Every time Zanny Merullo lands somewhere new, she said she runs the same experiment: She books a ride from the airport, settles into the back seat and asks the driver what people eat there.
“Usually, I start with food because I find that’s the topic that most people are comfortable with,” Merullo said. “It gets them to open up and feel comfortable and enthusiastic about something.”
In Berlin, a Turkish Uber driver — who Merullo said was at first standoffish — warmed up once the conversation turned to cuisine. After, she said he described how Turkish immigrants brought their cooking to Germany and how a new German version emerged, giving rise to the döner kebab, one of the country’s most popular street foods. Merullo turned the conversation into a feature article years later.
“Some of my best story ideas have come from that practice,” Merullo said.
Merullo, a travel journalist based out of Fort Collins, will bring that philosophy to the Global Village Museum of Arts and Cultures Thursday, Nov. 12 for a talk on travel storytelling, which will then be followed by a Q&A. According to Merullo, the event grew out of a previous talk she gave in May on positive impact tourism that went over well enough for the museum to invite her back. With a photography exhibit currently on display, organizers suggested something that blended images and storytelling.
“Our current exhibition Exposure: Identity and the Evolving Image asks a simple but layered question: How do you see yourself, and what does it mean to be seen?” said Kasey Medlin, the outreach and programs manager at Global Village. “It traces the history of photography and its role in shaping personal and communal identity around the world. We wanted a program that carries that conversation beyond the gallery.”
Merullo said she hopes attendees leave with an idea on how to share their own trips, whether that be starting a blog, taking photographs or sharing stories with friends afterward. She will also cover what makes a responsible traveler: being present, involving local voices and understanding travel media shapes how people visit places.
“I believe that tourism has a lot of power to be a force for good in the world,” Merullo said. “(I’m) just trying to make more people aware of that as they’re making their own travel decisions.”
She said her path to that conviction began while traveling in her youth. Raised in Massachusetts, Merullo skipped college and went to Cambodia, saying she only intended to stay a few months; instead, she stayed for years.
“I totally fell in love with the place,” Merullo said.
She also spoke of the warmth of those who endured the trauma of the Cambodian genocide only a generation earlier. She said she found a large expat community of writers and nonprofit founders and gained many opportunities to write about life. Merullo explained that from there she realized she didn’t need a degree to pursue what she wanted to do: travel and tell stories.
Merullo moved to Fort Collins four years ago and has since become a board member of the Fort Collins Italian Club — where she teaches the language — and she started a Spanish club of her own. She said she also speaks French, German and Khmer, which she said was the hardest language to learn.
Merullo said Khmer taught her something about the fear of speaking imperfectly. As a self-described perfectionist, Merullo said she froze at the idea of speaking a language wrong. In Cambodia, where foreigners rarely learn Khmer, people laughed every time she tried.
“It was the best thing for my ego,” Merullo said. “I might sound like a toddler, but at least we’re having a moment of connection right now.”
That mindset is what Merullo said shaped the favorite story she has written: a feature about her friend who is a tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap — the city she lived in — where she followed him and other drivers around for a day. She said she wrote it because she noticed drivers are often overlooked by tourists who see them as “almost like the help,” and her goal was to humanize them.
Merullo said she tries to be honest about the field’s complications. Oaxaca, Mexico, where she attended a work event hosted by the local tourism board, has struggled with overtourism in recent years, and she said she felt it.
“A lot of the locals are really hostile to tourists and to me,” Merullo said. “I really felt that energy, even though I was there because the local tourism board wanted me to be there, so it was kind of a strange situation for me.”
After, she wrote about nearby places that were “more in need of tourism,” an effort to push some of Oaxaca’s crowding out to the countryside. She doesn’t exempt her own profession from the problem; she said some Instagram content creators have contributed to overtourism and that she is “sure travel journalism does too.”
In September, Merullo returned to Cambodia for G Adventures’ GX Summit, which on paper was a work trip, but to Merullo, it was closer to a homecoming.
“That’s home to me,” Merullo said. “More than the States, more than anywhere else. … I would love to go back. There are definitely more stories to be written about Cambodia.”
Not all of her work in Cambodia has been journalism. She joked her charity began the way many expat projects do.
“One night I got drunk with a friend and decided to start a charity,” Merullo said. “That’s a typical thing for expats to do in Cambodia: sit around drinking and then come up with an idea of a way to help give back to the local community.”
She said she raised money while she lived there to support a school in the countryside with “a really dilapidated playground and few resources.”
Home for Merullo has always been a movable idea. Next, she said she’s moving to Peru, drawn by the lower cost of living, chance to sharpen her Spanish and growing interest in conservation. She said she doesn’t plan for the long term; she just wants to keep telling stories, ideally ones that do some good.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have Zanny present in the past; she is a lovely orator and a wonderful writer,” Medlin said. “We hope everyone leaves with a fresh way of seeing and telling their own travels.”
Reach Maci Lesh at life@collegian.com or on social media @macileshmedia.
