Why are people turning away from traditional travel guides?
Travel guides are in a bit of a crisis. Printed guidebook sales have been declining for years and making content available digitally doesn’t seem to have helped much. Given that so much information is now available for free online and that extreme segmentation made possible through social media has produced many more niche markets, many people are now asking about the future of the travel guide, printed or otherwise.
Complaints about Lonely Planet, the world's largest guidebook creating company are almost as ubiquitous as the guides themselves. Critics complain that guides are increasingly poorly researched, are quickly rendered out of date, create legions of ‘Lonely Planet Zombies’ and reflect the opinions of just one reviewer. Similar complaints exist for other travel guides.
In contrast, the internet provides huge amounts of free content, which is kept up to date by other travellers as well as businesses themselves. Content is often linked to services, so it’s possible to both find a hotel and book it all on the same website. Recommendations are crowd-sourced through sites like Trip Advisor, making them more trustworthy and preventing companies from compromising on quality while still riding the coattails of a Lonely Planet recommendation.
Most people want trusted, up-to-date content but are increasingly unwilling to pay for it. While there are flaws in online travel content - systems which can be played and irritations such as slow website speeds, poor design or a multitude of adverts - printed content is often not deemed superior enough to warrant a price tag.
Yet, guidebooks still persist. Some observers say it’s too early to declare the death of the printed guidebook. Others say that travel guides will persist but in a different format.
“Professionally created guides will always have a place in the traveler’s toolkit, but they aren’t going to be limited to paper any more and the next generation of guidebook brands will need to make the business work sooner rather than later.”
So what will the guidebook of the future look like? People still look for travel inspiration and itineraries. The Travelgram bubble is bursting, and travellers are moving away from stunning images and moving back to well-written, information rich content. While we will probably never go back to the days of finding hotel recommendations in a book, there is still a role for the travel guide for people who value travel and enjoy the experience of planning travel. There is still a role for a travel guide for people who want quality, curated content and want to avoid adverts and pop-ups demanding they sign up for a newsletter. There is still a role for a travel guide for people who want just a little more from travel than free content.
Deliberate Travel specializes in quality, well-researched content for the travel industry. We’re not interested in writing listicles or Top 10 Sights pieces. We dig deeper into places so that people can actually learn from them rather than just seeing them. To find out more about us, visit www.deliberatetravel.com