How to Find Travel Sponsorship and Creating a Proposal
Finding a travel sponsor for your event, travel blog, or adventures is an important part of achieving success in your field. This comprehensive guide will show you how to get sponsorship for an event or for your travels.
We have found the working on partnerships and developing relationships with our travel sponsors has been of great value not only from our past adventures but for all of our future travels.
How to Create a Travel Sponsorship Proposal
Table of Contents
We learned a great deal about how to find sponsors for our event, the Mongol Rally.
In this Sponsorship Guide you’ll learn:
- How to Approach Travel Sponsors
- How to Define your Goals
- How to Create an Attractive Package to Get the Sponsors Attention
- How to Find Sponsorship for Travel
- What you do After you Have Secured Sponsors
- What Exposure to Offer
- When to Start
- How to Approach Travel Companies
- How to Fulfill Your Commitments
on how to approach sponsors and we now feel confident when seeking sponsorship that we do indeed have something valuable to offer them.
1. Define your Goals.
Having a hook will help immensely when seeking sponsorship for your travels.
A company may not be interested in sponsoring a blog that is simply going out to backpack around the world. You must find some way to stand out from the crowd. The Mongol Rally gave us and our teammates Rick Griffin and Sherry Ott a unique adventure to attract new readers and sponsors. Driving 1/3 of the way around the world definitely helps to make you stand out from the sea of travel bloggers and companies feel confident when there is not only the built in audience from the rally, but also the value of combining the audience of three blogs into one event for triple the exposure.
Mongol Rally Sponsors
Other travel bloggers that have had great success in finding sponsorship are The Professional Hobo, Go See Write and Nomadic Chick for the Ultimate Train Challenge, As We Travel for their European Train circumnavigation and GlobeTrooper for their hike across the Gobi Desert. Each of these trips was unique, epic and attractive to sponsors.
2. Have an Attractive Package.
Your sponsorship package is the most important aspect of finding sponsorship.
Be clear as to what you can give your sponsor in return for their product or monetary contribution. The first thing we did when putting together our proposal for the Mongol Rally was work on our package. We compiled our numbers and statistics together and input them all into a pdf file explaining what our venture was, what we will offer and how their product will be displayed.
We offered 3 levels of sponsorship.
Give value to the companies that contribute more. Offering 3 levels of sponsorship will give smaller companies the opportunity to get on board, but will nudge larger companies in the direction of offering more. If they give a monetary value along with product sponsorship, they will be more prominently displayed, mentioned more in posts and if you have a car, T-shirt or backpack that will be displaying your sponsors, you they will receive the primo spot on the item.
3. Be Clear on Exposure
1. We clearly defined how many posts we would give each sponsor, how many tweets they would get and how many Facebook shares we would offer.
2. Tell the company what you expect from them.
Outline exactly what you require from the company you are seeking sponsorship from. People prefer to be told what you want rather than having to think about what to offer. Don’t leave it up to them. Tell them how much product you require, how much money you require and why you are approaching them.
How to Find Travel Sponsors
5. Approach companies in your niche
We are travel bloggers so we approached travel companies or companies that have something to do with adventure. However, the Mongol Rally gave us the opportunity to seek sponsorship outside of the travel business.
We could approach cell phone and satellite companies, we found GPS and Audio Sponsors and of course we found the most important sponsor for our car in AllWAysRentals. A Rental company base in Christchurch New Zealand that offers campervans and cars for hire .
6. Involve a Charity
It is fulfilling to give back when traveling through communities so involving at any time during your travels is a great idea. When you decide to take on an epic adventure and are seeking specific sponsorship having a charity on board helps.
Many companies are already involved with a charity, so it may be worthwhile to approach your premium sponsors first and offer to raise money for their specific charity in return for the largest premium spot.
Intrepid Travel also donated our carbon offsets for the fuel that we used driving from England to Mongolia.
7. Start Early
Companies plan their year in advance and the sooner you can seek sponsorship the better.
