What's the book corporate America doesn't want you to read? Find out now -- or you could get scammed.

Why are “forgotten masses” of travelers ignored by the media?

December 8, 2008

Americans drove about 3 trillion miles last year. They flew only 829 billion miles. But you could be forgiven for thinking it was the other way around — particularly if you turn on your TV, pick up a travel magazine or read a blog.

Travel is almost always equated with air travel — unless you’re talking about that summer road trip or a Thanksgiving drive to see grandma. And that’s not just my pet peeve about travel journalism. It’s a problem Chicke Fitzgerald, the chief executive of a company called LeisureLogix, has with the way in which travel is covered, too.

Fitzgerald, by way of full disclosure, has a reason for her disappointment: She runs a site called Road Escapes, which lets you plan a road trip from start to finish, including booking a hotel, getting directions and finding nearby attractions. It’s one of my favorite sites.

A few days ago, she sent me a fascinating article written by her that underscores just how much the travel media has missed an important opportunity to serve its audience.

Air travelers only represent 15% of all travel in the US and just 22% of all spending in the travel category. The real mass market is the drive market.

Americans take 10 car trips for every air trip, she notes. What’s more, over 50 percent of
the drive market spend at least one overnight where lodging is required. So to imply that you have to fly somewhere in order to stay in a hotel is totally misleading.

Fitzgerald calls these motorists the “forgotten masses.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

I wondered about this in light of the recent implosion of the newspaper industry. Travel sections have been hit particularly hard, with the future of the standalone travel section very much in question.

Is it possible that the travel media has lost touch with its audience?

Fitzgerald seems to think they might have. I believe she’s right. Whenever I hear the label “best travel writer” or “best travel article” applied to someone or something, it’s usually an airline reporter or a destination that can only be reached by plane. How myopic.

As I review my own coverage of the “travel” industry, I’m struck by how much ink I’ve given the airlines, too.

Maybe it’s time to change — before our audiences conclude we’ve become completely irrelevant.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

Tagged as: , ,

17 comments

  • jeff

    Some of us fly more than drive. I flew 250K miles last year, but only drove 20K :)

  • Christopher

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used to periodically print travel articles where the destination was billed as being within the distance of a tank of gas. From Atlanta this included Charlotte, Chattanooga, Ashville, etc. I have no idea if they still run this type of article as I no longer read the paper, but at least one newspaper was paying attention to their Atlanta car-lovers.

  • Carver Farrow

    Kudos to Chris for giving full disclosure about his source for this article.

    Ms. Fitzgerald makes 2 substantial errors which undermine the credibility of the position, which is unfortunate as its a discussion worth having.

    The first error is in comparing the three trillion miles driven with the ones flown. The three trillion miles include mundane and daily trips to the work, school, grocery store, and movies. A better comparison would be to determine how many miles American drive outside of their locale, i.e. a road trip. I have every confidence that it will be a fraction of the 3 trillion mile figure being bandied about..

    Assuming that we can pare down that 3 trillion miles number to a more accurate number, we make another error in making a direct comparison between miles driven and miles flown. The dynamics of air travel are far more complicated than the dynamics of driving. As such, air travel will receive the lions share of the travel news.

    Consider your last road trip. You didn’t have to concern yourself with ontime arrivals, TSA, the economics or privacy of CLEAR, crying babies (unless their yours), insufficient seat space, armrest etiquette, surly flight attendants threatening to call the FBI, issues of whether frequent travelers are better treated, how much baggage can I bring, etc.

    The average flyer, including frequent travelers, need far more assistance, and have more questions, than the same person driving. The fact that the biggest travel site is called FLYERtalk, not DRIVERtalk, should illustrate this fact plainly.

    And finally, in a way, driving gets more news than flying. The difference is that driving issues are covered from a variety of sources, not just the travel section. The big news today is the bail out of the big three US auto makers. Not part of the travel section, but driving news nonetheless.

  • Victor

    I’m with Carver. Car travel news has plenty of coverage throughout the media. I don’t feel like newspaper travel sections are lacking in road trip reportage. This is a manufactured crisis. If people want to see more ink on car travel issues, they’ll ask for it.

