You run marketing for a boutique resort group, a river cruise line or a tour operator, and you have news. A new property, a new itinerary, a partnership with a destination board. Your agency sends the release to the usual travel desks: Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, the weekend sections. A few weeks pass. Nothing. Someone suggests Travel Weekly, and you send the same release there. Nothing again.
The second silence has a different cause from the first. Travel Weekly is not a travel magazine in the way consumers understand one. It is a trade publication for the people who sell travel, and a pitch written for travelers reads to its editors like a brochure aimed at the wrong room. Learning how to get featured in Travel Weekly starts with accepting that your reader is a travel advisor with a client on hold, not a vacationer daydreaming about a beach.
Who reads Travel Weekly, and why that changes the pitch
Travel Weekly is published by Northstar Travel Group out of Rutherford, New Jersey, alongside sister title TravelAge West. Its core audience is the North American retail travel trade: independent advisors, host agencies, consortia, agency owners and the suppliers who sell through them. Cruise lines, tour operators, hotel groups, airlines and destination marketers all read it to track what their distribution partners care about.
That audience shapes every editorial choice. A story about a new hotel matters to Travel Weekly when it affects how advisors book it, earn on it or explain it to clients. Commission structures, booking tools, group policies, advisor incentives, supplier earnings, airline distribution changes and regulatory issues that touch agencies all get serious attention. Pure destination inspiration gets far less, because advisors do not need inspiration from their trade paper. They need information that helps them close a sale or avoid a problem.
The publication also runs a long list of topic eNewsletters, including Caribbean, Cruise, Europe, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, Luxury, River Cruise, Africa, Home Based and the Daily Bulletin. Several of the regional newsletters have their own contributing editors. For a supplier, those newsletters are often a more realistic first target than the main news pages, because each one needs a steady flow of relevant material about a narrow subject.
Then there is the commentary layer. Travel Weekly carries columnists who write regularly for advisors, including a long-running legal column by attorney Mark Pestronk that answers agents’ questions about contracts, liability and disputes. Columns and the publication’s forum and insight sections are another door, though one that opens for expertise rather than announcements.
If you remember one thing from this section, make it this: every pitch to Travel Weekly should answer the question an advisor would ask after reading it, which is some version of “what does this mean for my business?”
Find the right desk before you write a word
Travel Weekly lists its editorial team on its contact page, and the structure is worth studying. As of this writing, Johanna Jainchill is editor in chief, Jerry Limone is news editor, Emma Weissmann is features editor, Jamie Biesiada covers content innovation and retail, and Robert Silk is editor at large with a focus on aviation. Mastheads change, so check the page before you send anything. Pitching a cruise story to the aviation editor tells the newsroom you did not look.
Match your news to the coverage pattern of the person you pitch. Read three to five recent pieces from that editor or reporter. Note what kind of sources they quote and what kind of numbers they use. A retail editor who writes about host agency economics wants data on advisor earnings, booking volume or tech adoption. A features editor working on a destination package wants access, people and specific advisor angles. A news editor wants things that happened, with a date, a named spokesperson and a figure.
For regional and segment eNewsletters, find the contributing editor listed for that newsletter and pitch them directly with material sized for a short item. A new direct flight from a Midwestern hub to a Caribbean island, a hotel reopening after renovation with advisor-specific booking perks, a fam trip program for advisors: these fit newsletter format far better than a broad brand story.
Timing matters too. Travel Weekly covers trade events closely, including major cruise and consortium conferences and supplier earnings calls. If your news can tie to a moment when advisors are already paying attention, such as the start of wave season or a large consortium gathering, say so in your first line.
The Agent-First Test: three questions before you hit send
We run every trade travel pitch through what we call the Agent-First Test. It has three questions, and a pitch that fails two of them should be rewritten or redirected to consumer press.
The first question is whether an advisor can sell it this quarter. Products with a booking window, a launch date and a clear price point pass. Vague brand repositioning does not. If the new suite category opens for booking on a specific date, lead with that date.
The second question is whether it changes how advisors work or earn. A new commission tier, a revised group policy, a booking platform integration, a protection for advisors when a client cancels: these are core Travel Weekly material. So is anything that makes an advisor’s job harder, such as a supplier pushing direct bookings. Editors cover friction as readily as perks.