We waited far too long for the Mongol Rally to attract a Gold Sponsor. We originally wanted 1 main sponsor. They would be an exclusive sponsor that would receive all of the publicity throughout the Mongol Rally.
We wanted to ask for a large monetary value that would cover all costs in return for exclusive sponsorship. This is something that you should start seeking at least a year in advance. By the time we got around to approaching companies in January, although they were interested, they already had their advertising budgets allotted for the year.
8. Just Ask
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from Andy Hayes when trying to figure out how to get something. His reply was “Have you Ever Thought to Ask? Great advice!
Our biggest fear was sending that first email. We didn’t know what people would say and how they would respond. Once we got over the fear of rejection, we started approaching companies that we would never have had the nerve to speak to before. Companies will say no that is a fact.
But you will be amazed at how many people will respond with a polite letter explaining why they can’t sponsor you at this time. Thank them for their time and keep them in your database for future reference. As your statistics grow and if the right opportunity comes along for partnership, you can try them again.
Once you receive that first acceptance letter, you will be filled with confidence and ready to approach more people.
9. Fulfill Your Commitments
Don’t offer what you can’t follow through on. We found it difficult to tweet and facebook from the desert in Kazakhstan and Mongolia but we found ways to fulfill our commitments to our sponsors.
We hired Social Media Atlantic Canada who were able to take care of our social media commitments when we couldn’t be online. We also scheduled our important tweets in advance to make sure that the word was getting out about our sponsors.
If there was one thing that we did when we pulled into a small town with slow internet, was to get online and make sure that our duties to our sponsors were fulfilled.
10. Follow Up
It is important to keep documentation of the exposure that you are giving your sponsors. We took snapshots of our hashtag #mongolsms and for 3 little bloggers working on their own, we reached over 1.2 million impressions in just 97 tweets.
Once you are finished, send your sponsors the posts that you wrote about them during the event and the analytics on how it was received. A great follow will help you continue your relationship beyond just one event. Building relationships is the key. Companies want to work with people they can trust and if you are professional with them during your first business venture, you have a good chance of working with them again.
Read Next:
Travel Planning Resources
Looking to book your next trip? Why not use these resources that are tried and tested by yours truly.
Flights: Start planning your trip by finding the best flight deals on Skyscanner
Book your Hotel: Find the best prices on hotels with these two providers. If you are located in Europe use Booking.com and if you are anywhere else use TripAdvisor
Find Apartment Rentals: You will find the cheapest prices on apartment rentals with VRBO.
Travel Insurance: Don’t leave home without it. Here is what we recommend:
- – Digital Nomads or Frequent Travelers. – Occasional Travelers. – Global air medical transport and travel security.
Need more help planning your trip? Make sure to check out our Resources Page where we highlight all the great companies that we trust when we are traveling.
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About The Planet D
Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are the owners and founders of The Planet D. After traveling to 115 countries, on all 7 continents over the past 13 years they have become one of the foremost experts in travel. Being recognized as top travel bloggers and influencers by the likes of Forbes Magazine, the Society of American Travel Writers and USA Today has allowed them to become leaders in their field.
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49 thoughts on “How to Find Travel Sponsorship and Creating a Proposal”
This is an eye opener. Thank you for the detailed post. I have always wondered the other ways to get content without spending.
This post was very helpful and insightful… and inspiring!
Thank you so much for this blog! . I try to apply this guide now. thanks
I am now considering your list – this is reasonable enough and the most charitable so far.
Hi! This was really so helpful because my twin sister and I are studying in college in India at present and we’re planning this eurorail trip next summer. We are going to start a blog soon and we were thinking about what companies would like to sponsor us. We don’t really know how to go about this but we’re really excited about this trip and are willing to work really hard to make it happen! It would be great to hear from you ! Thanks
Best of luck Mallika. The best advice we can give you is to really sell what you have to offer. You need to make the companies see that you are an asset to them. Just going on an adventure won’t get you sponsorship, you need to show something in return and show them that you are worth the money/product that they will be giving you. Best of luck!
