Budding travel writers, listen up!
The very first Love Cottages Trusted Travel Writer competition is here.
The next three weeks are all about tourism in Great Britain as each nation celebrates what is has to offer domestic and international tourists. And we’re on the hunt for an outstanding writer who loves this isle and all it’s got going for it. The winning Love Cottages Trusted Travel Writer will become a bylined contributor to the Love Cottages blog for a whole year giving the successful entrant a global platform to showcase their knowledge of UK travel as well as their love and expertise for writing.
The competition opens Monday 29 February 2016 and will run for the duration of the three tourism weeks shown here. What we’re looking for in our Trusted Travel Writer and full competition terms and conditions are detailed below.
Wales Tourism Week 29 Feb-6 March 2016
English Tourism Week 5-13 March 2016
Scottish Tourism Week 11-18 March 2016
We love Great Britain but what’s your story?
You know we love Great Britain. But we want to know where you love going most in Great Britain and why. Tell us your story in 300 words (or more) to be entered into our travel writing competition. The best entries will be published (complete with byline) on the Love Cottages blog. And the winner will be made Love Cottages Trusted Travel Writer for 12 months. Title aside, the Trusted Travel Writer will have the opportunity to published 24 UK travel related, bylined articles published on an established online travel website (a.k.a. lovecottages.co.uk).
What to write for your competition entry
Craft your favourite destination story into a minimum 300 words that tells us what you love about your chosen GB place and why. Now we’re all about love. So we want to see real love for your chosen place. So you might gush about what you most love visiting there, or the best undiscovered place that is spectacular and you don’t really want to share but probably should, your favourite pub/restaurant, the best place for a rainy afternoon with kids, favourite museum, etc. We’re looking for real experience of a destination and an inside-out kind of knowledge. We only cover the UK, so we only want to hear your stories from this green and pleasant land.
What not to write
Avoid writing about just one thing in a destination – people visit places to see, eat and explore, not just to drive in and drive out. Anything overtly promotional or promoting specific brand names will be excluded from the competition. We don’t want reviews of venues or attractions. Profane, slanderous or libellous language, or pseudonyms will result in automatic exclusion from the competition. It won’t work in your favour if your story is riddled with typos or erroneous apostrophes.
How to enter
Please send your entry to [email protected] before midnight (GMT) on Sunday 20 March 2016
Entries are limited to one per person
All entries will be checked for grammar, spelling and syntax errors, and corrected as required before appearing on any Love Cottages channel.
We won’t be able to acknowledge submissions. Please assume that in sending your entry to [email protected] that you have successfully entered the competition.
Announcing the winner
We will announce the winner and any highly commended entries during April 2016. Winners will be notified via email, announced on the Love Cottages blog and Love Cottages social media channels.
The winner will be required to supply a good quality resolution headshot photograph for marketing purposes.
Where will competition entries appear?
The best entries will be posted in the Trusted Travel Writers competition category on the Love Cottages blog. And the very best of entries will feature in Love Cottages social media posts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn. Entries may also be used anywhere on the Love Cottages website or in any Love Cottages marketing collateral (online or offline).
We reserve the right to post snippets of entries or entries in their entirety for the purposes of promoting the competition and the Love Cottages brand.
Competition terms and conditions
- Open to UK residents aged 18 or over
- Competition closes midnight, Sunday 20 March (that’s known as the Closing Date)
- One entry per person. Bulk, multiple or third party entries will be void.
- To enter this competition:
- Please write on “Why I love <destination> and why” and submit via email to [email protected] by the Closing Date
- Your email must contain your entry, your full name, your age, your home address, your telephone number, your email address, your social media handles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Snapchat, Tumblr, Reddit, etc.)
- Your entry must be at least 300 words and a maximum of 2,000 words
- Entries must be written in English only
- Entries must be either written in the body of the email or in an attached Microsoft Word document (no PDF files will be accepted)
- Entries must be original and the work of the entrant and not submitted to or published anywhere else
- Entries must not contain language that is defamatory, obscene, illegal or inappropriate in the eyes of Love Cottages (the Promoter)
- Entrants will retain copyright in their submitted entries, but in entering they licence Love Cottages Ltd (www.lovecottages.co.uk) a worldwide royalty-free perpetual licence to edit, publish and use each entry in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes relating to the competition. Love Cottages is not obliged to publish any entries and publication of an entry does not mean that entrant has won a prize.
- Received entries meeting the above criteria (valid entries) will be reviewed by the Love Cottages Judging Panel with the winner and commended entries being announced in April. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondance will be entered into.
- Judging criteria includes: originality, writing to the remit, passion and flair in the writing, depth of destination knowledge, syntax and grammar, advocacy for UK domestic travel.
- The Prize. The writer of the winning entry will:
- Be awarded the accolade “Love Cottages Trusted Travel Writer”
- Be expected to announce the news on their social media channels
- Be required to submit 24 UK destination travel related blog posts over the next 12 months (May 2016 until APril 2017) at a rate of two per calendar month. Each post must be a minimum 500 and maximum 2,000 words. The competition rules stated herein that apply to the content of the competition entry will apply to each of the 24 blog posts to be provided by the winner. The winner will retain copyright in their submitted blog posts but in writing them for Love Cottages, licences Love Cottages Ltd (www.lovecottages.co.uk) a worldwide royalty-free perpetual licence to edit, publish and use each entry in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes. Love Cottages is not obliged to publish any entries and reserves the right to withdraw the prize if the aforementioned conditions are not adhered to.
- Be given a byline for each contributory blog post
- Be free to share their own published content via their personal social media handles
- Need to supply a good quality headshot photograph of themselves for marketing and promotion purposes
- No cash alternative is available