Q & A with Gay Nagle Myers, Travel Weekly Senior Editor

Q & A with Gay Nagle Myers
Senior Editor, Travel Weekly (www.travelweekly.com)

By Yndiana Montes and Jose Carlos de Santiago

With a longstanding career as a travel journalist, and a considerable part of her brilliant career devoted to covering the Caribbean region, the Senior Editor of Travel Weekly has many stories and opinions to share on the development of tourism in this region. This charismatic and upbeat woman speaks with the same passion displayed in her articles and stories. She wears unique and original earrings, which she makes herself from various items bought in the Islands. No wonder this conversation with Gay Nagle Myers held at the Annual Conference on Sustainable Tourism in Bermuda and sponsored by the Caribbean Tourism Association turned out to be a most pleasant experience in every way.

Q: You’ve been working for Travel Weekly for the past 26 years. Is that right?
A: Yes, I’ve been there longer than most of the hotels I write about. They weren’t even built when I started at Travel Weekly.

Q: How did you start in your career?
A: I went to the University of Texas, where I graduated with a journalism degree. Somewhere between my junior and senior year I went to Europe with some friends. I traveled to Europe as a student and I could not spend there more than five dollars a day, and that included a very cheap room in a hostel, and we rented a car. Then when I returned from that trip I decided that what I really wanted to do was to travel and write.

So, I graduated from college and I had some intern program at a publishing company in New York, but about a month into it I realized all they were going to do was train me to be a secretary, and that was not what I wanted to do. So, I lasted there long enough to attend some book conference in Germany, and when I came home I quit. Then I decided to be a stewardess or flight attendant, so I decided to apply at Pan Am, that was the biggest airline in the world.

So, I applied at Pan Am and everything was going well until the last interview. Then the person who had interviewed me for several meetings asked if there was something they should know about me, you know, anything that I hadn’t told them. She asked me, “What would you do if a passenger on your flight became sick?” And I said: “Well, to be honest, I would walk the other way down the aisle. I don’t do well when people get sick.” I had to be honest and she said, “Well, you’re not going to do well with Pan Am.”

I was 22 years old at the time and I was living in New York City, so I decided to go from the library, at 42nd & 6th, go up to 5th Avenue and I would stop in every building that had an employment agency—that’s what they were called then. The third building I stopped in there was an employment agency, I went up to see the guy and I told them that I wanted to travel and write. He laughed at me and he said, “You and every other young gal.” Then he told me he only had a job at a trade magazine. I didn’t even know what a trade magazine was, but I decided to go up and take the interview anyway. The trade magazine happened to be Travel Agent. They gave me some stuff to edit just to see how well I could fare as a proofreader. I turned the paper in and I was hired, but for the first year I did everything there but write and report.
 
Then a reporter there quit and before they could hire someone else I went to see the boss and I told him I wanted that job. Then after thinking for a while, he told me there was this trip to Italy, so he told me to travel there and write a report on that trip. I couldn’t believe what he was saying to me. I couldn’t believe it was a trip to Italy in Europe. That was the first press trip I ever took. I went on that trip with ten dollars in my pocket and I came back home with those ten dollars. I handed in the work and I said, “This is it.”

Seven years later I got a call from a company called East West Network, which is LA-based but no longer in business. At the time they published a number of airline inflight magazines. They called me and told me they wanted me to open their New York office. That sounded interesting.

Q: But at that time you were young, and maybe you were in love and wanted to marry. How did you handle that with your traveling and writing?
A: I had met someone at that time and two years later I got married. I worked for East West until I got pregnant and decided it was time to take a break. I also had a column for Travel & Leisure magazine.

Q: When did you start at Travel Weekly?
A: I started in 1985, covering a little bit of the Caribbean and a little bit of Europe and the U.S.

Q: How can you describe the different stages you went through in that publication, from being a journalist all the way to your current post as senior editor?
A: In that magazine I went from typewriters at the onset to today’s computer age. I’ve seen so many changes there, even in the distribution system.

