacation (not that I take vacations in a traditional sense - a pleasant problem all-in-all, probably shared by most taking part!). That process rarely has an outcome that I totally happy with.

Julian Smith -- A few thoughts on the recent round of comments on the idea of travel writers somehow "letting the cat out of the bag" by publicizing beautiful but fragile locations. I've wrestled with this idea in my work, whether it's writing about a great village in the Ecuadorian Andes that stands a good chance of being "loved to death" if it becomes too popular, or about how relatively safe and easy (if not cheap) it's become to come within a stone's throw of a grizzly bear in the wild, knowing all the while that studies have found bears behave differently when people are around, and all the stories of bears having to be shot when they get to familiar with us and our tasty trash.

Maybe this is somewhat self-justifying, but the way I put my conscience to rest (somewhat) is to remind myself that people are going to go to these places, whether we tell them about it or not. It may take a little longer if I don't tell them, but it will happen. Expecting to "save" a place by not publicizing is naive, a little like not telling a friend a juicy but painful rumor about him - he's going to hear about it eventually, so it might as well be from you.

In a similar vein, I figure people are going to hear about these great places and opportunities eventually, like I did in the first place, so if I can explain the history of a place, the character of a people, what makes a bear freak out and flee, and the risks these people, places, and ecosystems face by forces including the presence of tourists themselves, then I've done something good. They're going to come, eventually, inevitably, so if I can disseminate this information in a sensitive way, *guide* my readers, educate them a bit beforehand and tell them how to tread lightly while they're here, then that's worth doing.

So this is a response to those who say we should keep our traps shut, stay home or at least not splash the news of these great places over the pages and airways. We travel writers, at least, wouldn't be in the business if we didn't like to explore interesting places, and more important, if we didn't love to tell other people about our discoveries. Tourism happens, and it doesn't have to happen in a destructive way - Theroux's "blind blundering visitation of a mobile rich on an inert poor" - so if I can help nudge (or even shove) it in a positive direction, then I will.

DEADLINES

Maribeth Mellin -- Most of my books are geared toward well-educated travelers, and I am able to write essays on the environmental issues affecting each country. I try as much as possible to include ecologically responsible projects in my writing, and to not include ecological horrors. I try to describe resorts and attractions in such a way that environmentally conscious travelers know what's going on. For example, I'll begin by saying "Few locals have anything good to say about..." If a hotel is located beside a turtle nesting ground, I'll say whether or not it works to protect the turtles. Often I don't really know all the issues for a particular area. I'd love to know everything, but must meet deadlines and earn a living. I would encourage environmental groups, responsible travel business and travelers to WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITORS OR PUBLISHERS. I'm often alerted to a problem this way, and can address it in the book's next edition. I look forward to exchanging ideas with you all.

Susan Cunningham -- If I have a reputation at all, it's that I'm not a flack. All the travel organizations that bestow freebie trips probably have me on a blacklist as "too negative", a troublemaker. I think the local environmental journalists took note of stories I did on ecotourism in developed countries and the environmental and economic benefits of backpacking tourists over the upmarket packaged variety.

Every beach is "pristine", every facility "exclusive" and "luxurious" with a wide variety of satellite TV air-con sauna blah blah for your convenience. To them, ecotourism constitutes any activity that involves nature in the remotest way. I could give countless hair-raising examples; this isn't the time to do it. But I will say that the root is a class prejudice that's common to many hierarchical Asian countries: the elites regard tourists that go off camping, riding bicycles, staying on islands sans TV, sweating, walking in forests--as akin to peasants and thus "bad" cheapskate tourists. "Good" tourists, such as rich Thais, consume conspicuously and extravagantly. The latter-- say, about 10 million--are what the government strives to attract. This is something that well-meaning foreign tourism professors, donors et al can't grasp.

Bill Hinchberger -- I once literally knocked on the door of a Brazilian state tourism agency. At that very moment, the department head was in New York trying to drum up interest among travel editors. Another time, I received an alert about a FAM tour for foreign journos in another Brazilian state. When I contacted the PR firm, they didn't know what to do with me. As a Brazil-based foreign correspondent, I seemed to fall outside their categories. The New York office bushed me off because I was based in Brazil, and the local office did likewise because I wasn't national press. I think that PR people need to understand that in-country foreign correspondents handle the bulk of the coverage about their clients.

REVIEWING RESORTS

Nancy Sont -- For some time I had trouble with the idea of promoting a high class resort while I wouldn't have normally traveled in those circles. Now I see the tourism more broadly, that helping the biggest resort helps all the people in a huge network of the economy, right down to the peasants that beg from the tourists that come to the area.

