The breathless, largely uncritical coverage of the new Airbus A380 superjumbo last week — both online and in the mainstream media — may be a symptom of a much bigger problem that has afflicted the travel press since Wilbur and Orville Wright took flight at Kitty Hawk.
The reports, I should say, weren’t bad. But I wouldn’t call them good, either. Too many superlatives were used and too few questions were raised to call it useful journalism.
But the media’s collective fixation on very big planes is nothing new. Travel reporters and bloggers — and unfortunately, I include myself in this group — have long forsaken the rest of the travel industry to cover airlines almost exclusively.
A car rental analyst recently told me: “If cars sprouted wings, there’s be more reporters covering this industry.”
Fact is, a vast majority of vacations take place by car. Four out of five business trips take place in — your guessed it — a car.
Hotels are also given short shrift, unless there’s a new amenity or cool trend that can easily be documented.
But the plight of a motorist staying at an inexpensive motel? Where’s the story there? Bring on the big planes!
I’m part of the problem. I was horrified when someone referred to this site as an airline blog recently. I like to think that I spend as much time covering cars, hotels, cruises and travel agencies. Then I looked back at past entries, and found evidence that I, too, was walking in lockstep with the mainstream media … fixated on the planes.
So what’s the fix? Well, one solution would come from the top, with the editors who don’t just assign stories but allocate money and resources to beats.
How many major newspapers, TV networks or radio networks have a reporter who covers hotels? How about car rentals? Um, cruises, anyone?
As someone who’s seen the inside of most major media organizations, I know the answer. I think you probably do, too.
And what do bloggers do? They follow that myopic editorial agenda set by many media organizations to a large extent. Follow the pretty planes.
Another solution (more likely) comes from the bottom up. I think this is an opportunity for bloggers to take the lead and to cover the travel stories that are really important. The cruise ship hearings in the Senate, for example, which was almost totally ignored during A380 week.
Who knows, maybe it’ll help us get our head out of the clouds. Even for just a few minutes.
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