Thank you to Travel Massive for interviewing me about my travels! Read the interview: Travel Massive Member Spotlight – Lisa Niver’s Tips For Travel Writers
Tell us about yourself, what’s your role at We Said Go Travel?
I have been traveling and teaching my entire life. In 2010, I started the blog that led to We Said Go Travel. In 2012, I took my 1st video in Taiwan on a Cisco Flip that I bought on eBay. I run travel writing and photo awards on the site and invite you to participate.
How did you get into the travel industry? What was the biggest challenge?
My first job in travel was working for Club Med Copper Mountain. I skied every day with the kids. Then I worked in Eleuthera, Bahamas and snorkeled every day. Next, I sailed for nearly 7 years on cruise ships. The biggest challenge was working every single day but it was a dream job. I loved arriving in new ports and making friends all over the planet.
Now I have 1.5 million video views on YouTube, Amazon and Roku and just filmed my first segment for KTLA TV about Napa Valley (watch the video below).
What are your top tips for travel writers to work effectively with destinations?
The most important thing is to communicate with the destination team. I always ask what hashtags they are using and what their expectations are. On trips, I might be focused on writing, video or social media but the most important thing is to have actual experiences that I can share. We discuss the itinerary in advance to make certain that the plan will allow both sides to meet their goals.
How has the LA Travel Massive community helped your business?
I have been involved with LA Travel Massive for years and the community has really thrived with Kelley Ferro making things happen!
My Best of Tahoe ski trip evolved from when Vail hosted an event. I was invited to Expedition Kirkwood and even got snowed in. I look forward to the monthly gatherings to see friends and hear about the trips and adventures of the members. Thank you to Travel Massive!
What stories have you shared that have made an impact?
Last year at Park City Mountain with the National Ability Center, I skied with someone who was visually impaired and wrote about it for Sierra Magazine. I was invited to the Solomon Islands and wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal for Smithsonian Magazine. I met a 93 year old veteran who was 17 at that battle and wrote about Roy Roush for Saturday Evening Post.
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
Thank you Travel Massive!