Susan Cunningham -- Did you ask the beggar what he or she did before the resort came along? Sure, there is a place for big, fully-equipped hotels--in big cities by business travelers. When you get more than one big hotel, when you build whole resorts, colonize entire island or coastlines ... you don't just destroy an old way of life, you create all sorts of social ills. Prostitution, gambling, drinking places. A lot of it is similar to the problems spawned by industrial estates ... but the promise of tourism is that it doesn't have to be that way! If you (all right, governments) encourage tourism to be less concentrated, local people can stay home, families stay intact .. and still reap some of the foreigners' dollars.

Bruce and June Conord -- We used to look down our noses somewhat at the all-inclusive hotel zone vacationer but after seeing the rape of the coastline down to Tulum and the monstrous big hotels that have been built, we have come to understand the benefit of confining the environmental impact of resorts to one area. Additionally, from a tourism perspective, the duplication of the Cancun experience along the Riviera Maya only sucks tourism away from Cancun, rather than attracting a new market with smaller, boutique, hotels. Not to mention the ecological damage.

Joe Franke -- What that beggar was doing before the hotel came along, indeed. Unless I've missed something, we've yet to talk about a couple of ugly facts about tourism development that fly in the face of the kind of trickle-down economics thinking that is evident in some of the posts of the past couple of weeks.

For instance, I've heard no discussion about how tourism development, particularly of the type in which outside capital is by people from outside of the community used to build a hotel or hotel complex causes economic hardship to local people.

Land prices rise, (which might be good for a few but bad for the majority) making subsistence farming more difficult. Yes, a few farmers might benefit if they can sell produce to the hotels, or take people on farm visits, or get involved in some way in the industry beyond the types of jobs that Susan alluded. However, in some cases, food prices rise with demand, particularly for animal protein. Again, this may benefit a few, but the poor majority, who don't control the means of production or even own the land upon which they farm, may suffer.

There can be negative conservation effects as well. Ten years ago, in my Costa Rica Parks book, I wrote about the lobster poaching and over harvest situation on the Talamanca coast. Tourists eat a lot of lobsters, and the situation was out of control. Today, the government still refuses to do anything substantial in regards to enforcement, and the lobster fishermen go all the way into Panama, risking imprisonment to fish for lobsters to fill the bellies of tourists. We can ask people in our books not to eat lobsters and other dwindling wildlife, which I have, but we all know what the vast majority of tourists do when offered such a delicacy.

Ron Mader -- Do we support the development of internationally-financed, 5-star hotels that are "eco friendly" or do we encourage local developments and pioneering conservation initiatives? My answer might surprise some of you. I say both. I don't think that all tourism has to be ecotourism... well, not yet anyway. But if "ecotourism" is going to have meaning, we must be strict about its definition. At a conference in West Virginia a few years ago, the owner of a Hotel-6 asked why his hotel wouldn't be called "ecotourism." Well, again, the same rules apply. Where is the local participation beyond maintenance staff employment? Where are the benefits to conservation?

HOW WILL PEOPLE KNOW?

Harry Pariser -- If we don't explain that, how will people know? In fact one hotel chain (Barcelo) threatened to sue my former publisher who swiftly capitulated, removing the offending review. I put the lawyer's letter up on the internet along with the review and have received many comments which I have also posted. Some people were angry because I troubled their conscience a bit. I doubt that a negative review in a travel guide encourages people to go there, because this type of business actually relies on travel agencies, who, for the most part, do not care at all. After a major magazine (travel) ran a completely uncritical piece on the hotel, I contacted the publication, the "conservation" writer (who got pissed at me) and the travel agent mentioned (whom I know). They ran another piece on Costa Rica this past month or so which was much more environmentally positive.

I did not know about the lobster fishing problem on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, possibly because I did not read Joe's book. Now that I know about it, I will try to put it in. Governments do not care about anything unless their constituency brings pressure on them to do so.

All social change starts at the bottom, not from the top. The top is always corrupt. As I see it, it is a very imperfect world. And everything is a two-edged sword. If all travel guides disappeared tomorrow, there would be minimal impact on the travel industry. It is the job of the journalist to try to reach people with appropriate information. Most will never buy a book, and many will never read the history, culture, and environment sections. But some will and will learn.

