Qwerty, you have asked the exact question I have often wondered about.  What IS a travel picture, someone with suitcases, or in a car.  It can't be scenic views because they have nothing to do with travel, although the photographer may have travelled there the actual scenes are there all the time and may have been photographed and submitted by locals 

Qwerty, you have asked the exact question I have often wondered about.  What IS a travel picture, someone with suitcases, or in a car.  It can't be scenic views because they have nothing to do with travel, although the photographer may have travelled there the actual scenes are there all the time and may have been photographed and submitted by locals 

Depends on the agency, presumably. iStock says the 'travel' keyword must relate to actually travelling. It also has keywords like 'travel destination', for popular tourist spots, which you, the photographer, don't actually need to have travelled to get to.

All yeses for all the answers.

I think that a travel picture is a picture that illustrate a place where you can travel, the people living there, the activities that you can do there, generally a destination recommended by travel agencies.
So a travel picture should be a picture that can be used in a travel agency's catalog (site/communication).

But maybe there is a little confusion travel/landscape, and Fotolia refuses the landscape photos more that the travel ones.

Depends on the agency, presumably. iStock says the 'travel' keyword must relate to actually travelling. It also has keywords like 'travel destination', for popular tourist spots, which you, the photographer, don't actually need to have travelled to get to.

Qwerty, you have asked the exact question I have often wondered about.  What IS a travel picture, someone with suitcases, or in a car.  It can't be scenic views because they have nothing to do with travel, although the photographer may have travelled there the actual scenes are there all the time and may have been photographed and submitted by locals 

Traveling is suitcases and a car, train or plane? It's the act of traveling, but unfortunately in English we can also describe taking a trip as Travel.

'travel destination' is a good way of defining what the subject is. But scenic and landscape can describe many of the views as well.

If I take a landscape of a travel destination with people in it, does it become Lifestyle? What the heck is Lifestyle? It's just as vague as "travel" and yes I understand the difference between Holiday in Europe and Holiday in the US. My little camper trailer is a "Caravan" over there.

So if I take a caravan on a holiday, and tell someone locally, they might wonder what I'm talking about. Or think I just rode a Camel on a day off. 

�England and America are two countries separated by the same language� GB Shaw

The same can be said for photographers, keywords, definitions and agency policy?

My definition of a travel photo is "when I look at the photo, does it make me want to go there?"

My definition of a travel photo is "when I look at the photo, does it make me want to go there?"

So if you are already there it is not a travel photo?

I took my stuff on Fotolia down recently (poor sales), but they accepted images other agency would not and rejected a lot of images other agencies embraced. Out of all of the ones I tried, Fotolia was sure the toughest to gauge what they are after.

Oh another good one, that's a better word for it. Tourism Good way to identify what it is.

Travel Destination, I think covers it well also.

We need a category for Tourist Traps too. 

I think travel pics could be the act of travelling or places which attract tourism.

FT has so far been the only agency which sold EL for my travel pics, they do have travel agencies as their customers.

This is Also good: I saw this kind of definition on an agency site as well.

My definition of a travel photo is "when I look at the photo, does it make me want to go there?"

I've lived in New York my entire life (other than college). If I took a photo of Times Square it would be a travel destination (IMHO) even though it's less than an hours' drive or train ride from my house. If I took a macro photo of a flower in a garden in Paris, I wouldn't see it as a travel destination photo. Now, if it was an exotic bloom in the tropics, maybe it would be travel. If I took a sweeping landscape photo of the English moors that would be a travel destination. I think it's more about whether it is something unique to the place or something that could be anywhere. But it can be a close call. Food shots are often used by travel magazines, but you can get Vietnamese food in London and Japanese food in Paris - if a travel magazine is writing about restaurants, these would be travel. But they could be used for other purposes too. It's so subjective.

I have an editorial photo I took when I started with SS through their On the Red Carpet program of someone doing ashiatsu massage at an acting expo that my daughter was attending in NYC. For the past two years it has appeared in Fodor's Guide to Walt Disney World as a thumbnail in their spa section. So you never know.

Here's a link with the photo - I blogged about this subject "Is this Travel Photography?" (June 2012).

http://travelstockphotos.blogspot.com/

No travel keywords - I doubt that travel editors search for "travel" anyway. It's so broad. But I could be wrong.