The third question is whether there is a number or a named person. Advisors respond to specifics. How many advisors used the new booking tool in its first month, what share of a cruise line’s bookings came through the trade, how many rooms the property has, who runs the advisor sales team and how to reach them. A pitch with a figure and a quotable executive gives an editor a story they can file. A pitch with adjectives gives them nothing.
Most consumer releases fail all three. That is not a judgment on the news. It is a sign the release was written for a different reader, and it needs a trade rewrite.
Six pitch angles that tend to land
The first angle is the trade-specific announcement. Take your consumer news and rewrite it from the advisor’s chair. Instead of “our new resort offers stunning ocean views,” write “the resort opens to bookings on March 1 with 10% commission for advisors through the first year and a dedicated trade desk.” Same news, different story.
The second angle is supplier data about the trade. If you sell through advisors, you have numbers no one else has. What share of your bookings came through agencies this year compared with last? Which customer segments do advisors bring you that direct channels do not? Trade editors use this kind of data because it helps their readers understand where they stand. If you are willing to share it on the record, it is often the strongest card you hold.
The third angle is the advisor story. Travel Weekly regularly writes about agency owners, home-based advisors and the businesses they build. If you work with an advisor who did something notable with your product, such as building a niche in multigenerational river cruises or growing a group business around your properties, offer an introduction. Make sure the advisor wants the attention first, and let them speak for themselves.
The fourth angle is the policy or technology change. Booking engine changes, new distribution models, NDC developments in airline retailing, changes to how a supplier handles commissions on cancelled bookings: these are stories advisors need to know about, and editors cover them in detail. If your company is making such a change, brief the trade press before your partners hear about it secondhand.
The fifth angle is expert commentary. If someone in your company has genuine depth on a subject the trade worries about, such as travel insurance claims, accessible travel, sustainability rules in a destination or airline disruption, offer them as a source on a running story rather than pitching a standalone piece. Reporters on deadline need people who will answer the phone and say something useful on the record.
The sixth angle is the regional newsletter item. Short, specific, date-bound. A new route, a reopening, an advisor event in a destination, a fam trip with open spots. These are small wins that build familiarity with editors and put your brand in front of advisors who specialize in that region.
What to send, and how to send it
Keep the email short. A subject line that states the news and the advisor relevance in plain words beats one that tries to be clever. “Hotel group raises advisor commission to 12% on new Mexico properties” tells the editor what they are getting. “Discover paradise reimagined” tells them to delete.
In the body, open with the news in one or two sentences. Follow with the advisor angle: what changes for agents, from when, and by how much. Add the figure or the data point. Name the executive available for interview and offer a specific window. Link to images and a fact sheet rather than attaching large files. Close with the direct contact for your trade sales team, because editors often include it so advisors can act.
Do not send the same pitch to every name on the masthead. Pick the one person whose coverage fits and send it to them. If you have not heard back in a week and the news is still timely, a single short follow up is fine. More than that damages the relationship you are trying to build.
Think about exclusivity carefully. Trade editors appreciate a short head start on significant news, especially when the story is about advisor economics. Offering Travel Weekly a first look at your trade program before you announce it wider can be the difference between a two-line mention and a full story. Do not offer exclusives you cannot keep.
Finally, play the long game. Most suppliers who appear regularly in Travel Weekly did not get there with one great pitch. They became reliable sources: quick to answer questions, honest about bad news, willing to share numbers. Editors remember who helped them file a story on a hard deadline. That memory is worth more than any single feature.
If you are still working out how to get featured in Travel Weekly for the first time, start small. Pick one eNewsletter that fits your product, send its editor one specific, date-bound item that passes the Agent-First Test, and see what comes back. The next pitch gets easier once someone in the newsroom knows your name.
One more habit separates the suppliers editors trust from the ones they tolerate: they tell the truth when the news is bad. When a ship is pulled from service, a property closes for repairs or a commission program is cut, the companies that brief the trade press directly and early tend to get fairer coverage than the ones advisors hear about from an angry client. Travel Weekly’s readers live with the consequences of supplier decisions. A company that respects that, in good weeks and bad ones, has already done most of the work behind how to get featured in Travel Weekly again and again.