THE growth in budget airlines is giving guidebooks a new lease of life and dampening predictions of the printed word being forced to an early grave by the internet. Heavyweight books are being replaced in popularity by lightweight handbag and pocket-sized guides rather than snazzy technology.
Time Out Guides, which launched a series of mini- books called Shortlist two months ago, says there has been a 20 per cent increase in year on year sales, thanks to the popularity of small formats. New York, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, London and Rome are available as Shortlists for £6.99 each.
Luxe City Guides, which are small card concertinas listing places to eat, drink and shop, has just published its first three European titles — Madrid, Istanbul and Paris. The company has doubled in size every year since it started in 2001. The £4.99 guides weigh less than a mobile phone and eschew pictures of “chilli bowls and lily blossom”, according to Grant Thatcher, the founder.
John Duhigg, Penguin’s travel managing director, says his division’s biggest growth area is in the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Top 10 series, costing £6.99 each. “People want the edited highlights,” he said.
Even non-traditional brands are piling into the market, with mini guides being produced by Wallpaper* magazine and Moleskine, makers of the popular notebooks.
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Andrew Steed, general manager of London-based travel bookshop Stanfords, said: “Demand for small guides is a knock-on effect of budget airlines. In the past, if you were going to Hamburg, you had to look at the city within a whole book on Germany. Now, for instance, Thomas Cook City Spots does Hamburg on its own, which does not warrant 800 pages.”
Peter Fiennes, managing director of Time Out Guides, said: “Books are lovely things. They look beautiful, they smell nice and they are cheap — and you don’t feel heart-stricken if you lose one, unlike some expensive gadget.”
Most big travel publishers are making their information available on a variety of formats such as iPods (Rough Guides), mobile phones (Dorling Kindersley), Sony PlayStations (Lonely Planet) and the internet — Rough Guides and Dorling Kindersley are relaunching their websites next year. Many guidebooks (including Rough Guides, Dorling Kindersley and Time Out) are available online, but owing to the cost, time and inconvenience of downloading and printing out reams of paper, sales of traditional guidebooks remain steady.
Mark Ellingham, Rough Guides’ publisher, said: “I think the book is an enduring invention, especially for travel.”