The deadline for announcements for the January newsletter/ezine/website update is December 15, 2010.  Thank you for your understanding this month.

Many, many thanks go to Sandy Sims for this thorough and detailed article about the September BATW meeting titled Stalking the Idea, Styling the Story, Selling the Result. - – - – - – - – - - Our September 18 meeting was about what we writers love to do—write. The panel—Judy...

Many thanks go to Georgia Hesse for letting us reprint her excellent “ABC List” for finding story ideas that are more than destination articles. – - – - – - – - – - BEYOND THE DESTINATION PIECE, BATW 2010 ABC list by Georgia Hesse A is for art, archeology, antiques,...

Thanks go to Karen Misuraca for forwarding this information: It’s that time of year to submit your best tourism-oriented stories and photos published on Canada in 2010. The 14th annual Northern Lights Awards for Excellence in Travel Journalism and Photography is open to magazines, newspapers, independent...

Morton Beebe in Antarctica (a few years back . . . ) Big congratulations to Morton Beebe, who will receive the Communications Award at the Annual Dinner of the Explorers Club in New York City on March 19, 2011.  Morton writes, “With my team of five Antarctic Explorers we will proudly be there...

Congratulations go to Suzie Rodriguez and Laurie McAndish King, who write: “Are you looking for a clever, timely, inexpensive holiday gift for colleagues? We have just the thing: our recently-finished mobile app, San Francisco Waterfront, to be published by Sutro Media in early December. Check...

Lee Foster's "Berkeley Essential Guide" Lee Foster’s latest travel app, “Berkeley Essential Guide” (Sutro Media, $2.99), has been released in the Apple iTunes App Store. The app celebrates 120 favorite aspects of Berkeley, as chosen by local resident Lee Foster, who is...

Hawaii came to San Francisco on November 18th when the Maui Visitors Bureau presented Hawaiian chants, songs, and ukulele music, along with an update on visiting Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, for Bay Area travel writers and photographers. BATW members attending the event included Carol Canter, Dave Sanger,...

This sounds fun: Dick Jordan was one of forty travel writers and editors who attended this year’s Alaska Media Road Show hosted by the Alaska Travel Industry Association at the posh Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel in the Santa Barbara area in October.  Dick met with representatives...

Just as jumbo jets transformed a pastime of the privileged few on cruiseliners into an age of mass tourism, it was the back-packing hippies who transformed tourism from a pastime of visiting places merely to see and relax into an interactive experience with people and cultures. The hippie, counter-culture...