Memphis civic and cultural lift

The text explores the benefits of city guides in Chapter 2; the text calls the guide a “crucial part of the tourist process.” Kim Cross of Southern Living.com has combined the advice of Chapter 2 and the lessons of Chapter 3 — creating what could be read either as a news story type, a destination, or journey type story. Cross shares news of the new expansion to “one of the world’s most visited music streets onto a mile-wide stretch of the Mississippi.”

This news appeals to the journey & cruise goer as with the expansion comes a relatively massive river cruise ship that is set to sail up and down the river in the near future boasting stops and natural sights of the Mississippi River. Cross does an excellent job of sparking intrest in the mixing of traditional and contemporary culture in the short piece for Southern Living.com. The new expansion will highlight and preserve historical Memphis culture and its staples while building new attractions to draw…

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Extremely important niche’ topics: Cruising & Eco

Chapter 3 lists “Cruising” and “Eco” as important niche’ topics for readers. Jennifer Conlin of New York Times Travel section takes advantage of both markets as she explores the push for cruise lines to shrink their footprints. According to the article:

A one-week voyage on a large ship is estimated to produce 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes.

Hopefully the two niche’ topics can come together on better terms next go round. Combining niche’ topics is a great way to find unique angles to pursue.


Continue cruising

Chapter 3 discusses the importance of cruising to travel readers. The cruise industry is in need of some good news after the tragic sinking of the Costa Concordia. 2013 may be the turn around the industry is looking for according to Travel Weekly. Tom Stieghorst of TW reports,

Deployments in 2013 will feature more cruise segments that can be combined into longer voyages. Celebrity Cruises, for example, will offer more short cruises in Europe that can be paired with a second short cruise with a different set of port calls.

2013 may give cruise readers more to read about.


Cruise story: Safety

Chapter 3 gives the travel journalist angles to pursue while writing a travel story about cruising. With the recent sinking of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” another topic to consider is safety. Here’s a bit from Beverly Beyette’s article for the L.A. Times:

It’s a cruise vacation, promising lots of fine dining and drinking, new adventures and relaxation. What could go wrong?

As the 4,200 people aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia found, just about everything. The Jan. 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety concerns.

Is it possible for today’s megaships — some hold as many as 6,000 passengers —…

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