THE BRITISH GUILD OF TRAVEL WRITERS 1960-2010

by John Ruler (Guild Archivist)

In the days when Spanish fishing villages were still counting their Costa cash and a weekend in New York was just wishful thinking, a score of disgruntled travel writers met in the board room of Thomas Cook’s London headquarters in Berkeley Square. Their mission: to form an informal club to cater for professional writers in a post-war world where an infant, and enthusiastic, travel trade was itching to get its message heard.

The Press seemed largely disinterested, other than producing lucrative New Year holiday supplements. Advertorials were commonplace, so too was the misuse of Press trips. As for radio and television, travel was rarely, if ever, mentioned.

Grumbles over the lack of reliable editorial had been growing louder as far back as the early ’50s. Now was the time to speak with one voice – and the Travel Writers’ Guild, as it was then known, was duly formed under the temporary chairmanship of Lt Col Geoffrey Portham, proprietor of Go (an early travel magazine).

It had not been easy. Travel writers were not natural joiners and the fact that 15 were listed as attending the September meeting is largely due to the support given by Bill Cormack, public-relations officer for Thomas Cook, and later a Guild member.

He was not alone. Other powerful industry voices were increasingly being heard, both before and after the Guild’s inaugural meeting the following March at the BOAC Comet Room at Victoria Station.

Another 11 writers, who initially expressed interest, were absent at the 1960 meeting. Many were no doubt abroad, some travelling individually – for tourist offices were keen then to sponsor visits. Others were on press trips, many of which were open to staffers only, a policy encouraged by companies eager to get coverage at any cost.

The Guild, frustrated by this and seeking extra muscle for experienced travel freelances, set out to bring about a change. To a large extent they succeeded. Today the bulk of members are recognised as freelance specialists in an ever-changing world.

It is reckoned that every day a Guild member’s work is featured worldwide in print, on radio or TV and increasingly on websites and similar such outlets. Photographs, too, continue to play a huge role, earlier black and white examples now providing a unique insight into the development of travel generally.

It is easy (with long-haul holidays now a computer click away and websites covering everywhere imaginable) to forget that many of the 20 or so original members were not just supplying the bulk of seriously researched travel copy, but travelling many thousands of miles to do so, not just to Europe but to far-flung destinations yet to feature on the tourist map.

By the late 1960s, some members -- now big-gun editors or writers for the national press -- were joining a fledgling travel industry to serve a post-war public that was anxious and often suspicious of strange foreign ways and foods, but eager for guidance. And though circumstances have inevitably changed, that’s pretty much what they do today albeit in far more specialised ways.

By the ’70s, many mass-market dreams had turned sour. Horror stories of unfinished hotels and the 1974 collapse of Court Lines, as a result of which 100,000 people lost their holidays, left a bewildered public shocked and angry. Trust in the travel trade’s promotional bubble had burst and with it came greater pressure for the Guild to be seen as squeaky clean and strictly independent. This inevitably led to squabbles over over who members -- hardly overpaid as it was -- should write for. In hindsight, it proved a salutary lesson, with the 1973 annual meeting being told that ‘even allowing for clearly defined conditions of membership, it is still often hard to reach a decision… It would be more accurate to say that for many applicants membership is desperately coveted rather than highly regarded’. With membership by then having reached 84, others apparently felt it was time to join ‘the thing’.

All this led to the more pragmatic approach of later years, enabling the annual meeting of 1981 to declare that the Guild had ‘built a reputation for professionalism through its continued policy of restricting membership to those with a proven record in travel writing’.

This remains the case today, confounding those critics (of which some have been pretty vocal) who back in the ’60s spurred the guild into further extending an already tough code of conduct. This and the constitution has been revisited and revised regularly since. A vigorous vetting process is applied to those wishing to join the Guild, and it is not easy to become a member.

Thanks largely to some far-sighted chairmen since the mid-’80s, the Guild has not only grown in membership – it now has around 270 members, including associates – but in stature too. The Guild awards, the annual pre-WTM gala dinner and the yearbook have all helped raised profile and prestige even when times are proving tough. So too has the recent forging of an academic link with Surrey University, where the Guild archives are held.

I have watched the Guild grow since I joined way back in the mid-’60s. It has changed enormously – as has the world in which we work. The fact we are still flourishing bodes well for the next 50 years!