Guidebooks

In April 2013, Rick Steves, the venerable American travel writer whose best-selling guidebooks to Europe have reassured an untold number of his compatriots abroad, posted what may have seemed like a surprising entry on Facebook. ‘Are guidebooks dead?' he asked bluntly (Steves 2013). Steves’ question is one that journalists had been pondering for years. With the growth of online travel information and the ability to access it quickly through mobile technology, were guidebooks, they wondered, an archaic medium doomed to extinction? It may be too soon to tell, although Steves was optimistic, predicting that guidebooks will slowly make the transition to the digital age while remaining relevant to plenty of tourists. But whatever the future holds, there is no doubt that by the late twentieth century guidebooks had emerged as a ubiquitous accessory for millions of global travellers.