Announcing a brand-new ITN travel certificate

In the year 2010, did you travel to any of the following countries: Guyana, Suriname, St. Vincent, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYR), Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo DR, Congo R., Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia or Sudan? If so, please be so kind as to e-mail me at armond@intltravelnews.com and let me know. Thanks!

Announcing a brand-new ITN travel certificate! It’s the Oceania XV Award. It can be yours if you have traveled to all 15 of the nations in Oceania. They are Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We imagine this will be a tough one to get, but it is a bit of recognition for the true South Pacific travel buff.

Some of our award categories have, indeed, been the ideas of our readers, so if you should have an idea for a new one, let’s hear it. You may use the e-mail address above.

I should mention this more often, with all the new readers always coming on board. Except for a small percentage by staff and Contributing Editors (columnists), the feature destination articles you see here are written by our readers — the real travelers — thus you, too, are cordially invited to share your travel experiences.

When I have given that welcome to subscribers whom I have met (and after hearing about an interesting trip of theirs), I have often heard this plaintive cry: “I’m not a writer.” Well, just pretend that you are writing a letter to a friend about your trip. For that’s just what you are doing here. Writing to friends. Don’t concern yourself about the picky fine points. We have young ladies here who spent four years of their lives in the halls of academia learning where all those commas go.

Something that is becoming more popular is river cruising. If you have cruised a river lately, share. The phrase used to be “take pen to paper,” but now it’s “e-mail” — or however you wish to send in your article.

There’s something else you can do that’s quite important. Send ITN the names and addresses of your friends who enjoy foreign travel. We’ll send them each a free copy of ITN.

In doing that, 1) we never use your name and 2) we never sell or trade any of that information. Never have, never will. Your friends will truly appreciate the gesture (as we gather from the multitude of letters we receive) and so will we.

ITN has been publishing monthly since 1976. Over that period of time, many other travel magazines have come and gone. We believe that the key to our longevity has been the marvelous willingness of our readers to make that extra effort to spread the good word about this publication. And we’re indeed most grateful to those who have done so.

In the surveys we run, we enjoy giving out the prizes to participants. So are there any businesspeople out there who would like to contribute any prizes for some event or gathering? You get a tax deduction and some sales-generating publicity.

Our goal is to be your most USEFUL travel magazine. Not the slickest, prettiest, glitziest or most colorful but your most valuable! Stemming from travelers writing in with realistic reviews and practical advice, we think ITN ends up being truly helpful. And with your articles and letters, we’ll keep working at it.