This is really useful, thanks for being so honest. It’s gone into my bookmarks for future reference
This was great – thanks so much! My sister and I are going to Dubai in March so I think I’ll start with a baby step and see if we can get one sponsored thing to do while we’re there. It’s so nice of you to share this information with those of us who are new.
I”m trying to think of our angle – two middle-aged sisters, one who is a smart ass and one who is well behaved…..maybe I need to think a little longer!
Good for you Kay. That is exactly how we started out, baby steps. I remember sending that first email and I was so nervous. I like your idea. I’d read about that for sure! Even two sister’s traveling together period is an interesting dynamic and I know you’ll be able to find something there.
thank you for your tip; i m going to knock at doors to . you never know. leaving next february for my europe tour on inline skate. excited and nervous but this cool me down a bit. thanks again.
Great advice, we are not looking for sponsors for a trip but instead companies to sponsor a single page on our site for that particular destination.
We are thinking about offering each page for a year but not too sure how much to charge? What are your thoughts?
This is so cool and very helpful . bookmarked this page
Great tips here!
I’ve been looking for sponsors for the upcoming event on my blog and will apply some of your tips here. It’s just I’m really new in finding some sponsors on my blog.
Cheers!
Gay Aida
Superb post Deb n Dave. I love the way your names sound together – sorry, I digress. You demystify the holy grail of surviving on the road nicely. Now we have the lowdown, no one has the excuse not to succeed – a bit scary I think! Thought the guys and gals over at twitter would appreciate your words of wisdom so tweeted it is
Tanks wellan, we appreciate the tweet! Good luck with your travel blogging and may we all have success together!
Great advice! I have always been wondering how people get sponsorship! It’s good to know you have to start well in advance! I don’t think James and I are at the level to attract lots of money like that, but maybe in a few years.
Thanks so much for being generous to have shared your ideas and experience of sponsorships. There isn’t much blogging on this topic and as travel bloggers it should all be a part of our tool belt. Instead, I just thought it was something only certain bloggers were getting propositioned to do. Thanks so much for decoding the magic veil and hope y’all get more sponsorship in the future!
Glad we could help Christine. While, companies will approach bloggers that are higher profile and receive higher traffic, it is still important to have a package to present to people when you are seeking it yourself. Things just don’t magically happen all the time and when you work at it, you will eventually reach your goals.
You guys have helped so many travel bloggers. You always have so much advice to share and a lot of people are learning from you on a daily basis (myself included). Keep it up and cheers.
Thanks Cole. We feel that anything you want to find out about can be found on the internet. Why not make it easy for our readers so that they can find it here:)
I really can’t thank you guys enough for this post! We’re currently working on getting sponsorship for a couple of different things, most notably, our next women’s travel guidebook to Argentina. This was so clear and so informative! One question though: what program were you using to monitor the reach of your tweets?
Hi Kelly, we use TweetReach and Hashtracker. They are excellent tools to let a company know how far your social media reaches. Cheers and good luck!
All About Travel Sponsorship
Traveling around the world particularly to your favorite destinations and spending days doing what you enjoy doing may entail a big expense. It’s good if you have the funds in your pocket.
But what if you don’t have the budget? Will you let money stop you from doing one of the most fulfilling things you can ever experience?
Of course not! There’s always a way to travel without shelling out a big amount of money. One way to do it is through travel sponsorship.
Travel sponsorship means having someone pay for your travel expenses in conjunction with certain activities or business arrangements.
If you are not familiar with how traveling sponsorship works and how to find one, this guide is for you.
How Does Travel Sponsorship Work
You might have already been traveling a lot and you wonder if there’s a way to continue your way of life without breaking the bank. Or you just started traveling and wonder if it’s possible to get sponsorship or even get paid to travel.
The answer to the above is yes! However, it is not as easy as many may think.
No individuals or companies are willing to pay for your travels unless it is something that will also benefit them. This makes total sense.
