Exploring The World Of Travel Writing With Favour Obioha

I have a deep interest in traveling the world but have yet to fully explore it. I don’t know if I ever will. Lol. Seeing others share their experiences through photos and writing is captivating to me. I recently interviewed a talented travel writer and bioinformatics enthusiast in my network and learned a lot from our conversation. If you have a passion for writing and/or traveling, I highly recommend reading on for valuable information to help you succeed.

I know you already. I can’t say the same for my readers, can we get to know you briefly?

I am Favour Obioha, occasionally called Yukay by my close friends. I am a final-year student of biotechnology at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. I am a blogger and bioinformatics enthusiast.

Nice to e-meet you. 

Thank you.

When did you discover your love for travel writing?

I wouldn’t say I discovered a love for travel writing. I had this thing for wildlife photography and dreamed that I’d get to work with NatGeo someday. I was researching ways to start out when I found out about this thing called travel blogging; where people travel and write about their experiences on their blogs. I read tons of blog posts and was fascinated by the photographs attached to these posts. Most of them were nature pictures and they were so cool.

Hmm. Interesting. I’m curious to know, what motivated you to fully pursue a career in travel writing.

I found travel blogging as a niche where all my passions aligned. I love writing, taking pictures, and creating. I once told a friend that it wasn’t traveling that I enjoyed the most but piecing content together from my travel experiences. Seeing how much I loved sharing my travel experiences, I thought it must be nice to actually get paid for this.

Nothing beats earning from what you love. Does it ever get tiring? How do you manage to document your experiences, while also having a good time?

It does get tiring, I won’t lie. At some point, I doubted I wanted to carry on with the whole video content thing because they deprived me of the beauty of living in the moment. It’s not easy but it’s something that needs to be done because soon enough, those pieces you created would serve as a reminder that you once had an experience that beautiful.

True

Yeah!

How do you prepare for a trip? Have your plans failed at any time?

I’ve actually not taken a lot of trips like that. I’ve mostly been exploring my city at the slightest chance I got. But on the few trips I’ve taken, it didn’t take a lot to prepare. I made a list of all the places I wanted to visit and when; this is called an itinerary. I also allocated budgets and canceled out locations that didn’t fit into that budget.

My plans have never failed at any time during my trips but I’ve had to endure several what I expected to see versus what I saw moments.

Ha-ha! Wahala. 

Lol.

So, what future plans do you have for yourself as a travel writer??

I am looking to start traveling a lot as soon as I graduate from uni. One of my plans for 2023 is to start sending pitches to travel magazines like Lonely Planet, Condé Nast, NatGeo Travel, and the rest. These are long shots but it doesn’t hurt to try, does it?

No, it doesn’t. You’ve got big dreams. I can’t wait to see all these things come to pass. 

Me neither.

I’ve noticed something. We don’t have a lot of travel writers in Nigeria. Do we need more travel writers? If yes, why?

That’s a good observation. You don’t see a lot of Nigerians doing travel writing things. Although we have people doing big things in the travel and tourism industry like Omotoke, Nikeh, and the rest, however, most of these people are travel content creators whose platforms are majorly Instagram and YouTube.

It’s quite saddening that you’d explore big magazines like Lonely Planet and it’s only Lagos Nigeria that is being represented. Nigeria is a beautiful country and we need more writers reporting these locations globally. Amarachi Ekekwe and Pelu Awofeso and the rest are doing a great job and I’m following in their footsteps.

I never saw it in this light. A lot of untapped opportunities. 

Yes!

It’s so sad to end this conversation. One last thing, do you have any tips for aspiring travel writers?

You can’t aspire to be a travel writer without consuming lots of travel articles. Read. Read as much as you can of other people’s writing. Learn and don’t feel intimidated by anyone. The industry is big and if you are Nigerian you may have more opportunities because there are so many untold stories in this country.

I enjoyed this conversation so much. For real, there’s a lot in store for travel writers in Nigeria if only they’re willing to put in the work. Favour has been exploring the cities close to her, and it’s nice to see that these places are more beautiful than we think they are. Read her blog here.