It’s not one or the other: Travel writing can be about the joy of travel, and a powerful tool in telling important stories.

Not every feature has to tick every box, but if you want to avoid ‘puff pieces’, use travel writing to reflect and provide context on the world, and celebrate the positives of travel, this action-orientated discussion aims to equip and empower travel journalists to pitch and write engaging, memorable travel features.


What you can expect to learn in this pre-recorded webinar

In this pre-recorded, one-hour webinar, Sarika Bansal, editorial director of AFAR Media, an award-winning print and digital publication focused on positive impact, experiential travel; Uwern Jong, editor-in-chief and co-founder of OutThere magazine, a luxury and experiential travel journal that began for the LGBTQ+ community and has evolved into a leading voice of inclusivity; Georgina Lawton, a travel journalist, speaker and author whose personal story is the subject of her first book, Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong; speak to Meera Dattani (founder of Travel Writing Webinars and senior editor at Adventure.com).

They discuss:

  • how journalists can be equipped and empowered to write relevant, interesting, impactful travel features



This webinar was sponsored by Adventure Travel Networking (ATN). 


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Meet the panellists

  • Sarika Bansal is editorial director at AFAR Media and author and editor of Tread Brightly: Notes on Ethical Travel, whose bylines include the New York Times, Guardian and VICE. The founder and editor-in-chief of BRIGHT Magazine, an award-winning, solutions-oriented digital magazine focused on social change, she has mentored for the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship, incubated two social impact publications at Medium, developed curriculum at the Solutions Journalism Network, and been a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. A Harvard graduate, Sarika has lived on five continents, speaks four languages, and lives in a cottage in a forest in Nairobi, Kenya, with her husband and daughter.
  • Uwern Jong is Experientialist®-in-Chief of OutThere magazine, a luxury and experiential travel journal rooted in diversity, discovery and discernment. An advocate for inclusive travel and fostering a more diverse and intersectional travel industry, Uwern leads landmark projects through OutThere and for tourism clients, including Icons of Inclusion, IGLTA Accredited and the LGBT+ Travel Symposium series. Co-Founder of Stockholm LGBT, and Brand Ambassador and Editor for the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s ‘Go Thai Be Free’ initiative, he consults on DEAI for brands such as Malta Tourism Authority, Belmond, Scott Dunn and Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Uwern was recently named one of Walpole’s 50 most influential people in British Luxury and TTG’s LGBT+ Trailblazer, alongside other journalism awards.
  • Georgina Lawton is a journalist, speaker and author of the memoir, Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong and the travel book, Black Girls Take World: The Travel Bible for Black Women with Boundless Wanderlust. As a freelance travel writer she has been published in: Lonely Planet, Guardian, Time Out, the i paper, Independent and Travel+Leisure.
  • Meera Dattani (host) is the founder of Travel Writing Webinars, senior editor at Adventure.com, and a freelance travel and culture journalist with bylines in National Geographic Traveller, Wanderlust, BBC Travel, Evening Standard, BBC Travel and others. Former Chair and Events Director of the British Guild of Travel Writers, she is also a mentor, awards judge, and a speaker and moderator on external panels about travel writing, DEI and the travel industry.