One for the Road: LP Cities

by Erik Olsen on

I hope to get my hands on this fine
new book out from Lonely Planet so I can review it for our readers, but in the meantime, y’all might be interested just
to know about it. Yes, Lonely Planet, ye of the ever useful, sometimes too heavy, guides to everywhere, has assembled an
all-new coffee-table sized compendium called The Cities Book, that
takes a close and visually-pleasing look at the world’s 200 best cities.

Of course, one man’s
"best" is another’s "worst" (i.e. Bangkok), but you can usually trust the sensibilities of the LP
folks, and it is they who have put this thing together…along with the help of dutiful readers who contributed
comments based on their own whims and experiences. One thing: it ain’t cheap ($50). But that’s probably because they
have filled the book with many vivid photos from their extensive photo catalog. You know you want it. Well, you CAN
register to get your hands on a free copy over
at the Guardian…but you’ll have to do so lickety-split, the deadline is March 30.

Fly Less Says Lonely Planet Founder

by Erik Olsen on

You expect the publishers and writers of your favorite
guidebooks to practice what they preach…but what if they get too preachy? I guess that’s my question in the matter of
Tony Wheeler and Mark Ellingham, two names behind the Lonely Planet Empire and behemoths in the world of guidebook
publishing, who
say we all fly too much, too often, and are causing permanent damage to the planet as a result. The planet is not
just lonely, they are telling us, it is getting too warm.

Strange to hear such a thing from publishing
magnates who have made their fortunes beseeching us to fly more. But it makes a bit of sense. At least part of the
equation does. The campaign, such as it is, is urging travelers to "fly less and stay longer" as well as to
donate money to carbon offsetting schemes. I’m all for the stay longer part. IMHO too many people go somewhere distant
and then stay for a day or two and jet set out having seen a monument or two. All travelers should favor the
“longer in fewer places” scheme over the “more places shorter” one.

But back to the
Wheeler entreaty. Is this a good thing or the knee-jerk pleas of folks who have made their dough and now want to tell
the rest of us what to do with our vacations? And what’s with the owner of a company that manufactures six
million copies of 600 different Lonely Planet guidebooks a year, the pulp from entire forests of trees, doing telling
us we should be more environmentally concerned? Well, despite the value of asking such questions, I still believe
Wheeler and company’s hearts are in the right place. I practice the quality over quality method of travel anyway,
so I won’t be making any methodology changes soon. But I admit I find the whole matter rather interesting.
 

A Look at Travel Guides

by Erik Olsen on

A very interesting piece in Publisher’s Weekly about the history and current business of travel guides. Read this one. The piece takes a look at how travel guides have evolved due to changes in the marketplace and a morphing of people’s travel habits. It discusses how the (now quite valuable) Baedeker guides of the late 19th and early 20th centuries set the stage for travel with basic guides about mostly large, well-known popular places. This was back when travel was more of a luxury available to the rich, and long before anyone had even heard of adventure travel, let alone before there was a guide for places like Azerbaijan or Papua New Guinea. Now, with airline travel so much easier and more affordable, and a much more itinerant middle, nee leisure class, guides have evolved to cater to very specific wants, and have become guides that both discuss the best places to go as well as educate.

The list of guides mentioned here is vast. From Fodors to Lonely Planet to Let’s go and on and on, the piece offers a really interesting look at how this industry we all know, love and depend on has changed.