It takes careful planning and a good marketing strategy to convince sponsors to pay for your travel expenses. This means that you need to conceptualize a travel project and market it to potential sponsors.
When it comes to travel projects, if you have an amazing idea that you think will interest other people, don’t be afraid to push for it.
As for the content, you will be creating in connection with the trip and sponsorship, generally, all rights reserved for you.
Related posts:
Sponsor Travel Benefits
Before we will share with you some tips about sponsorship, we want to first show you its benefits.
- You get to travel more with less expense – We can’t deny the fact that traveling can be expensive and not all people can afford it. But if you can find sponsors for your trip, you can visit more places with less expense. Your sponsor may partly or fully pay your travel expenses which is a good thing. Some are even willing to finance two or more travelers, allowing you to have a companion.
- Experience new cultures and meet new people – The number two benefit of sponsorship has to do with learning about new cultures. And as a traveler, I can attest to this. With each destination, you gain new friends, taste local cuisines, visit where the locals go, and most importantly, learn their culture. Each destination will give you a unique experience.
- You get to explore new places that you would not otherwise visit because of expense – Do you have a dream destination that has been on your bucket list for a long time because you can’t afford it? Find a sponsor and make your dream a reality!
- You will be able to promote a good cause – There’s no better way to travel than to travel for a cause. For instance, you can promote environmental awareness or travel as a volunteer. These are just two of the most popular ways to get sponsorship.
- You get to promote your brand – If you are a blogger, vlogger, or influencer, travel sponsorships will help you promote your website or channel while also promoting that of your sponsor.
- You’ll be able to use products that otherwise you wouldn’t have purchased. Some expensive travel gear can be totally unaffordable, but if a sponsor wants to advertise them through your adventures, they will be sending you products for you to use and probably review either on your blog or social media.
3 Important Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Looking for a Sponsor
1. What is my ultimate goal?
As part of your initial travel plan, you should be able to define your goals for a particular trip. You surely want to achieve something at the end of your trip, be it climbing the highest mountain, exploring the unbeaten path, trying an extreme sport, and so on.
Knowing what you want to achieve will help you identify the possible ways on how you can find sponsorship.
2. Do I really need a sponsor or someone to pay for me to travel?
Traveling while on a sponsorship contract is more than just free traveling. If you spend your own money, you can do your own thing. But if someone will pay your travel expenses, typically there are some expectations and responsibilities attached to it.
Knowing these expectations and considering how much you would potentially spend on a specific trip, you can ask yourself if you really need a sponsor or can go by on your own.
3. Am I willing to give up some of my freedom to meet the demands of my sponsor?
More often, in travel sponsorship agreements, you will find that sponsors would require you to incorporate their ideas into your trip.
This may take a significant amount of your time and limit your freedom.
How to Spot Your Prospective Sponsors
Contacts and close friends
You may have some friends or close contacts who are just waiting for an opportunity to promote their business or brand as your travel sponsor. It will not hurt if you send them an invitation.
The people who personally know you and what you are doing are the best people to be your sponsor. More likely, they already have a general idea of how you can help them and how they can help you.
Companies in your niche
If you have a travel blog or vlog, approach brands that have something to do with traveling. That way, it will be easier to establish how you can help the brand through your trip.
However, it does not mean that you should limit your reach among those in your niche. If you have a brilliant idea for promoting a certain product or brand throughout your trip, put that on the table.
Charities and other organizations
Working with charities and other organizations for a cause is also a great way to enjoy your travels while helping people or the environment.
If you can come up with a unique plan on how to promote the organization’s goals to your followers, that’s probably one of the most meaningful things you can do as a traveler.
Charities can work with you in two ways. You can either represent them, so you attract donors for them directly. A charity will recognize this and will support you to spread the word about them (attracting even more donors for their cause).
Secondly, since you’ll be supporting a good cause, companies will be more willing to work with you and sponsor your travels. They can be associated with a charity, therefore they will appear (rightly so) as a company that is not all about making a profit. It’s great PR for them. This has worked for us in the past.
