In 1967, long before the term “East Coast bias” was coined to describe the media’s habit of focusing on stories pertaining to the eastern U.S., journalist Martin B. Deutsch recognized the need for a regional travel trade publication. Deutsch, who had been the founding managing editor of Travel Weekly, realized there was a lack of trade publications for frontline agents and that the best way to serve these readers was through a regional publication. As a result, Deutsch founded the TravelAge brand with regional titles serving the East, West, Mid-America, Southeast and Southwest. But it was TravelAge West (TAW) — founded 40 years ago in 1969 — that was the most successful.
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TravelAge West celebrates
its 40th anniversary |
“From day one, TravelAge West was greeted warmly on the West Coast and in Hawaii by the advertisers and by the agents,” Deutsch said in a recent interview. “Right away, there was a devoted following. There was a feeling that all the other publications were printed and published out of the East Coast — out of Manhattan, basically — and here was a publication based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with offices in Honolulu, and we got a warm and glad welcome.”
From the beginning, TAW had its own focus. The mix was approximately 30 percent national and 70 percent regional, but that was a far departure from what agents in the West were used to, and TAW quickly found an audience.
“When we launched TAW, we did a series of presentations up and down the West Coast and in Hawaii,” said Deutsch. “At several of these, the owner and publisher of Sunset magazine — a totally West-focused consumer magazine — made sure to come. And at each presentation, he stood up and said, ‘If these guys hadn’t started a travel trade magazine for the West, I would have, because we’re sick and tired of the same point of view out of Manhattan.’ Well, there was huge applause at that. There was just a tremendous philosophical allegiance almost before we even started the publication.”
Drawing upon that feeling of community, TAW quickly became a staple of the travel agents’ offices. It was not just that the West had finally broken away from the yoke of East Coast publishing — the information it presented was important to its agent readers as well.
“You have to keep in mind that travel agents in the West specialize in some great destinations, including Hawaii, Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies, the Canadian Rockies, Vancouver and more,” said Deutsch. “The West is also the gateway to Asia and the Pacific and, with China and India, it is the fastest-growing economic region in the world.”
From the beginning, one of the factors that TAW benefited from was the adventurous temperament of the Western traveler. According to a custom subset of the “Leisure Travel Monitor” (an annual study of consumer travelers conducted by Y Partnership), even today, travelers in the West are more likely than their counterparts in the rest of the country to “prefer something new and exciting” (48 percent versus 38 percent); are “looking to fulfill a sense of adventure” (33 percent to 25 percent); and “love the idea of travel and do so whenever possible” (58 percent versus 55 percent).
“When we started, there were no nonstop flights to Europe from the West Coast,” Deutsch said. “Now, there are dozens, if not hundreds. That’s because the demand is there. TravelAge West continues to get support from West Coast agents and West Coast suppliers. It continues to be a vital force in the industry.”
Since its beginnings, TravelAge West has had a clearly defined purpose: it is the hometown newspaper and community center for the Western frontline travel agent; It gives those agents the information they need in order to sell travel products in all parts of the world; and it provides a counterpoint to the East Coast-centric trade news outlets. Even as the magazine has adapted to changes in the industry in the last 40 years, this mission has not been lost.
Dave Metkovich — the current Advertising Director for TAW, who has been with the publication for more than 20 years — agrees.
“Not only does TravelAge West still turn readers on to great products in print, but we still turn them out for our online and in-person events,” Metkovich said. “The magazine might have changed with the times but, clearly, it has maintained its close relationship to agents in the West.”
— Kenneth Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief
The Origins of TravelAge West
Click here to see a video of Martin Deutsch discussing the early days of TravelAge West.