ETHICS AND PRO-POOR STRATEGIES

Sue Wheat -- Many of the readers had never heard of ethical or fairtrade or eco tourism before, but were really excited to read about it and learn about the issues and what they can do. Tourism Concern also produce an alternative guidebook called the Community Tourism Guide which is a directory of community-run or owned tourism businesses around the world, particularly in the South. This is into the second edition and again, very well received.

Tourism Concern also co-ordinates a Fairtrade in Tourism International network, which brings communities, the industry and NGOs together to look at how fairtrade principles might be put into practice in the tourism industry. I know Tourism Concern are not alone in being extremely sceptical about 'ecotourism' which is why we prefer the terms 'ethical' or 'fairtrade' or 'sustainable' which are more encompassing of human rights and local economic issues. I realise there is a great deal of anomisity towards ecotourism by local people who feel it can be just another marketing term which excludes them. However, I have also seen very successful community-run ecotourism projects in Bolivia and Zambia and elsewhere which are providing very real benefits to the community and helping them with issues such as land rights.

Jean McNeil -- While NGOs are increasingly interested in pro-poor tourism strategies, this hasn't yet caught the imagination of the traditional media. Several travel writers have expressed to us their frustration with newspaper and magazine editors' lack of interest in articles that are critical or which otherwise stray from the promotional trail. Advertisers wouldn't like it, and without advertising it's doubtful that newspaper travel sections would exist. Nor do they want too much information about local realities, which might detract from the delight of the tourist. Until selling a product ceases to be the raison d'etre of travel sections, it's hard to see how this will change.

Susan Cunningham -- If you have any interest at all in getting the foreigners' money to the largest number and the poorest of the locals--these big identikit hotels are a very inefficient way of doing it. Isn't that widely known? Thailand, where I live, has virtually no ecotourism/socialistic sensitivities, but even I've written about this. Haven't studies been done all over? The findings really aren't that startling. How much does the general manager at one of those hotels make? $60,000? $80,000? Virtually tax free? In Asia, the people and their top assistants are almost all Europeans, even when the big hotel (as is usual in Thailand) is locally owned. The people cleaning rooms and washing dishes are very luck to make $100 per month and have no chance of promotion. Let's leave aside for the moment the wastage on air-con, etc. Start looking into what the guest at these hotels buy--I'm speaking of short-term package tourists. In Asia, you wouldn't believe how much stuff, such as hotel food, satellite dishes, etc. is imported. Anyway, the economic term is "leakage."

In contrast is the low-budget or backpacking tourist that takes local transportation, stays in local guesthouses, eats at locally-owned restaurants and directly hires a local guide for a trekking jaunt. In Thailand, it turns out that these people spend as much as the "upscale" packaged tourist that the government authorities slaver over. Why? They typically stay longer, for six weeks or so. And, as I said before, their money goes directly into the economy, there's a stronger multiplier effect.

Ron Mader -- It seems a bit ironic that when we choose to write about "fair trade" in tourism, we rarely look at "fair trade" in tourism writing. Repeatedly, I am tapped as a reference for incoming investigators. I do this work for free and have a reputation as being "generous" with my sources. Despite the plethora of "Poor Poor" and "Responsible Travel" initiatives, there is rarely any money available for fact checking, original research or training workshops in the field. Tourism Concern's wonderful guide to Community Tourism is a good example. I was happy to help with references, but, again, there was no money for consulting.

TRENDS

Harry Pariser -- Sol Melia has decided not to pursue their plan to build a resort on a turtle nesting beach in Mexico. This shows that this type of protest can work.

I'm very concerned right now about the downturn in travel, international travel in particular. It may only last for some months, but it has already had serious effects: travel bookstores are hurting, tour operators of all kinds are in trouble, and there is no predicting if many of the smaller hotels and "ecotourism" operations can withstand a decline. This morning's crash in Queens, of a flight bound for the Dominican Republic, intensifies the seriousness of the situation. The airlines are in big trouble, and fewer passengers, airline consolidation, and increased security will all translate into higher prices.

There are also too many travel guides right now. And, judging from looking at the sales figures (some of them astonishingly low) on Ingram's iPage, nobody seems to be doing well. I really don't know how some of the companies stay in business, given the small numbers they sell. Returns must be widespread, so profits and author royalties will both suffer. So some of the smaller companies may not survive. Some travel bookstores may also close, depending upon how long it takes for things to improve. And publishers may trim competing titles, just as they have with the Adventures in Nature series. So we can expect to see widespread effects.

Finally, I feel that those of us who are guidebook writers and work for the same company should stick together. If you see someone's book being cut or someone being treated badly, you should remember that the same thing can happen to you.

