Wooing the Media: Three tips for gaining and sustaining media support

Wooing the Media: Three tips for gaining and sustaining media support

by Allen Cox

You operate a travel or tourism company with a focus on sustainability. Your operating practices support your vision. Your organization helps sustain the environment, communities, local economies and cultures. You enrich your customers' and affiliates' lives. You're living your dream and helping others live theirs.

But is your organization's good work the world's best kept secret?

With sustainability emerging as a fundamental travel and tourism expectation, your message must set you apart and resonate with your audience. What's one of your biggest allies in making that happen? The media—print, online, broadcast and social.

You can gain and sustain media support by incorporating three basic strategies into your operating plan:

1. Craft a compelling message.

You know your organization better than anyone. What's it about? What's the customer experience? What are the positive outcomes of your operation? Who does your company benefit, and how?

The answers to these questions and others should be components of a well-crafted message. They form your image. They attract customers to your business and bring media to your door.

Examine your existing messaging points and get some objective, third-party input. Test it on a focus group. If the message needs improvement, revise until it gets to the heart of your story.

2. Educate your staff.

You might have a crack team that knows your product or service and has the passion to play out your vision. But when it comes to communicating with media, is that crack team struck silent?

Help your team with the fundamentals of media relations. Identify your key messengers and host a Media Relations 101 session. Bring in an outside trainer, or if one of your staff is versed on the topic, conduct a session in house. Then, craft and roll out a media relations plan tailored to your company and budget.

3. Educate the media.

Sustainable travel and tourism organizations are sources of some the most positive stories on the planet. Just as your consumers expect to do business with a company that operates sustainably, they also love to read or listen to stories about sustainable companies—your company.

You have a positive story. Someone in the media will want to tell it. How to make and sustain that media connection is the key. First, know who your media audience is. Do some research to compile a media list: comb through mastheads of industry publications for the right editors and writers, or engage a PR pro that already has a list of your media dream team. Second, invite the media to experience your products or services as your guest (if they can't accept freebies, they'll tell you). Third, master the press release; this can and should be a powerful tool in sparking media interest.       

For many business owners and organizations, how to get media excited about what you're doing ranks among the world's greatest mysteries. Take it from me—a member of the media—there are ways of attaining positive page space, air time or megabytes in cyberspace. Think of it as a courtship. Make that media first date something special and shoot for a long-term relationship. Depending on your prowess (or lack of), this might require a matchmaker in the form of a tourism marketing consultant or a PR pro. Either way, well-executed efforts pay off by making an effective message ultimately resonate with your target audience.

Allen Cox, freelance writer and editor of HARBORS magazine, travels and writes with a keen interest in sustainability. You can learn more about Allen and his work at www.allencox.org.  

The Airline Conundrum

The Airline Conundrum

by Steve Gersman

Aircraft account for less than 1.7% of all greenhouse gases although some claim higher figures (The Stern Report). Zip up to 30,000 feet and the emissions of aircraft are multiplied by a factor of 2.7. It’s a natural phenomenon called radiative forcing.

The Stern Review in the U.K. indicates that power stations account for 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions, shipping, train and road transport account for 12.3% and flying accounts for a mere 1.7%. Worldwide deforestation, on the other hand, accounts for 18% (mostly in Brazil and Indonesia).

So it looks, at first glance, that we would be better off to focus on sources of the problem other than aircraft.

However, that is only part of the story. One thing on which all sides agree is that aviation is booming. There are about 17,700 commercial aircraft in the world. Over the next 20 years, manufacturers expect to deliver 25,600 new planes.

Tom Robbins wrote in “The big green dilemma” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/jul/01/escape.green The Observer July 1, 2007), that those demanding an elimination of air travel assume that “tourism is a frivolous, self-indulgent activity which is as pointless as leaving your TV on standby. Even putting aside the benefits to the tourists themselves, this is clearly not the case. Tourism employs around 231 million people, and generates 8-10 per cent of world GDP.”

How can we as consumers do our part? One of the best ways to travel by air if you are an environmentally conscious consumer is to know which airlines operate the newest fleet of aircraft. The newer the plane, the more efficient an airline is in terms of CO2 emissions and other environmental factors. Here is a list of major American airlines calculated in 2010 and 2011.

Average Age in Years*

AirTran 8.1

Alaska Airlines 8.5

American Airlines 15.1

American Eagle 
 9.9

Air Canada 11.2

Comair (Delta Connection) 
 11.4

Air Wisconsin 9.4

Colgan Air 
 10.8

Continental Airlines 
 9.9

Delta Airlines 15.3

Frontier Airlines 6.0


Horizon Air 5.7

Jazz 16.1

JetBlue Airways 6.0

Mesa Airlines 
 8.7

Pinnacle Airlines 8.0


PSA (US Airways Express) 7.3

Skywest 
 8.9

Southwest Airlines 15.3 


United Airlines 13.9

US Airways 12.9

Virgin America**

Source: AirSafe.com (2011)

* The numbers haven’t changed much between 2010 and 2011. It takes time to replace aircraft. Airlines have ordered brand new aircraft but many will take years to deliver and impact the overall age of the fleet.

**Of major significance is the absence of Virgin America in the AirSafe.com list. Virgin America was the number one airline for age of fleet in the Greenopia calculation made less than a year before. Given that it is a new airline, there is good reason to believe that Virgin America would rate extremely high on this list had it been included.

A great example of how airlines have become more efficient is Thomas Cook Scandinavia which has the industry’s highest utilisation of seats and the industry’s lowest fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger 66g per passenger. Thomas Cook Airlines UK and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia have both received the ISO14001 certification for implementing an environmental management system. Only a handful of airlines worldwide have achieved this and two are part of the Thomas Cook Group. Thomas Cook were pioneers of waste management and in flight recycling.

Source: Responsible Aviation Conference at Manchester Airport

Two steps to FlySmart

1. Fly less – take the train wherever possible; reduce your air miles for leisure and work.

2. Fly more carbon efficiently – make purchasing choices that will encourage airlines to reduce their emissions.

• Fly direct

• Choose a charter flight or economy - your emissions will generally be less.

• Choose the airline with the most modern fleet

• Carry less baggage

• Fly with airlines that fill their planes

Airlines and aircraft manufacturers are making a contribution in their new planes and in other areas such as not running engines until ready to pull back from the gate. Sometimes being environmentally conscious consumer can be a bit inconvenient, but often it doesn’t have to be with some advanced planning.