New York Travel Festival - April 26-27, 2014

Two key thoughts underpin this panel: First, a great deal of travel content, whether from destinations or publications, is crap. It is poor quality, painfully shallow, or relentlessly, distressingly positive. Worse yet, some of it is all of the above. It seems to speak to a fear that people don't really care about where they're going as long as — and only if — the sand is perfectly sugary and the water is ideally azure. 

Second, what we, the people who tell and read stories for a living, know is the value of journalism and other forms of well-researched and responsibly reported quality content. With its warts-and-all, gripping narratives, it offers something better than the bland promises of top 10 lists and perfection: credibility. Any good tale needs a challenge, an antagonist, some grit. Consumers are tuning out, but destinations — and publications — can grab them again with real stories, real people, real amazement at what a rich, enchanting, challenging and sometimes grim world this is to explore.