Jean McNeil -- I've been reading the conference correspondence with interest. It seems that ecotourism, as a term, and the idea of standardising or certifying it so that it becomes a more dependable concept are generating much discussion.

I don't have the expertise comment much on academic or methodological debates, but it seems to me that Sue Wheat's comment about Tourism Concern having adopted fair trade or ethical tourism as opposed to simply ecotourism points to the need not only for a more accurate term, but also to the need for a vision beyond terminology; for a tourism which takes into account the predominant social reality that surrounds tourism, particularly in the so-called developing world: economic inequality, and the lack of legislation to protect the rights of local people or the environment, or the lack of political will to enforce such regulation.

For their part, national governments and tourist boards, set up to promote the view of their country that best serves their needs and the needs of the industry players, are not interested in a more holistic or real appreciation of tourism. Based on my experience in Latin America it seems to me that governments and state tourism authorities define ecotourism according to their own perception of its potential to attract foreign investment, increase the wealth of local elites, and to advance a national 'development' strategy. Even countries with relatively shiny reputations, like Costa Rica, are not given to any deep self-analysis about where their country is being taken by ecotourism. They are publicly appreciative of ecotourism's 'low-impact' effect, but on the other hand seem to be pursuing a tourism strategy based on several mega-resorts, including golf courses, albeit confined to one part of the country.

Our project is not about industry standards, or solving 'demand-side' problems, but it's clear that travellers are increasingly wary of information and touristic experience which seeks to assuage the conscience of the concerned traveller, without offering any evidence that their holiday is truly benefiting local people. As Joe Franke mentions, informed travellers seem to accept that ecotourism is not a panacea for the developing world, and that it doesn't guarantee a guilt-free holiday. There seems to us to be a genuine hunger among our respondents for more information about social, political and environmental realities, both in guidebooks and in the travel press.

Maribeth Mellin -- Have been doing a California book, and find the environmental scene here to be absurd. Doing this, I actually feel more hope for Latin America.

Herb Hiller -- I'm left thinking that as writers we are too weak to influence what happens with mainstream travel organizations no less with our own publishers. I don't see a choice but for us to act in some concerted way to make our views toward sustainability in tourism more widely heard. As someone outside the WTO process I wonder whether even the best ideas can be heard if not channeled through that likely pre-emptive forum. I simply don't know. With organization (but hardly without), I can imagine a laborious effort at getting international hotel chains to agree to some fund that would help pay for the education of the children of third world workers (possibly workers anyplace trying to improve their lives). Others among us might want to work at other priorities. I can understand. But to work at any priority we need to be organized.

We would need a strategy to reach the home offices of the Hyatts and Melias so that the kind of fund we might propose would be more than the right thing but so that it would resonate among a travel population that actively wants the hotels where they stay to support this kind of project. I'm not immediately proposing how to do this because I don't know -- but I don't doubt the way can be found. Finally, for the sake of our writer incomes, I advert again to a previous posting, talking about our individual needs to become more authoritative about someplace that's home to us. I have no compassion for the globe-trotters who find markets diminishing for their typically superficial reporting, their guidebook about this place, their next on the other side of the globe. This kind of skimming (to say nothing of the travel involved) seems inappropriate to me. I would rather see us become more knowledgeable about our places. Not simply by traveling near home and digging into crannies full of anecdotes but to study more formally, to study local history, geography, politics, economy, about ethnicity, building codes and so on. We need to become better informed generalists. I can imagine us helping organize not-for-credit courses at a local college or community college that help develop local authority for freelance and staff writers but also for every other kind of professional, for spouses of newcomers and still others. The more authoritative we become about our places, the more salable our skills. Although I write, I think of myself as an advocate for what I believe in. Writing is one way I express myself. Sometimes it's the best way but often it isn't. Having other anvils lets me bang away as occasions warrant and moods urge.

DEVELOPING REGIONAL EXPERTISE

Wayne Bernhardson -- Although I work in countries far from where I live -- Argentina and Chile, primarily -- I agree with Herb that the most rewarding travel is to places I know and care about deeply, and developing that regional expertise is the most valuable thing a writer can do. In fact, I no longer have much interest in visiting new places, but am absorbed in revisiting places I already know, where I am able to evaluate developments over time and deepen my knowledge of them.

Maribeth Mellin -- I agree with Wayne about writing about what you know. I'm inclined to search for assignments that keep me in Baja, Yucatan and other favorite parts of Mexico, along with Costa Rica and Peru. I now realize that by trying to cover new countries (such as my book on Argentina) I've diminished my contacts in the ones I know well.