New York Times scraps annual Travel list, asks for love letters

The US publication scrapped plans for a 2021 travel list, asking instead for postcards. Photo / Visuals, Unsplash

A famous New York travel publication is in need of cheering up. Why not send them a love letter?

In April the New York Times made sombre decision to change its Travel section with a print supplement titled "At Home". In the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the US city had come to terms with the ease with which we once traversed the globe was over.

Travel restrictions brought about by the virus meant would mean that many of the destinations and travel traditions that had become a staple of the magazine would be off limits for the foreseeable future.

The New York Times has renamed its Travel section.

The 10 page Sunday supplement is now called “At Home”. #Covid_19 #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/bY3cSfeOcW

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) April 26, 2020

The annual "52 Places List" was one such tradition that fell by the wayside. Compiled by editors and writers the magazine staff made a long list of places they felt summed up the year ahead in travel, one a week for a year since 2013.

Highlighting Olympic cities, historic anniversaries and once in a lifetime events like solar eclipses the list was something destinations and countries were thrilled to be included on. (With Rotorua (2018), Paparoa(2019) and Christchurch (2014 & 2020), rarely a year went by without New Zealand appearing on the list.)

"Travel, as we knew it, has changed," said the newspaper.

"In that vein, our 52 Places list will be different in 2021."

With so much uncertainty as to when international travel will re-open, particularly to US travellers, the magazine has decided to look back on travel memories to create the list.
This year they will be compiling "52 love letters to travel", for which they are taking submissions from destinations around the world.

It can be either a famous tourism destination or somewhere that's completely unknown, all they ask for the submission is that it is a place you can pen a love letter to. If you have a photo to share of the destination of desire, even better.

Ideally these love letters will outline both something you miss, and something misunderstood about the location.

There have been many mishaps in previous years which have led to the list shrinking from 52. In 2018 year a deterioration in diplomatic relations between Iran and the US saw its writers being banned from Tehran, after its inclusion on the list.

Last year the newspaper cancelled plans to send writers to visit these locations, saying that it could no longer justify the air travel and carbon footprint. After a year of climate protests, Times Travel editor Amy Virshup said sending a traveller to see these places was unconscionable, calling 2019 "the year the travel world woke up to the implications of climate change."