Comments

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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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  KIDS LOVE TRAVEL / CASUAL TRAVEL October 4, 2010 at 4:52pm

  Traditional Guidebooks in print are fading, not dead. I've researched and written guidebooks for 20 years. Its print hayday was until internet was in nearly every home. Even 5 years ago, you could just put lists together or organize info in some format and folks bought it - just to save time. Now, for many, time doesn't equal money...and they love the glitz of electronics. So, if the market is discovering new venues...a guidebook writer must re-discover their bent. We're currently re-inventing our company for 2011. One, offering electronic options PLUS print. Two, focusing more on what isn't on the internet - insights, cautions, organized paths...something we've done well all along but didn't have to focus on so much. My advice to newbies in guidebooks - make sure it's very unique, that you have credibility (not just a list researcher), and be prepared to have a very modest income from sales - oh, even with active author marketing. Without all that, decide to write one based on personal goals because it won't be worth the time/effort unless it's your one and only passion. Hope: Generation Y are tech savvy but are predicted to turn back to nostalgia and creating memories vs. accummulating things. Travel fits that bill.
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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.
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  Allan Lynch October 3, 2010 at 5:48pm

  Er, I do remember 8-track tapes. They provided the background music to my time in collage. Gawd, can you imagine having a car now with an 8-track player in it? (Say a Volaire ...)
  
  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.