Travel Consumer Daily was conceived and founded in 2009 by Clive Dorman, one of the region's most experienced consumer travel journalists.  He has a huge range of experience in newspapers, radio and magazines as a reporter, feature writer and columnist, sub-editor, editor and producer covering issues as diverse as politics, industrial relations, international affairs, aviation and tourism for a range of media including the Macquarie Radio Network, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Australia, the Adelaide News, The Adelaide Advertiser, The Melbourne Herald-Sun and The Melbourne Herald, The Sydney Sunday Telegraph, The Sydney Sun Herald, The Canberra Times, The London Evening Standard, The London Sunday Times, Nation Review (Australia), The National Times (Australia), The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the NT News and Sunday Territorian (Darwin) and many others.

In a moment of indulgence, he became a graduate of the Northern Territory University (formerly the Darwin Institute of Technology) associate diploma in Theatre Arts (1986-87) under artistic director Gunduz Kalic, which cured him of an aberrant interest in acting. In the 1970s, he worked as a grave-digger at the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton, Victoria. In September 1990, he began writing a column, Traveller's Check, for The Age, covering travel consumer issues, which ran weekly on Saturdays until August 2007. He continues to write for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, online and in print as an expert on travel consumer issues. He was nominated for the 2009 Australian Travel Writer of the Year Award by the Australian Federation of Travel Agents.