Travel journalists’ attitudes toward public relations: Findings from a representative survey

The impact of public relations on emerging fields such as travel journalism has not gained much attention, despite the broader growth of lifestyle journalism, and its particular dependence on PR. This study reports the findings of a representative survey of Australian travel journalists, focusing on their views of PR. Results show that travel journalists are wary of PR, although they believe they can be relatively immune from its influence and see some PR activities as quite useful. Cluster analysis identifies three distinct groups based on their views of PR, which range from a positive attitude to strong criticism. Their backgrounds and differences are explored, pointing to gender, job status, and background in mainstream journalism as main determinants for differences.

► Travel journalists are skeptical of tourism PR and critical of its influence.
► Travel journalists are pragmatic in that they can see some positives in PR.
► Three groups of travel journalists are defined whose views of PR range from positive to highly critical.
► Major determinants of views are gender, job status, time spent travelling, and background in mainstream journalism.