The face of guidebooks changed for ever this week. First, Mark Ellingham
announced that he was leaving Rough Guides, then Tony and Maureen Wheeler
sold a controlling share in Lonely Planet to BBC Worldwide. This might seem
like news for the books or business pages, but it will also affect everyone
who travels.
Lonely Planet has certainly come a long way since the 1970s, when the first
guide, Across Asia on the Cheap, was typed out on a kitchen table, stapled
together and peddled to Australian bookstores. Thirty-five years later, the
company has been sold for a rumoured £70m – though the Wheelers are
insistent that money wasn’t the only factor in the decision. They want the
business to be taken to what they call “the next level”.
Mark Ellingham also sees the need for change. He set up Rough Guides in 1982,
and, though he sold a majority stake to Penguin in the 1990s, he stayed on
to run the company. Now he’s leaving to devote more time to other
(nonguidebook) interests.
It is, he feels, a good time to go. Pointing to Hilary Bradt’s departure from
Bradt Travel Guides and the sale of Cadogan Guides, as well as his own move,
Ellingham describes guidebooks as being “at a cusp”.
At the root of it, of course, is technology. By the time you open even the
newest edition of a guidebook, the information is at least a year out of
date, often two or more. Publishers have come up with various ways of
delivering information faster. The niche Purple Guides offer online updates
for hotels and restaurants. Rough Guides’ Directions books come with CDs
inside, allowing readers to enter the entire text onto a computer or a
Palm-style PDA. And both Rough Guides and Lonely Planet have created
successful websites that offer a range of material for download, from Rough
Guides’ PodScrolls, specifically created for colour iPods, to Lonely
Planet’s Pick & Mix downloads of some of its American guidebooks.
More than 4m people use the Lonely Planet site each month. No wonder BBC
Worldwide was interested.
The web is the new battleground for guidebook customers and, as Ellingham
recognises, the technology is almost with us to further exploit the
possibilities. “The iPhone is the best possible example not of where we are
now, but of where we will be in a year or two, when Apple starts selling
books to download in the same way it is now selling music. Travel books will
be at the forefront of that movement.”
Seen in this light, BBC Worldwide’s move on Lonely Planet makes perfect sense.
Its chief executive, John Smith, has talked of creating “one of the world’s
leading content businesses”. Lonely Planet travel content exploited by BBC
Worldwide’s technological know-how: quite a combination.
It will be difficult to compete – it costs money to keep at the forefront of
digital publishing – and Ellingham expects some series to disappear,
particularly those that lack a strong identity. But he is also convinced
that certain smaller publishers will make the transition.
Maybe some books will also survive. I hope so. Because in a few years’ time,
when the rest of the world is squinting to read text on a digital screen, I
want to be there with a weighty, worn, marked book in my hand.
Guide to the guides
THE BEST IN PRINT
Bradt: going where others fear to tread (or publish), Bradt now has
more than 100 titles, many written by specialists. Good coverage of Africa
and eastern Europe.
Footprint: the imprint’s inaugural 1924 South American Handbook is
still going strong (and is now in its 84th edition). The newer books cover
most of the world, but Asia is still a blind spot.
Lonely Planet: it has published some of the worst-written books on the
shelves, but recent years have seen standards rise. At the forefront for
travel information.
Rough Guides: they always had an edge over the competition, for their
cultural coverage and sense of fun, and they now lead in championing
environmental issues, too. The series commands travel’s middle ground.
Time Out: the best for city coverage, Time Out has thrived on the rise
of short-break holidays. Many of its books are updated annually, giving them
a freshness others lack.
THE BEST ON THE NET
timesonline.co.uk/travel: 5,000
skilfully written and carefully researched travel articles, all easily
searchable, and exclusive deals on thousands of hotels, villas and
apartments. For the latest travel blogs, webcams, websites and internet
booking tips, check out timesonline.co.uk/onlinetravel.
www.greentraveller.co.uk: a site
we should all be using more often. The journalist Richard Hammond’s web
pages are the first place to look for green holidays and for discussions on
environmental issues.
www.lonelyplanet.com: more than 4m
people can’t be wrong, can they? Lonely Planet’s website is all things to
all people: travellers’ forum, hotel-booking service, podcaster.
www.mrandmrssmith.com: primarily a
hotel-reservation service, but, unlike travelintelligence.net and other
competitors, the site includes chic destination guides.
www.timeout.com:Time Out scores over its
competitors by offering recent content from its weekly or monthly magazines,
from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.
I'm delighted that Anthony Sattin is one of the many people who will continue to use guidebooks, but am alarmed by the news that Hilary Bradt has left her eponymous company. As Bradt's MD, I can vouch that Hilary is still very much involved with the business not just in body, but also in spirit - the same spirit of inquisitive, adventurous and quirky experience that has championed our commitment to ethical travel and unusual destinations for the past 33 years. Far from witnessing the decline of the printed word, we are enjoying ever-increasing interest and sales and have a packed programme that will see the number of titles which we publish double in the next 3 years. And yes, we do recognise and believe in the value of digital content, but as a complementary delivery method and not as a replacement for the trusted guidebook. Bradt is now the largest and oldest independent travel publisher and remains committed to providing quality information via the most relevant and useful channels.
Donald Greig, MD Bradt Guides, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks
I think there may be some problems with using new technology to replace guidebooks. The print size on phone screens can make it difficult to read and you can even get a phone signal in all parts of Scotland. Yes you can print our various pages from an online source and take them with you.
I think some travellers are too dependant on guide books. Surely part of the enjoyment of travel is to spend some time discovering places yourself.
I write destination guides for my online travel business, Europe a la Carte. The great thing about online guides is that you can add links so that the readers can find out more about a topic that is of interest to them so the guide becomes more like a point of reference for further information rather than having to print all the information in a guide book.
Karen Bryan, Berwick upon Tweed, UK
I would like to adjust the impression given that I have “departed†from Bradt Travel Guides because of the move in the industry towards digital. Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from having departed I still own the company and am still chairman. I stepped down as Managing Director because of the strength the company has shown in the last few years, with steadily increasing sales, and because I found my perfect replacement in Donald Greig. We still believe passionately in the printed word; Bradt guides will be here for a long time to come. Our books are known for the quality of the writing, and good writing needs to be read on the page. And for the unusual desintinations that we cover, where background information is as valuable as practical details, a printed book is what travellers want. .
Hilary Bradt, Chalfont St Peter, UK