My pet peeves about press trips

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

After this story, I probably will not be invited on another press trip again.

But, what the heck. Why shouldn’t I share my feelings in today’s world of transparency and lovey-doveyness? Madonna wore transparent clothes and posed nude in the name of honesty. I will just bare my soul through words.

I mean, if I had Madonna’s body, believe me, I’d flaunt it but in the absence of such a remarkable piece of anatomy, I have to let my fingers do the talking.

Here’s what I hate about press familiarisation trips.

1. Long lunches and dinners with the same people you’ve just spent hours on the bus with. After the getting-to-know-you stage, you do run out of things to say to each other. Besides, we are an insecure species – we will not share what stories we are after. We all want to write something different.

What to do: Spread the group out. Let them try different restaurants, depending on their interests and publications. Get them outside the hotel. Travel is about the whole experience. This is the age of a la carte, not buffet which is unhealthy. You always end up taking in more than you can digest.

2. Hotel inspections that go on and on and where they have to show you every room type, every bathroom type and where they even want to show you where the minibar and safes are kept. Believe me, most hotel rooms look the same. And besides, few consumers want to read about hotel rooms.

What to do: Just point out the highlights of the room, what makes it special, and try and tell stories behind the room. Maybe how the general manager got down on his knees to polish the floor and found a secret panel that led to a dead body or something? Or a treasure chest of letters left by former occupants of the original hotel?

I once went on a fam trip where the whole purpose was to show us a renovated product and they couldn’t even tell us what had been redone.

3. Fam trips that just rush you from place to place with no down time. Breakneck pace leads to deadwood articles.

What to do: Pace it out and pace it well. Leave some free time for individual interests and pursuits. That way the writer gets the most out of the trip and you also get the most out of his trip.

4. Mass famils where everybody’s clustered together don’t work. Everyone gets flustered. Yes, it may be cheaper or easier to organise but the net return in terms of quality coverage may be negligible.

What to do: You’re better off identifying the publications you want and customise the trips to specific interests. Make sure the trip also reflects the theme of the message you want to project. For example, a fam trip for incentive or meetings journalists should be structured like an incentive programme, and not just any old fam trip.

On a recent destination fam trip that was aimed at getting business journalists to see how the destination had changed, the itinerary still included the old and familiar sights that the seasoned journalists had seen umpteen times.

Remember, this is the age of customisation. In travel, we keep talking about creating experiences for travellers. Well, if the messengers aren’t experiencing that, then the message will be lost.

Don’t get me wrong though. I have been on great fam trips. The most unforgettable ones were those that had an element of individuality, which took into account my background and my interests, and gave me access to places and people I would not ordinarily have.

That way, we come home raving, rather than ranting about it.

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