There was always something exciting about buying a guidebook for a destination I was about to visit.
Long bus rides to work and lunch hours were spent poring over the pages, highlighting the “don’t miss” destinations and circling hotels to call when I got back to the office (when no-one was looking).
The guide was a status symbol, something I would flaunt in a “Look at me, I’m going off to some exotic location while you suckers will still be working” way whenever I was out in public. But it would also freak me out, that my entire trip’s success was so dependent on it.
The guide was a status symbol, something I would flaunt in a “Look at me, I’m going off to some exotic location while you suckers will still be working” way whenever I was out in public. But it would also freak me out, that my entire trip’s success was so dependent on it.
I would have a recurring nightmare that I was on the plane when I suddenly realised I had left the book at home. All my plans, places to visit and booking references there sitting on the kitchen table. That dream was eventually replaced by one where I missed my flight because I was so engrossed in reading the guide in the departure lounge. Me, a neurotic traveller… ?
For the longest time, the guidebook was your bible, as important as your passport, luggage and emergency Vegemite when taking a trip overseas.
Then something changed. This interweb thingy became pretty popular and all of a sudden carrying a dog-eared book which weighed a kilo and took up valuable space in your hand luggage didn’t seem as necessary. All the information you needed was now just a few clicks away, ready to be printed out in the office (when no-one was looking).
For me, a recent trip to Istanbul highlighted just how much things have changed. I didn’t have time to get to a bookstore to look for a guide and, to be honest, I was only visiting for a few days and didn’t want to spend $30 on a book I’d only use once. So I hit the web.
Chucking ‘Istanbul’ and ‘Turkey’ into Twitter pulled out a few “must-see” articles from travel journos and locals from which I built an itinerary. I visited Trip Advisor to check out hotels in the region and also emailed a few contacts for recommendations.
Then I found Lonely Planet’s Istanbul City Guide at the iPhone App Store, a digital, condensed version of their printed guide which could be downloaded, used offline (so I didn’t incur international data fees) and cost a fraction of the price of a book.
Any nervousness I had about not using a travel book quickly disappeared. A couple of hours online had given me more than I needed to fill my five-day trip. It was at that point I realised I’d… ahem, turned the page on guidebooks.
So what’s killed the travel guidebook? There’s the obvious disadvantages of weight and the potential for information to be out-of-date. But there’s more.
In the online/Facebook/Twitter age, blogs, posts and user reviews carry more weight than ever before. And travellers have become happier to take advice from their peers.
There is also the perception that travel guides are too mainstream, pushing herds of travellers to the same destinations and creating “cookie cutter” travel experiences.
Finding a website or a blog post that reveals a hidden travel gem has become the new way to consume travel information, leaving the guidebook to play catch-up in a race it can never win.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of the iPhone/iPad/Kindle revolution. With more and more people wanting to consume their reading material digitally, making travel information available online is now the cheap and easy way for travel publishers to get their message out to the masses.
Digital guidebooks, blogs, forums, destination content, tips and advice are all now intrinsic parts of travel publishers’ websites.
I’m as guilty as anyone in the trend of moving to the digital way of gathering travel information, but there’s a big part of me that will always miss colouring in a big chunk of text fluorescent yellow or folding down the corner of a useful page
You can read more from Paul on his News.com.au blog The Naked Traveller
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