  • Jasper

    @ Carver:
    Last year in US traffic: 45,000 deaths.
    Last years in US air travel: 0 deaths.

    So why does the government bother me so much when I fly?

    On my last car trip (yesterday), I got stuck on I-95. I just went to the mall.
    Last time I flew, little to no delay.

    So why again all the attention to flying? There is plenty to write about in driving.

    I think it is because travel writers like flying more than driving.

  • http://www.dealbase.com LizK

    wow, the level of commentary here is impressive. Thanks @carver for doing a little more interpretation, investigation; and for others, for the intelligent – but – respectful disagreements or additional points you bring up.

    Living in SF and needing to go the OC (Orange County) for the holidays used to be a time vs money calculation for me. By the time I got to the airport, checked things in, arrived at my destination, got baggage claim…that was only a few hours less (in theory) than if I were to drive down on I-5. But I guess I still decide to fly so my leadfoot doesn’t get sore and I don’t have to be alert for 6-7 hours with the L.A. traffic and the monotony of I-5.

  • Carver Farrow

    @lizK

    Thanks for the kind words. You hit the nail on the head. You can work all day, not miss any time from work, thenf ly after hours, even though you are half asleep. It would be imprudent to do so then begin a 6 hour drive at 10pm

    If you are a very frequent flyer and don’t check bags, you can easily make the entire trip in under 2 1/2 hours, from start to arrival at your rental car. If you check bags you need an additional hour.

    @Jasper

    There is plenty to write about in driving. However, much of it is not in the travel section such as oil prices, automanufacturers bailout, etc.

    Your examples prove the point of why air travel dominates in the travel section. As you stated, you got stuck on I-95. An optimum solution, i.e. go to the mall, presented itself to you. presumably without any assistance by Chris, and you availed yourself accordingly. No further discussion was required.

    Conversely, had your flight been substantially delayed, there would be issues of rebooking, irregular ops, compensation for being bumped, food vouchers, hotel vouchers, discussions on the merits of joining airline clubs, etc. All of which make good reporting.

    I submit that airline travel presents challenges to both the experienced and inexperienced travelers that driving simply does not. Which is why airline travel will dominate the travel section for the foreseeable future.

  • Jasper

    @ Carver: I submit that most driving problems are due to inexperienced, or overconfident drivers. Education is necessary.

    I saved myself on I-95 because my gas tank was full, and I knew a short cut.

    Back to the education: plenty of options. And debate opportunities. There are still people that believe that calling and texting while driving are plenty ok. There are people who drink and drive, “because the alcohol does not affect them”. I dare say 80% of drivers do not know how to merge properly. At least 60% of drivers change lanes without blinking. There are many horribly designed suburbs with poorly programmed intersections. Where’s the debate over roundabouts? France is full of them and they work. Have you ever seen and article on traffic flow problems? Where’s the debate on building more bike lanes. More public transport?

    You say you can get from SF to the OC in 2 1/2 hours. And that’s supposedly travel. Why isn’t it travel when people commute 2 1/2 hours a day? I do. Or get stuck in a traffic jam that makes their trip more than 2 1/2 hours.

    And even less commute oriented. Why don’t road trips count anymore? They’re awesome. Anyway in the US, there are beautiful roads that people drive by without knowing. With so many people fed up with air travel, why no attention for them?

  • Carrie Charney

    I’d love to see a few more articles on leisure train travel. Enough to spike the interest in the public for rail travel. I used to love to take train trips with my parents. (Yes, before planes were mere commuter vehicles.) An increase in ridership (I’m not talking commuter here) might make cross country travel become more affordable and more modern. And, yes, I know I’m only pipe-dreaming.

  • http://theredpin.net Morris

    To lower average travel miles and to make travelling for tourists more recreating and affordable in general it seems indispensable to break new ground in travel journalism.

    With our brand new non-commercial online travel magazine The Red Pin (http://theredpin.net/) we want to sustain the concept of short routes.

    In the matter of travel journalism I strongly bellieve in supporting the idea of articles from locals to visitors, to enable interested tourist to find interesting spots off the beaten track of mainstrean travel media.

