After 10 years of dedicated travel journalism across Kenya and beyond, Harriet Owalla has received long-awaited recognition at the Kenya Tourism Awards, where she used her acceptance moment to urge media owners to give tourism stories greater prominence and called on businesses to invest in advertising that supports the growth of tourism journalism.
Harriet has worked with key Media players such as Tourism Updates, Skift Meeting, People Daily, Inflight Magazines, etc., and supported media relations for various organizations.
Her dedication and craftsmanship in content writing are commendable; she has become one of the most sought-after journalists on matters of African Tourism. In an interview on the sidelines of the event, she called for more support for the travel and tourism sector:
I see today’s a very big day and what a surprise?
Yes, it was a surprise. Of course people were like, oh, it’s you, but you know, I had really opponents, but I would not call them opponents. Yes, they are really good, doing great work, they are doing amazing job in travel journalism. So I cannot say that I am a winner, I can say that the industry is a winner.
But you have been very passionate about the tourism industry so far, how many years since writing about travel?
In April I will be turning 10. That is a decade in this industry and actually this is my first award. I am surprised. So it really means like a lot when a sector recognizes that actually we exist. It is not just about sending us press releases and telling us to come and cover events, but that we deserve the recognition. So I am really happy for our industry. Actually, it is not just me, but the entire travel journalism industry.
So what does it take to be so good when it comes to writing content in regards to travel and tourism?
I would say first you must be passionate about what you are doing because if you are not passionate about it or if you just think of going on safaris and everything without actually having the heart to do it, then you are in the wrong career. Because I am telling you, this industry can give you character development. People just see the travels and meeting all these people and they think it is all glamour. But it really takes passion and determination, whether through the tough seasons, as you all know, the media is really experiencing a lot of challenges. So you really have to weather through the tough seasons of unrecognition, financial challenges, rejections, and all those things. And actually people don’t know what it really takes to actually even post or actually published a story. So it is really amazing and you really must be passionate.
So when you talk about character development, actually the landscape is shifting. And I remember last year, you wrote a very long post, a very emotional post, thought provoking post about how traditional media is doing away with tourism content and prioritizing politics. And that means we are lacking authentic, genuine tourism stories. Tell us something about it.
Yes, it is so sad that politics is being prioritized beyond tourism or other developmental stories because they feel that is what is trending, that, that is what people are interacting with, that is where the money is. So I would really urge the sector to really support the media sector.
Let’s show up, let’s buy spaces, let’s advertise, let’s support people who are actually going out of their way to do it. Or if we decide to start our own media platforms, which is really crucial because every time I go to events, people always talk about, media we need coverage, but they are not recognizing the media, they are not supporting the media. They are not recognizing that what we are doing also is part of the industry. So I really think that if we do that, at least we will be somewhere.
IShowSpeed came to Africa. It was a long conversation. Everybody’s talking about IShowSpeed. And you wrote an article actually from that Swift meetings and you wrote something interesting, on how IShowSpeed changed the game of digital marketing for tourism?
Yes, he is actually and it was just interesting. Skift is a very large platform that I was privileged to actually be commissioned to write the story on. And it is interesting like how the tourism CEOs gave their perspective on what this meant even for the tourism markets and also what is this means even when it comes to tourism marketing where are we shifting to?
And working with influencers, how that will shift. But I really pray that more African tourism Board will start working with Africans because that is also a problem. I would want to see more African influencers be appreciated than international ones and everything. I think that will really make an impact. When people see they are being recognized and African traveller is really travelling as well and being appreciated, then that will bring a change.
