Comments

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  Sam Scribe October 8, 2010 at 9:13pm

  Many travel writers resent sites whose reviews aren't written by travel writers. But here's why the public should be wary of TripAdvisor, etc., too:
  
  "Earlier this year, I uploaded a fictitious nine-bedroom guesthouse – the 111 Hotel – using the address of the Telegraph Media Group and a picture of the office canteen. I added a couple of "over-the-top" reviews (with blatant hyperbole and five-star ratings). After 10 days of my constant tinkering it was finally spotted – but it was time enough for it to be rated in London's top 70 guesthouses (out of more than 300) and time enough for an unsuspecting traveller to be potentially duped into parting with a deposit or turning up at an address to be met by someone whose intentions would be unclear."
  
  And now it looks like there'll be a class action suit against Tripadvisor because of unsubstantiated, business-killing comments.
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  Ed Wetschler October 5, 2010 at 9:11pm

  Good comments, all -- well-thought out (well, this has been on our minds) and well said. The two comments I'll make here are unrelated to each other:
  1. At a recent meeting of SATW's Editors Council, more than one panelist argued that writers will make more money creating an iPhone app than writing a guidebook.
  2. After six years living part-time in Greenwich Village, I'm still impressed by the overwhelming tendency of tourists to wander around my nabe with guidebooks in their hands. What's more, it's almost always open to the map pages.
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  Max Pesling October 5, 2010 at 9:08pm

  On a different (bank)note, media star salaries apparently are soaring even as every other writer has seen his/her income plummet or disappear, and I'm wondering... is this a sign the Dark Ages are coming to a close, or is this the media industry equivalent of what's been happening on Wall Street (the top dogs get the fat paychecks while America collects unemployment checks)?
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  Bruce Murray October 5, 2010 at 12:11pm

  I've never been "in print" for the past 15 years of producing travel content. Mostly because it limited you mostly to text printed on paper. Internet outlets let me use text, photos and videos. My current project on Facebook is an excellent example, www.facebook.com/30daysinparis . People would much rather see it than read it. My hope is that in the future mobile device users will find it helpful.
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  Lana Bortolot October 4, 2010 at 3:23pm

  I've already seen this change on a micro scale with the iPad. Friends living abroad have visited NYC--iPads in hand--and are using them as instant interactive references, complete with maps, current "where to" lists, visuals and user-generated content/e-opinions. They even accessed language and menu apps ... this will be the game-changer.
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  Keith Bain October 4, 2010 at 9:35am

  Cinemas and DVDs serve different purposes. We go to the movies for an experience, just as those of us who read books do so for a certain kind of experience that's different from scanning a website. Guidebooks in the book format will evolve to assume a different role, until they are replaced by digital media entirely. Sure...the pre-holiday planning stuff in books is probably near-obsolete, but the handheld book can and should provide intelligent, enlightening and informative reading for people who travel to learn, or want personal access to reliable information, facts, anecdotes and backstory. Guidebooks should help literate travelers to better understand their destination.
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  James Martin October 4, 2010 at 9:21am

  Guidebooks are dead like the movie theaters were dead after DVDs replaced them.
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  Sandra & John Scott October 3, 2010 at 8:12pm

  I agree that guidebook will be around for a while longer but will morph from hard copy to digital books.
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  Sarah Irving October 3, 2010 at 7:33pm

  Obviously I'm biased, since I'm currently working on a guidebook, but I still can't help feeling that there are still a reasonable number of people out there who don't have hi-tech enough phones, or want to disconnect, or want to be able to unobtrusively check out the bus route to X or the exact street location of Y without flashing an expensive bit of kit around. Maybe for big-name destinations - Paris, Venice, NYC - internet stuff and apps might be enough, but in places where finding people who speak your language is harder, or the traveller is less likely to speak the language, or that are just that bit more niche, I reckon guidebooks still have a way to go. I suspect Allan is also right, though, in that they need to get beyond being generic listings and give genuine spirit and local colour - see, for instance, the tactic which Lonely Planet seems to be using more of in recent editions, of including interviews with interesting local characters.
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  Darryl Musick October 3, 2010 at 7:04pm

  Ed, I don't think the guidebook is dead just yet. I do think that books put out today have to go beyond the obvious and point out more that the top 10 heavily visited tourist spots of a destination. Also, there are still parts of this world...many of them highly sought out by travelers...that still lack access to all of our modern electronic information capabilities.
  
  I still carry a pocket sized guide when I'm in an unfamiliar place. It's quicker than looking something up online when I really need an answer fast.