Lisa Minot is The Sun’s Travel Editor. Here she speaks to news.co.uk about her career at The Sun, her favourite press trips and the overseas visits that you just can’t make up.

A travel reporter would be considered by many as a dream job. How did you get started in travel writing?

I started out as a sub and worked my way up to the Features Back Bench. Part of my job involved designing and laying out the travel pages, but I always had an opinion on how we could improve them and was lucky to given the chance to do just that.

When I started as The Sun’s Travel Editor, I had to start from scratch and build up contacts from zero. I literally started with A for ABTA, B for BA. Nearly 17 years later I feel truly immersed in the entire industry. The Sun’s travel section now reflects the places that our readers visit regularly, but also where they aspire to go.

Where is the best up and coming holiday destination that is yet to be discovered?

Nowhere in the world is really undiscovered these days but new routes direct from the UK have made Latin America far more accessible, with cheaper flights to Peru and Chile. My tip for this summer would be Croatia and Montenegro, gorgeous and as yet untainted by mass tourism.

What has been your favourite holiday?

My favourite holiday would be the one I have taken every summer for the last 40-odd years to our own caravan in the south of France. I return every year – not your usual Travel Editor! But my job has given me the incredible opportunity to discover so much more of the world.

Like any decent travel journalist, I could never sit for a week by a pool. I need to be out, discovering and meeting people.

My job has provided me with some unique experiences that money can’t buy – recording a version of One Love at the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica with Damian Marley, Rita Marley and the I Threes and then watching the 7inch record being pressed.

What are your most memorable press trips?

The most memorable ones are often the ones were something goes wrong or is baffling.
I once landed in Chengdu, China and was taken directly from the airport to climb a mountain. We climbed for eight hours straight having not slept for 20 hours. Finally back at the hotel there was no let up – we were expected to go straight into a dinner with a host of Chinese dignitaries, hot, sweaty and exhausted! I finally fell into bed some 32hours after leaving London!

On another occasion I was taken on a tour of an olive factory in Sicily. It wasn’t the olive-picking season, so everything was covered in bubble wrap. As the owner gabbled enthusiastically in Italian we spent two hours looking at these dark, covered machines while a Russian translator explained in English what everything was. It was so surreal we got the giggles and eventually had to sneak out to avoid upsetting the owner by laughing at his lovely factory.

You are often expected to do hotel tours on press trips but one of the worst was on a trip to Malaysia. We were driven for an hour and a half from Kuala Lumpar to Malacca to visit a hotel. On arrival, we were simply shown the doors of a conference room and told we couldn’t see inside as there was a conference on. That was it. They then expected us to get back on the coach having done nothing else. As a group we rebelled and insisted on walking the streets of Malacca for half an hour in a bid to justify the trip!

What are the biggest changes in the industry through the years?

The rise of low cost airlines has transformed how we all think of travelling. The world has become so much more accessible and those pioneering no-frills airlines have given us the confidence to travel more often and further.

What are the biggest challenges facing the travel industry?

There is always a crisis or a disaster that affects travel, either political or natural. Travel companies are constantly on a knife-edge.

Bookings to Turkey are down 50% this summer although nothing has actually happened at a beach resort in Turkey. Brits have just voted with their feet but that has put a huge pressure on prices in the rest of the Med. There will be no such thing as a late bargain this year.

But as Brits we seem to have very short memories, I hope Turkey will bounce back next summer as it offers a great product for the mass market.

Do you have any advice for budding young travel writers and PRs?

Don’t write a ‘What I Did On My Holiday’ school essay-style piece. You’d be amazed how many do. Start your story with the one part of the trip that instantly comes to mind when you think of it – the one thing you would first tell your mates in the pub when they say: ‘How was your hol?’. Starting with that will hopefully inspire, educate or entertain the reader. And that’s the most important thing to do!

It’s an important part of my job to get on with PRs and there are some great ones out there. But my tip for PRs is don’t ring me and ask me if I’ve received your press release – it wastes their time and mine. I read every email I get!


What are your five desk essentials?

A computer, a can of Diet Coke, a phone, earphones and fast wifi.