Apart from news and views on media covering tourism, travel, and hospitality, writers, editors, photogs, and bloggers share tips, leads, ideas, news, gripes. PR reps/journos ISO press releases/trips, see also "PR/Marketing." Opinions stated are not necessarily those of Tripatini.
A tribute to my friend, the late travel media icon Arthur Frommer
The legendary U.S. travel journalist and entrepreneur Arthur Frommer passed away November 18 at the age of 95. Born in Virginia and with an early boyhood in a small town in Missouri, Arthur was a lawyer who became a pioneering and great travel journalist, and who will be remembered as having helped open the joys of travel to the masses. While serving in the U.S. Army in Europe in the 1950s, he got the travel bug, came out with a travel guide for servicemen, and followed up in 1957 with…
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Comments
I suppose we could ask if there was any real need for a guidebook to start with? Why not just head out and discover? But as a society we are time pressed or not as adventurous or want short cuts to the best.
I suppose there will always be a need for guidance. But I think the trade shot itself in the foot by just repackaging the web. I mean no disrespect to guidebook writers because what they include in a book is limited by what the publisher's marketing team has decided people want to know. It seems to me that so many of the guidebooks I see are reduced to nuts and bolts uber practical stuff: type of food in a restaurant, price guides for hotels, what to see at a museum, best buys in a city ... What happened to glorious tales? To stories and ideas that inspire wanderlust?
It seems rare now to find the romance of travel anymore. Some of it exists, but the boring franchise stuff seems to fill shelves.
I think the debate should centre around who you readership is. Maybe younger people don't want to carry books (tho' I think there is a retro movement that thinks books, like vinyl recordings, are cool again). Older people, including Boomers, and people from other cultures still read dead tree technology. They may be wired to the hilt for their daily and professional lives, but on holiday many want to disconnect totally. And if you live on-line for your professional existence how better to get away than shun technology?
Look at the French. Virtually the entire nation goes on holiday for August. Those who don't, stay in Paris to protest. I have French friends in North America who wouldn't dream of holidaying any time but August. And they absolutely refuse to check their emails or turn on computers for their holiday. They barely even answer their cell phones or turn them on. Hell, they don't even do emails on weekends because that's their free time.
I think a lot of people are making decisions based on now, yet fail to factor in the impact of the recession. Travel took a hit, so isn't it natural that guidebook sales would also drop if fewer people were travelling?
I do believe there is a cultural/demographic shift taking place, but I don't think dead tree technology is over. It's still cheap and convenient. And some people like the ability to go back and reference it. Or they love the feel and intimacy of a book or how easy it is to use on a crowded bus, a subway, a plane, or in a sunny cafe or at the beach. And if it's lost, stolen, fell into the bath, the ocean, a puddle, it's no great financial loss.
If anything, maybe the shift among some readers will clear out the dreck and we can get back to inspirational reads and less of the phone-book-like compilation publishers think will sell.
If guidebooks aren't selling, maybe publishers have to rethink what they're publishing. Maybe they should listen more to writers than to marketing teams as to what readers want and are interested in? And maybe we will turn back from being a mass media to a select, respected, targeted medium, and a luxury the way books were in the Victorian era.
I have to believe that the future is always going to be richer than today.
Orlando has set a Guiness World Record for the largest human smiley face. 500 participants along with celebrities, local officials, and media gathered on the parking garage roof of the new Orlando Center. The successful record was attempted to further awareness of the theme that "Orlando Makes Me Smile".
Hell, do any of you even remember 8-track tape? British journalist Benji Lanyado insists that between twitter and a few apps and websites, there's no need to ever carry a guidebook again. For us, the implication is, Don't bother writing one.
Is he right, or is he overstating the case?
I rented a car in Dallas. I booked it from Canada, gave them the credit card number. Like most people, my platinum card provides insurance when I use it to rent a car. The guy on the rental desk wouldn't accept that. He was bound to charge me extra for the insurance. When I dug in my heels, he insisted I write down the insurance company providing the coverage through my credit card. So I wrote down TD Insurance. The card was through the TD Bank and like all Canadian banks they have their own insurance companies, so it was a close-ish name.
My point: either this guy wasn't probably trained or he was trained to upsell by ignoring the agreements the company has with various credit card companies.
Now that I remember.....grrrrrr!