Writers, editors, photogs, and bloggers share tips, leads, ideas, news, gripes. PR reps/journos ISO press releases/trips, see also "PR/Marketing." Opinions stated are not necessarily those of Tripatini.
What do you wear to Seven Magic Mountains?
Seven Magic Mountains is an art installation located in the Nevada desert, and the weather can be quite hot and dry. Therefore, it is recommended to wear comfortable and breathable clothing, such as shorts, t-shirts, and sandals or sneakers. You may also want to bring a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun. It's also a good idea to bring a bottle of water to stay hydrated. While there is no strict dress code, it's important to dress appropriately for the weather and…
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For those of you who haven't seen it, we're running the award winning Gina Sandoval documentary "Timmy Wheels" at The World on Wheels today. It's a short doc featuring my sometime partner at the blog, and the inspiration for it, my son Tim. Bring some popcorn and enjoy the show (by the way, he's still available for your voiceover needs): http://tinyurl.com/y5p4l34
Rhino Conservation and adventure tourism meet
EcoTraining will be offering its first Rhino conservation course in April of 2012, in 2011 the company included a section on Rhinos as part of their conservation and research program in South Africa and Botswana as depicted in the photos below.
The ear notching and DNA data collection was a huge success and will now form a separate training module to follow up on these magnificent endangered animals. Not only is Rhino poaching very topical at the moment, but we actually do not know a lot about these targeted animals surrounded by myth and legend. We need a deeper understanding to start making a change.
The aim of the course is twofold. First, to provide an in-depth education suitable for rangers, tourists, and academics on the two African rhinos and the conservation thereof. Second, to establish and teach non-invasive methods for monitoring rhino populations
The main method of instruction would be hands on participation in a rhino monitoring project. This would be supplemented by lectures. The goal of the monitoring project would be to establish identikits for all rhinos within a given research area. This would be accomplished by a variety of methods depending on the area, including:
Topics that will be covered during the first course will be
Although heavy emphasis will be placed on Rhino, other aspects of savannah ecosystems will also be explored.
For more information contact Corne Schalkwyk at marketing@ecotraining.co.za Media is welcome to contact me for information or arrangments to join the course for publication. We will also include this as part of the next SA Tourism media program in September 2012 "the green product tour".
Michelle Bowers at the Belize tourism board is very responsive and sweet ..
Manager of Trade
Good luck trying to get any reply from Tourism Belize. We've been trying to collect on a free trip that we won last August. They eventually sent us the gift certificate for it, but then when we asked to book it we couldn't get a response. Now, we're on the fourth person, and still can't get an answer. Think they're just ignoring us as long as possible so that it expires and they don't need to redeem it. This is a giveaway they were doing at a tradeshow...
As a travel blogger who loves Belize, this is good to know... could be we're just more targeted for the type of traveler who goes to Belize.
@Sam - I wasn't privy to the interraction between client & PR, but...my observation & experience w/BVK is that yes, they encouraged their client(s) - which include other experience I've also had with them re. the Dominican Republic - to make a strategic decision to go that route. But since other people in other media do travel there - although not as part of a sponsored press trip - they can still claim they "assist". Like Republicans, they'll always have deniability about what they actually do. Personally I'm beyond caring since I go anyway, no thanks to them nor do I inform them when I cover anything in either of those destinations.
Hal, excuse this question from a writer who's not a travel writer: Are you saying that the Belize Tourism Board favors online writers over newspaper and magazine writers? Isn't that the opposite of what other boards do?
@John - re: your Belize question - the media contact for the Belize Tourism Board for north Am. media is a firm called BVK. However, they won't help you out with a single thing unless you're in with their circle of bloggers and beware if you ever did print. That includes even sending you a press release, & their people never return calls. You're just better off sidelining them & contacting directly the individual PR repping properties or activities, if you need help them message me - I have a few such.
Thanks Janice!
Hi John-boy,
How u doing? Try this http://www.belizemediacenter.org/index.php?option=com_performs&...