Others
If you are out of any idea who to contact regarding travel sponsorship, don’t be afraid to ask around and solicit recommendations or advice.
You may also search through search engines such as Google. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain if you do this.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this FREE offer below:
Tips to Make Your Prospective Sponsor say Yes!
Now that we have established that travel sponsorships offer a number of benefits to those who like to explore the world, your next step is where most of the hard work starts.
1. Submit your proposal early
The first thing you should remember is that most companies plan their budget early in the year. The earlier you submit, the higher the chance that your proposal will be approved because they can easily incorporate it into their budget.
Additionally, submitting your proposals early gives you enough time to find other potential sponsors in case you are getting many “No”-s for an answer.
Also, since time is of the essence when it comes to traveling the world, the earlier you submit your proposal, the earlier you can find a sponsor, and the earlier you can plan for your adventure.
2. Identify your goals and be specific about it
One thing is for sure. A potential sponsor will not be interested in financing your next trip if you will simply go out and do what other regular travelers would do. Your goals should be specific and unique so you would stand out from the rest of the world travelers.
This will also help you to find a travel niche. A travel niche will help you to not only specify a goal but also to narrow down the type of brand and product that you’d like to be sponsored by.
When identifying your goals, think of something you are passionate about. For instance, if you love cycling, you can say that your goal is to explore the beautiful island of Croatia in 10 days by bike.
While it’s important that your goal should be attractive to prospective sponsors, make sure that it is something you love doing. After all, traveling the world should be fun.
3. Highlight your followers
Businesses and individuals will not sponsor your trip if there is nothing in it for them. One way to establish that is by showing you have many active followers. This means people who are interested in what you are doing. Potential sponsors will see this as an opportunity to promote and get seen by your followers.
Followers can also be your website’s or blog’s visitors. The more visitors read your content each month, the more chance you have for landing a travel sponsorship deal.
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4. Be clear with your sponsorship package
Be clear as to what you can offer to your sponsor in return for the monetary contribution to your trip. You should specify this in your proposal.
It’s a good idea to outline how you will promote the sponsor’s brand during your travel. While on location, do you plan to post daily on your Instagram account? Do you intend to use their product during the trip and show it to your audience? These are just some of the ideas that you can consider.
Additionally, instead of just one sponsor, you can offer several levels of sponsorship based on the amount of contribution.
For instance, you can have a Silver Sponsor, Gold Sponsor and a Platinum Sponsor. In this case, a Platinum Sponsor will get the highest level of visibility on your website, channel, or social media posts.
But definitely, you may want to consider featuring the logo as well as the company description of the three types of sponsors in your content.
5. Learn how to pitch and prepare your media kit
Brands will not knock at your door to offer sponsorship for your next travel adventure. It is your responsibility to find them. With that said, you should also know who to contact and have a meeting with to show your proposal. Once you have the name, you can now prepare your pitch and medial kit.
Your sales pitch can greatly impact your chances to get sponsorships. It should be convincing enough to persuade the companies to sign the deal.
On the other hand, your media kit works like your resume. It should include this basic information:
- Relevant information about your platform
- Description of the type of blog or vlog you are running
- Information about your site views, visitors, active followers and other similar information
- How your trip can add value to their brand or cause
- Highlight how your website or channel fits with their brand
- Your contact information
Pitch Structure
You may already have your own structure on how you would like to curate yourself to get sponsorship for travel. Some people like their pitch to be short and concise while others like theirs to be very detailed.
But regardless of the format that you like, there are some important points that you should consider.
First and foremost is to be as personal as you can. Address the person using their name instead of just saying sir, ma’am, or miss. Doing so will not only create a good impression but it will also show that you did your job in researching who to send your proposal to.
After greeting the recipient, introduce yourself and let the reader understand the reason for contacting them. Give the recipient an idea of your content. Perhaps you could highlight the excellent stats of your vlog or blog site. You can also showcase the people you have previously worked with in the past.
