If you enjoy travelling, you probably also enjoy writing about your experiences. But did you know that you could earn a lot of money for writing travel stories?
Yes, indeed. You can make money writing about the sumptuous meals you had or the drinks that made you feel alive again. You can win amazing travel writing scholarships by writing about the sights and smells and sound of the places you visited.
If you’re wondering where to begin, don’t worry. We have compiled a comprehensive list of 5 travel writing opportunities you can explore in 2021.
- Spring 2021: Nowhere Spring Travel Writing Prize and The Emerging Writers Prize
Award-winning literary travel magazine Nowhere is currently accepting submissions for the following prizes:
- 2021 Emerging Travel Writers’ Prize!
- Annual Spring Travel Writing Prize 2021.
They’re looking for novice and veteran travel writers from anywhere in the world to send them stories—fiction, nonfiction, essays or poetry.
- Fiction and creative non-fiction stories should be between 800 – 5000 words.
- Poetry may be any length, and several poems, themed together, may be submitted as one entry.
They are particularly interested in works that possess a powerful sense of place, people and time.
The first prize winner will receive US$1,000, with publication in Nowhere granted under First North American Serial Rights (FNASR). The publishers will feature the works of up to ten finalists.
Every submission will be read blind, so anyone can win!
You can submit your story via the Nowhere Submission Guidelines.
2. The PureTravel Travel Writing Competition 2021 (Prize: $650 + Publication)
No application fee is required to apply for this contest. To enter for the Pure Travel Travel Writing Contest, you need to submit an original story about your most ‘breathtaking travel moment’. Here’s a snippet from a press release:
“Whether you stumbled on a stunning view or glimpsed a long-lost ruin. Perhaps you bumped into someone unexpectedly or were shown kindness by a stranger.
Maybe you had an intricate travel plan come to fruition or you simply slipped into some icy water.”
Make the reader really experience the moment with you. Here are some important guidelines to note:
- Entries should be 350+ words in length
- Only unpublished, original stories will be accepted.
- Please give your article a title.
- Entries that are shorter will be rejected.
- Plagiarized work will be jettisoned.
- Please paste your text on to the email body. Do not send attachments.
Entries should be sent to: competition@puretravel.com, with your name, e-mail and telephone number.
3. The Parking Spot 2021 Scholarship Travel Writing Essay Prize ( Prize: Scholarship worth $1000 USD)
The Parking Spot is awarding a $1,000 scholarship to a prospective college student that submits a winning essay on the topic, “What is your favorite vacation memory and why?”
How to submit: Essay submissions must be 500 words or less. All entries must be electronically sent to scholarship@theparkingspot.com
Send your essay submission to us as an email attachment with the subject line “Scholarship Essay Submission.”
Before you apply, please read the submissions and eligibility guidelines for theParkingSpot 2021 scholarship.
4. Teen Travel Writing Scholarship 2021
The Family Travel Forum Teen Travel Writing Scholarship is currently open for submissions. If you are eligible, send in your applications. If your essay is selected, you can win up to $1,000.
To apply for this scholarship, you must write and submit an essay on the following topics:
- Have you taken an unexpectedly wonderful or terrible but funny trip with your family?
- Or have you journeyed somewhere with a school group or sports team and have some advice on how to make the most of your experience or destination?
- Have you gone somewhere near or far that opened up alternative ways of looking at the world?.
Here are some important guidelines to note:
- This contest is open to only junior or high school students in the USA, Canada, or American international schools abroad..
- Travel stories should be no more than 600 words.
- The trip must have been taken in the last five years.
- Other details can be found HERE.
5. ROVA Magazine
Travel writers are invited to pitch travel story ideas to ROVA magazine. The publishers pay $200 for accepted stories. But before we proceed, here’s a sneak preview of ROVA Magazine.
It is an RV, road trip and outdoor adventure magazine for millennials and Gen Xers. Interested in submitting your travel stories to them? Read the ROVA submission guidelines.
Wrapping Up: Travel Writing Opportunities in 2021.
Creative girls are advised to take advantage of the opportunities in the travel writing business. Why? It’s very lucrative and interesting. Travel writing also helps the arbiter pay attention to the little details in life, the details people often take for granted.
Start applying for travel writing scholarships, and opportunities, today..
Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam is a freelance writer, blogger and novelist. Her first novel Finding Love Again was published by Ankara Press. Her second novel, The Heiress’ Bodyguard, was longlisted for the Saraba Manuscript Project Awards. An alumni of the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop(2010), She runs and manages www.creativewritingnews.com, where she helps writers learn how to make money online and offline.
