Just as they craft advertising campaigns to woo vacationers, tourism promoters spend considerable time and resources subsidizing travel writers' itineraries. Armed with free airline tickets, complimentary meals and VIP access, travel publicists around the country sponsor junkets for hundreds -- if not thousands -- of writers each year, industry executives said.

"Everybody wants to run a press trip. Every bed-and-breakfast, every hotel, every tour operator," said James Plouf, who runs travelwriters.com, where publicists pay $900 a year to advertise junkets. "We won't accept the press trip if there's not some kind of subsidy." The site counts 15,000 people as members, and posts about 200 trips a year, including a cycling trip through Ethiopia, a Hawaiian food tour and a visit to North Carolina's Swag Country Inn. The Greater Miami tourism bureau alone estimates it provides free or discounted trips to more than 300 writers a year.

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"I hate to be a cynic about this," said Kelly McBride, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg. But unless the article appears in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune or other major publication, "I assume the work is tainted when it comes to travel journalism. . . . I assume the judgment of the writer has been compromised by getting free meals or free plane rides."

Local tourism officials said that, as a rule, large U.S. newspapers do not accept free trips. But policies vary throughout the media industry. The Miami Herald bars staff reporters from accepting subsidies but will print freelance articles about free trips, travel editor Jane Wooldridge said.