After the introduction part, you can then thoroughly discuss your proposal. Include some key details about your trip such as the duration, how many people are coming and what you need.
If you already have an idea of how you can showcase the brand, this is the best time to share your idea. Tell them what you can do for them, and how often you will do it. Let the reader know that you have attached a media kit for more information on the travel sponsorship arrangement.
Of course, don’t forget to mention that while you are promoting their brand, all rights reserved for you as the author of the content.
6. Don’t be easily discouraged with a “No” response
Getting one or two refusals is a normal thing. And the more offers you submit, the higher the chances of getting a “no” for an answer. This is especially true if you are just starting to create a name. Don’t be easily discouraged though.
If you don’t get a nod, just think that the sponsor may not have a budget at the time or that they still don’t see the benefit of sponsoring a trip. But don’t stop trying.
Even if a potential sponsor says no, stay connected as there will always be that possibility they will work with you in the future.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this FREE offer below:
Preparing for the Actual Trip
Your preparations for a sponsored travel can be slightly different than when you are traveling at your own expense. You may need to do certain arrangements to ensure that you meet the expectations of your sponsor.
Depending on your contract, your sponsor may require you to have a daily post (while on location) in your social media account featuring their brand. Now, it gets really challenging if you go to places where there is no reliable internet connection. In this case, you need to prepare your plan B in advance.
It’s always a good idea to hire someone to take care of your social media commitments when you can’t go online. You may also consider scheduling important posts in advance to make sure that you are fulfilling your commitments to your sponsors.
Also, don’t forget the paraphernalia that you will use in promoting your sponsor. It could be a banner, a shirt that you need to wear, or a product that you need to bring.
What’s Next After the Trip
After the fun and adventure, it doesn’t end there. You still have to make sure that you are able to fulfill everything that you promised in your sponsorship contract.
In fact, your next actions are so crucial that they will possibly affect your ability to get another sponsor for your next travel goals.
Deliver What You Promised
Review your contract to see what else needs to be done. It’s easy to miss the small details if you are busy with your travels. So after the trip, the first thing that you need to do is review your contract and take note of your deliverables.
Showing sponsored product on our social media
Documentation
It is important to document the exposure that you are giving to the brands that help finance your trip. Once you are done, send the details to your sponsors. This will help build your credibility as a partner. Not only that, but it will also help you build a connection after an event.
Brands, companies, and organizations would want to work with someone they can trust. Make sure that they will have that impression of you so that you will not find it difficult to find a sponsor for the next item on your bucket list.
Don’t forget to send a ‘Thank You’ Card!
This may sound very basic but believe it or not, many people forget about this. Sending a personalized card or email that says thanks can go a long way in developing a good relationship with your sponsors.
And if you can also include a travel souvenir item, that would be great.
Takeaway
Traveling around the world and completing your travel bucket list doesn’t have to be expensive. With travel sponsorship, you can now freely plan your travel without worrying about where to get the funding from.
Travel sponsorship is a win-win arrangement between an avid traveler and the companies who like to promote their brand.
Traveling sponsorship is for you if you are willing to commit part of your travel time to promote a brand or a cause. It’s also for you if you don’t have any problem carrying some responsibilities in exchange for a free trip.
Traveling while on a sponsorship arrangement can still be fun and exciting. It doesn’t have to be all work and promotions.
All it takes is for you to carefully plan your itinerary and make sure that you get to visit and do what you love doing.
Getting a sponsor is not a walk in the park for sure, but our free course can help you get started. And don’t forget our tips on how to persuade a prospective sponsor to sign the contract.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this FREE offer below:
Getting sponsorship for travel
If you want to make money as a travel writer, being hosted or going on a famil (where you get to stay, travel or experience activities for free) is almost a necessity. Writing compelling requests to tourism bodies, PR agencies or other operators to ask for hosting is crucial.
So how do you make a sponsorship request?
