How to Get Useful Feedback on Travel Planning When You Are Just Starting Out

In international tourism, feedback is useful only when it is specific. It does not help you much if someone simply tells you that “this itinerary looks too weak.” What you can learn is how to ask for feedback on specific aspects of your travel arrangements: dates, the flow of your travel days, the suitability of the place you recommend, the appropriateness of your transportation choice for your traveler’s comfort, the clarity of your description, and the adequacy of your instructions. If you are preparing a sample trip plan, a destination description, or a hotel recommendation, ask your reader to provide feedback on one aspect of your writing at a time. This will make your feedback specific and your editing manageable. Then you can repeat the same exercise with another sample document.

A useful exercise for those who are just starting their careers in international tourism is to prepare a short trip plan to one destination and then to try to read it from the point of view of your traveler. Try to imagine how she would feel when she arrives at her destination after a long flight, how she would experience her first transfer, how busy her first day would be, and how much traveling around she would have to do. Then ask someone to respond to one specific question, such as: Is this day too busy for her? Is the destination a good match for her trip purpose? Does the sequence of her travel days make sense? Usually, the more specific your question is, the more specific the response will be. General feedback easily degenerates into an opinion. Specific feedback is more likely to identify where exactly the plan does not work.

One of the common errors is to ask for feedback too early, when your first draft is not developed enough to be read. Even at the conceptual stage, your idea may already be valuable. However, if you have not yet decided on travel dates, transfers, or the daily structure of your trip, your feedback may become too conceptual. Another common error is to try to justify every decision you have made instead of looking for patterns in the feedback. If several of your readers point to the same weak point in your travel plan, such as too much traveling around in one day or too little information about your destination, this is important information for you to have. The best way to respond would be to stop, revise that part of your plan, and then ask for feedback again instead of starting all over from scratch.

When you are not sure how to respond to the feedback you receive on your sample document, try to sort the feedback into three basic categories in your notes: (1) what is confusing, (2) what is not realistic, and (3) what is missing information. This will help you understand whether the problem is with your explanation, with the logic of your planning, or with the information you are providing about travel. For instance, if your reader thinks that your itinerary is too busy, you may want to check the length of your transfers and the number of activities you offer in one day. If your reader thinks that your hotel recommendation does not make sense, you may want to revisit the purpose of your trip and the characteristics of your destination. It becomes much easier to respond to feedback when you learn to translate it into the language of travel planning instead of taking it personally.

You can practice this skill in short 15-minute intervals. For instance, you can spend five minutes reading your own writing out loud. Then you can spend another five minutes identifying one part of your writing that you think may not be clear or may be too heavy for your traveler. You can spend your last five minutes revising that one part with one improvement in mind. You can do the same exercise with another one of your documents the next day. These intervals can help you learn how to edit your writing on purpose instead of aimlessly. In international tourism, good feedback is not about approbation or criticism. It is about identifying where exactly the logic of your travel plan does not work. Once you learn how to ask for good feedback, how to read your own writing specifically, and how to revise one issue at a time, you will become much more solid in your planning and far more credible in your presentations.