Travel guide books arrive at a digital destination
Whether on the streets of Bangkok or Barcelona, the image of a young traveller looking for a place to stay or somewhere to eat seems almost incomplete without a well-thumbed copy of a Rough Guide or Lonely Planet book in their hand.
Lonely Planet, established in the 1970s by the husband and wife team Tony and Maureen Wheeler, today publish 500 titles in 118 countries, selling 6.5m copies a year in English alone. Rough Guides has followed a similar trajectory over the past 24 years and now has 11 per cent of the UK travel guide market.
Both brands have thrived by catering for travellers of all ages and budgets. But the internet poses the threat that, whatever those budgets, they may no longer stretch to guide books.
There has been a proliferation of websites offering free travel information