  • Carver Farrow

    @jasper

    The answer to your questions is fairly straightforward. Travel columns are generally devoted to those aspects of travel which deviate from our daily lives. The greater the deviation from our regular lives, the more ink an issue receives. Since most Americans drive (or are driven) to work on a daily basis, car travel will receive less ink than air travel, since few American fly daily.

    However, I would agree that road trips which are longer or different in character from one’s daily commute are perfectly appropriate for inclusion in travel columns. You will notice that during the times when American drive, e.g. Thanksgiving day weekend, and summers, there are more articles devotes to road travel, which is perfectly fine.

  • Jasper

    @ Carver: Your first answer is a circular answer. Your reasoning is correct, but the question is: Why does travel that deviates from our daily lives get more attention?

    Quite frankly, I don’t need to see more tips on how to drive in the Thanksgiving Hell (yes, I get stuck in I-95 on those days), but I’d like to see articles on how we can prevent the Thanksgiving Traffic Hell. Perhaps we need wider roads. Perhaps we need more trains. Perhaps we need to see our families less. I don’t know.

    Also, I was more hinting towards road tips you can take for fun. The
    Blue Ridge Parkway, the remainders of Route 66, roads through Amish country, the desert, all those byways all over the US that have stunning views of this wonderful country. They are perfect day trips for everyone.

    Anyway, I think we will keep disagreeing. With respect though.

  • Carver Farrow

    @Jasper

    As always, good questions.

    My answer to your question “Why does travel that deviates from our daily lives get more attention?” is that we are already experts in what is normal and customary. Its the unusual and occasional that’s newsworthy.

    I would concur that articles on infrastructure such as wider roads, better public transportation, etc. are great. However, with all due respect to our travel writing friends, those are outside of the purview of the average travel writer. Chris, and his brethren, have expertise in matter of dealing with TSA, missing flights, refunds, travel vouchers etc. What they don’t have is any particular insight into government infrastructure spending, tax policy, or environmental impact anaysis.

    Thus, they wisely avoid such topics.

  • Jasper

    @ Carver: If that is the case, they should call themselves what they are: Airline journalists.

  • Carver Farrow

    @Jasper

    LOL. Funny one.

  • Lisa

    We drive from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas every Christmas since the airlines charge more to fly to a smaller airport with less competition. It’s ridiculous, but it costs almost twice as much to fly to El Paso from Los Angeles than it does to fly from L.A. to New York. For two of us to fly, it’s $900, for two of us to drive with gas prices so low, it will probably be less than $100. But we still have to make the 12 hour drive each way, which is annoying. I’m going to check out the site you mentioned, because we can definitely afford a few side trips this time around and still save a ton of $.

  • http://www.roadescapes.com Chicke Fitzgerald

    I need to weigh in here, particularly on Carver’s comments, since the first part of Chris’ article with the mileage comparison was his, not mine. But first want to thank Chris for writing the article to begin with. He clearly “gets it”.

    Bottom line is that the point of my white paper wasn’t whether it is more efficient to fly or to drive or whether people want to read about drive trip ideas. It was that if you do choose to drive (which 85% of travelers do on overnight trips), there should be tools that make trip planning easy.

    And as a point of clarification, the stats are that 85% (736m trips by car and 118.6m trips by rental car) of all overnight trips are by car, versus 15% (156.8m trips) by plane and 78% of the $740b in spending on travel in the US is by drivers, not flyers. So we’re not talking about the trips around town, but trips that include at least one overnight. These stats are from Travel Industry Association.

    Also, the paper that Chris is referring to in his article was a white paper about travel technology, not media coverage. Travel technology is all geared at the airline traveler, not those that travel by car. That is my beef.

    Anytime a website (even a hotel site) ask you WHERE you are going and WHEN, that is dialogue with an air traveler. That dialogue doesn’t work if you are driving. You have to know WHERE you are starting from, HOW far you want to travel each day and whether you want to go by the fastest route or see the countryside by avoiding freeways. Finding things to do or see along the way, places to stay and eat or events to attend is all a part of driving versus flying. Getting there is half the fun.

    Anyway, thanks Chris for the article and thanks for those of you who checked out roadescapes.com as a result of his tome.

Previous post:

Next post: