Why travel guidebooks are not going anywhere
This is despite predictions that the Internet would kill them
THEY declared that it was dead – or, if it wasn’t dead yet, it soon would be. The cause of the malady was viral: first blogs, then influencers on Instagram and TikTok. Yet, for all journalists’ poor prognoses, the printed travel guide is still in fine fettle. Sales in Britain were mostly flat in 2014 to 2019, a period when smartphones became both ubiquitous and powerful.
That is not to say there have not been spells of ill health. Frommer’s, the grandfather of American guidebooks, was sold in 2012 for US$22 million to Google, which reportedly planned to end the series’ print run. (The following year Arthur Frommer, its founder, bought the company back.) Lonely Planet, the best-known publisher, has been through several owners at ever-lower valuations. In 2020, the company ended up in the hands of Red Ventures, a media company funded by private equity.
The one virus that did come close to killing guides off was Covid-19. Guidebook publishers saw 95 to 99 per cent of revenues evaporate when lockdowns hit. Yet in both America and Britain, the biggest markets for English-language guides, sales are approaching pre-pandemic levels. Last year, Americans bought 5.8 million guidebooks and maps – down from 6.9 million before the pandemic, but up from four million in 2020.
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