Tell us about Zafigo (how the brand differentiates itself from other travel portals?). What is the publication about and what does it aim to achieve?
Zafigo is all about empowering women to live their best lives and be well-informed travellers. Born from a love for travel in 2014, our name was coined from, “Safely, I go.” We have since grown into a safe space and global community for women with the aim to nurture a love for discovery. What makes us different from other travel portals is that we recognise how gendered travel can be, thus Zafigo has a highly targeted audience of women readers who love to explore the world.

What sort of content do you publish, and how often?
Zafigo produces mainly feature articles, listicles, and reviews. Occasionally, Zafigo interviews well-travelled women and high achievers within their fields who continue to push the boundaries of normally male-dominated industries. You’ll also find video content shared throughout our site. We also share daily news articles related to women’s lifestyles and travel. Our main content pillars include destination inspiration, transport, food, accommodation, and flights. You’ll also find that Zafigo has an active social media presence, with owned and repurposed content shared regularly. In terms of numbers, the website pushes out anywhere between 12 to 15 articles per week. On Instagram, Zafigo posts daily on Stories and at least four times a week on the main feed. Meanwhile, our content is shared on Facebook daily.

Who is Zafigo’s target audience and its reach?

• Women aged between 30 to 55 years old.
• Middle to upper-income tier (USD30,000 per annum and above).
• Solo travellers, with friends, or a small family.
• Travellers who live in Asia for work and/or leisure.
• People who spend on good dining, shopping, health, and beauty.
• Digital savvy and always connected when on the go.

    Reach: Approximately 210,000 page views per month (approximately 70% female readers and also approximately 70% of readers are in Malaysia).

What is Zafigo’s editorial focus for 2023?
Zafigo aims to acquire more hotel, product, and (especially) food reviews as well as insights into more off-the-beaten-path locations in Malaysia. We also aim to run more features from readers or freelance travel journalists for more unique, personal, and first-hand accounts.

What topics does your team cover that people might not be aware of?

• Readers’ submissions! Literally any woman is welcome to pitch their story ideas to us and can do so at editor@zafigo.com
• Lifestyle content. Although Zafigo’s content is deeply rooted in travel, we cover women’s lifestyle content overall. So, press kits and reviews on fashion, beauty, health / wellness and the like are more than welcome.

What are the highly sought pitches that PRs should note and how can PRs work with Zafigo?

• Reviews (food and beverages, hotel, products and services that would be of interest to women).
• Inspiring and empowering female figures for editorial features / interviews and social media live chats.
• We’re also interested to collaborate or partner with brands for women-specific or women-led campaigns and events.

Any exciting plans or announcements we should be aware of?
We’re in the early stages of relaunching our annual event ZafigoX later in the year. Past instalments saw us bring in women with amazing and inspiring stories to share like Manal al-Sharif, Marin Minamiya, and our own Anita Yusof.

Answers submitted by Editor, Tengku Zai.