Getting sponsorship for travel
If you have an idea for a travel story but need support to get there or assistance once you’ve arrived, it’s worth gauging how likely it is that you’ll get hosted before you pitch to a publication.
Requesting sponsorship or hosting is different from going on a press trip, when you’re likely to be with a group of other journalists, writers, bloggers and photographers and you’ll all follow the same itinerary (usually jam-packed full of activities and experiences). I like to do my own thing and set my own agenda – it usually means more work, but more flexibility in the long run.
If I’m travelling interstate or overseas I usually send an email to the tourism body, but if I’m only after accommodation or on-ground support, I tend to contact the appropriate PR agency or the hotel directly.
Sponsorship letter sample
The sample email below is the template I use when requesting to be hosted. As you can see, it’s pretty flexible and you can change it as you need to, but it has everything a travel writer needs to include to ensure that your request is looked upon in a favourable light.
Dear tourism body/PR agency/tourism operator,
My name is Lindy Alexander and I am a freelance food and travel writer based in Australia.
I am looking to travel to [location] in [month/year] to write an article about [topic/angle].
My work has been published widely in [name of magazines, newspapers or websites] and I write regularly for [publication names].
Once I’ve arrived in [destination] I would be keen to stay for [number of days] and [add in which activities you’d like to do, hotels you’d like to stay at, restaurants that you’d like to eat at and so on].
I anticipate placing a story about X [give the specific angle of at least one article you’re planning on pitching] for X publication [circulation XX].
To put this story together, I am looking for hosting in terms of [list what you need such as airfare, hotel accommodation, admission, access to particular people to interview and meals].
Would you be able to let me know whether this fits within your current focus and hosting capabilities?
If so, I look forward to any suggestions you may have on making this story great or any new experiences that are on offer in [location].
Samples of my work are available here: link to portfolio
I look forward to hearing from you and working together,
But what if you’re not sure you can place a story with a particular publication?
You can always say something like:
I would be looking to secure commissions from either X magazine [add a brief description and website, e.g. “Australia’s premier food and travel magazine with a readership in excess of 700,000], X magazine [description and website] or X magazine [description and web address].
I look forward to hearing whether you think these publications are of interest and whether you may be able to host me if I secured a commission with one of these magazines.
My results using this email
So far, I’ve had only positive responses to these requests. At the very least, most operators will come back and say they are happy to host me provided I can secure a commission with at least one of the publications mentioned. I know some writers are happy to go on trips without having a firm commission, but I like to have a definite commission from at least one publication before I accept any offer of hosting or sponsorship.
Sometimes the organisation or agency offering the hosting wants to know more information (such as the particular angle of the piece or if a piece is commissioned then when it may be published or, and this is particularly the case for tourism bodies, if I can get additional stories published from the one trip).
There is definitely an art to pitching tourism boards in order to get sponsorship for travel, but I’ve found that if I have a publishing history with a particular magazine or newspaper or if I can clearly identify a niche I write about , then I’m much more likely to get a yes to my proposal.
TIPS
· Check that the tourism board/PR agency/tourism operator are happy to host you before you pitch to an editor
· Tourism boards have to consider a number of factors such as availability of finances and their particular focus for the year/season (e.g. themes or events or destinations they want to highlight) before they will host freelance writers
· If you have a strong social media following it can also be worth mentioning that you’re also looking forward to sharing information about the destination with your followers
· If you can access them, it’s always worth adding in publication circulation numbers
READER TIP: Travel and lifestyle writer Jennifer Morton adds: “One thing I would add (that worked for me) is to put a call-out on TravMedia. I had a commission so I asked for hosting (ground support only) in a general call-out and got a free night’s accommodation, a walking tour of the city and a few good contacts in return.”
Have you gone on many famils or hosted trips? Would you add anything to the request above?
Source https://theplanetd.com/a-travel-bloggers-guide-to-sponsorship/
Source https://www.overlandsite.com/overlanding/travel-sponsorship/
Source https://thefreelancersyear.com/blog/getting-sponsorship-for-travel/