Jessica Korteman is an Australian travel writer and guidebook author, currently based in Melbourne. She has been travelling for the past 20 years and began her career in travel writing in 2011 following the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan, where she was based at the time.
Her initial work focused on life and recovery in the disaster zone, where she was an on-the-ground volunteer aiding local communities in clean-up and recovery activities. She continues to be passionate about recovery in the affected areas and the role of travel writing and tourism as a means of disaster recovery for communities.
Jessica spent 10 years living and working in Japan, and is a Japanese culture expert. In her efforts to improve gender parity in the country, Jessica created Japanese Food Guide in 2021, a platform exclusively for female contributors, a deliberate move by Jessica to change the face of an industry that often undervalues and underpays the contributions of women. Read more about Japanese Food Guide and why Jessica is so passionate about women in travel here.
Outside of Japan, Jessica has travelled extensively, and brings a variety of experiences to her writing – from solo and couples to group and family travel, and budget experiences to bucketlist adventures. Jessica is keenly interested in culture, history, arts and the outdoors, and discovering what makes a destination tick.
Her print titles include Lonely Planet Australia, Lonely Planet Japan and The Joy of Quiet Places.
If you’re interested in having Jessica produce travel content for your publication, please send an email to: [email protected]