Travel Correspondent
Valarie D'Elia grew up in the family travel business. Today, she produces and writes travel segments for NY1 News and has appeared on national and local media outlets including NBC's Today Show, CNBC, FoxNews and The Early Show on CBS.
How did you become a travel expert?
I think it is an overused title. These days anyone who has written a story thinks they are a travel expert. People call me that but I consider myself more of a travel reporter or correspondent. I know there are no travel experts out there because I grew up in the business. My parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents were all in the travel business so I know how much everything changes. There is so much information that is extremely changeable day by day. I feel like I have a very broad knowledge of the travel industry. That just comes from a family background going back to 1902. Growing up, I just ate, slept, and breathed travel. I used to work at my parent’s travel agency. I remember writing out tickets on the original ticket stock…I would write them by hand for my mother and we would work with a book called the OAG (the Official Airline Guide) before there was any computerization.
I kind of just grew up with travel. I always felt like it was in my blood. I feel sort of like a gypsy. As far as being called an expert, I do my best. I'm out there. I am a very intrepid person who likes to see the world and learn about different cultures. It really gives me a sense of other people and other religions. It gets me out of my little box and it gives me a little bit of knowledge of the world, but at the same time I hope that I am able to share that with my audience which is comprised of viewers, listeners and visitors to my web site.
What is your process for putting together travel segments? How do you come up with ideas?
I am very connected to the travel industry. I follow all the travel magazines, online newsletters, people come to me with pitches, public relations executives approach me, and I find things out myself, of course. It's really about immersing yourself in the business and knowing who the contacts are in travel. I travel to a lot of these places myself too.
I think something that is a little known fact about me is that I shoot my own video. I have been doing that for the past 10 years at NY1 News. Everything that people see on the air is something that I have seen through my eyes and my viewfinder. I capture it on video and then air it. Some people might think that I am out there gallivanting around without truly experiencing a place. There is a lot of technical expertise that goes into being behind a camera and shooting video. Getting all the angles of the story to make a segment come together is crucial.
How often do you travel in a year?
About 60 percent of the time. With the more years under my belt, the less I have to travel because I have acquired a lot of footage. I have a library of tapes that I can repurpose and I just update the copy. I've been to 90 countries, but I have a lot of the world left to see. I go to a lot of places over and over again because there might be something new happening there, like a hotel opening. But there are still places that I need to see and cover.
I'm a New York reporter. A lot of what I do is for New York viewers and I am trying to be a little more economy-minded right now because of the weak dollar; the economy is tanking due to the price of gas so people are not hopping on airplanes. I try to show people things to do locally. I think you don't have to go that far to have a travel experience. You can go a half hour away from New York City and be at a resort in Westchester County and get away. To me it is all travel…it's really not the mileage you rack up.
What are some of the biggest trends you have noticed in the travel business since you first started?
Niche travel is very big. It's all about types of people who travel and the types of interests they have (i.e., inter-generational travel, families taking trips together, going on reunions). I recently took 20 of my family members to Italy to the village where my great grandfather came from. It was a pilgrimage back to our roots, but there are other types of trips out there such as "girlfriend getaways" and "mancations" – all these trendy buzz words that public relations executives dream up. I don't like the buzz words, but they do represent niches of travel that people are interested in these days. It's not just a vacation anymore. It's about learning something…you're taking a course, you're going to art museums, you're learning how to cook or you're being with friends. That's what travel is. Travel is just kind of like the canvass of what people do individually.
What are some of your best travel tips?
It's kind of cliché, but it's more important than ever right now…packing light. Take the minimum amount of clothing possible. I have to carry camera equipment when I travel so the last thing I want is another bag. My advice to people is to pack only what you need. Traveling will be so much easier if you don't have that much with you. It's kind of liberating actually. I like only having a few things, not feeling obligated to wear makeup or blow dry my hair. I wear something three times in one trip…it's no big deal. Airports are a real hassle these days, having to pay extra to check bags. By packing light, you don't have to deal with that at all. That's pretty much #1 for me.
Another thing is I am not really one who has a guidebook. I consult guidebooks, but I prefer to give people a flavor of a place in my travel segments for NY1 News. You won't find me saying there is only one place for pizza in Naples, Italy. It's funny…Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love, mentioned some place in Naples for pizza and now everybody wants to know where she had her pizza. It's as if there is no where else in Naples to have good pizza.
It's silly to me…it's about making your own experience. You won't find me saying, 'if you don't make it to X, Y, Z restaurant then you've missed out.' It's just not true. You could even find something better than what I find. So don't stick to guidebooks. Guidebooks are great in a lot of ways, but they will make you feel regimented and a lot of great things don't make it into print. My suggestion is to make your own guidebook and hand it to your friends when they are going on a trip.
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