Are Travel Guidebooks Dying?
Don’t count them out yet
Between accessible online travel tips and a global pandemic, one might guess that there is no future, or even a present, for travel guidebooks. Granted, there has been a significant decrease in sales, especially following the 2008 recession and the proliferation of smartphones. However, all is not lost for the publishers able to “meet the increasing demand for trusted curation amid the dubious quagmire of … TripAdvisor ratings.”
The Washington Post classified guidebooks in 2022 as “generally doing okay,” which may not sound like a glowing endorsement of the industry’s viability, but given the widespread perception of guidebooks being near-extinct, this assertion is not as damning as it might be for other sectors. Demand may not be high for travel guides, but don’t write obituaries for the industry. Zora O’Neill, writer for Lonely Planet and Moon said, “[Since] … working on guidebooks [in 2002], people have been like, ‘The end of guidebooks is nigh.”
Almost certainly, however, the industry’s best days are behind it. 2006 was the best year for guidebook sales, significantly dropping in 2008. After 2013, “travel book sales stabilized, then stayed roughly even until the pandemic hit.”
Sales have steadily gone up since the nadir of 2020, but nearly doubling those numbers to 2006…