Q: How did those changes affect you as a journalist?
A: I had to keep learning. I’m having little trouble keeping up with the technical age, but I’m doing it. There are no options.

Q: How do you now see both your role and your work in this computer and Internet age in which people can have far more access to information?
A: My writing has evolved over the years, now covering so many different topics. But for people who use the written word, even in these times there’s always going to be a role to play.

Q: Regardless of your covering so many topics, you’re like some kind of signature writer for the Caribbean. Do you also like trying your hand at, say, the Mexican Caribbean?
A: I started covering the Caribbean when I joined Travel Weekly.

Q: Why not Africa or any other region?
A: I don’t know. Maybe because the guy who was covering the Caribbean was leaving, so I got there by chance.

Q: How do you the Caribbean of today and how much of a contribution do you think events like this can actually make for the entire region?
A: I’ve never met a Caribbean island I didn’t like. The Caribbean is a fascinating region. Events like this one on sustainable tourism showcase one aspect of the region and illustrate the complexity of issues facing the people of the Caribbean.

Q: For someone like you, an American writing on the Caribbean, do you really try to be objective?
A: I try to be objective and wield constructive criticism whenever I see something wrong.

Q: You’re now also writing on Mexico. Do you think it’s safe for Americans to travel there?
A: Absolutely. During the Tianguis in Acapulco last weekend, many discussions hinged on the perception of crime in Mexico. Crime is not a problem in most of the resort areas of Mexico. Americans happen to hear about a border shooting in Juarez and they get frightened. But Mexico is such an interesting country.

Q: Have you already considered the possibility of retiring?
A: Not now, not in the near future.

Q: But if you happened to decide that you’re going to retire, where would you go?
A: I don’t know. I have a sister who’s very close to me in age and she’s been teaching for 42 years, so we figured we’d do it together, I mean, we’ll retire together and figure out where we’d go from there.

Q: What do you have to say to the new generation of travel writers about your career? What particular piece of advice do you have for them?
A: I hope there’s a generation of journalists coming up that knows how to write rather that tweet and all those things they do. I would say to always keep reading. When you’re going to interview somebody, take the time to do some research so you know a little bit more about the person and the company rather than just what you get. And never turn down a trip because you don’t know anything about the destination or you think it might be boring. There’s always an opportunity on every corner.

Q: What do you make of the evolution CTO has had in recent years?
A: CTO has come a long way, and it faces many challenges on all fronts. It represents many countries in the region, each with their own set of issues, problems. To represent such a diverse group and speak with one voice is very difficult. I think some opportunities are wasted when organizations appear at odds with one another as does happen between the private sector and the public sector in the Caribbean.

Q: What do you think of Hugh Riley, CTO’s Secretary General, and do you stack him up against Jean Holder?
A: Hugh is my hero. Hugh is fabulous. In terms of ethics, he’s got very high standards and is always available to the press. He doesn’t shy away from questions and always take them, no matter what the topic is. Jean Holder was great during his prime, but I think he was on the job a little too long.

Q: What opinion you have about the work of the Marketing Director of the Americas Sylma Brown Bramble?
A: That’s a tough job and she is doing it well. I would not like to be in her shoes.

Q: What must be done to actually have a genuine and comprehensive integration of the entire Caribbean region?
A: That’s a difficult question to answer because I really don’t know how that’ll ever work out. Individual areas within the Caribbean, divided in language areas, keep having their own shows and events, and sometimes they argue that they don’t have the money to attend CTO’s gatherings and events, like this one.

Q: Cuba’s opening to the U.S. market seems impending. What repercussions could this opening have on the Caribbean islands that are so dependent on the U.S. market?
A: I think Cuba’s going to open. I’ve been there twice and I can’t wait to get back. And I do believe some of the islands have reasons to worry about it. That’s an untapped market for Americans and we all want to go there. I think initially Cuba is going to take tourists away from them because Americans are curious and they want to go there. But on the other hand, there are many Americans who are not adventurous travelers at all and would be happy to continue visiting the resorts they go to year after year. I think it’s very exciting to think that travel to Cuba could open up for all travelers.