ABSTRACT

Despite the ubiquity of blogs on travel, the use of this format by guidebook publishers is comparatively rare. A number of well-known publishers including Lonely Planet, Frommer Media, Michelin, Rough Guides, and Time Out, among others, have a well-developed online presence that includes websites, Facebook pages and Twitter streams that complement their print publications. Few have, however, ventured into the blogosphere to either create or host narratives of journeys or travel experiences. The publisher of the Rough Guides series provides forums for travel communities via Facebook and Twitter whereas Michelin’s ‘Le Guide Vert’, on Facebook mainly promotes content published on the Michelin travel websites (Rough Guides 2016a; 2016b). Thus far, however, blogs have been conspicuously absent among the online offerings of both these publishers. Time Out gives a perfunctory nod to blogging by categorising some of its online travel articles as ‘blog’ posts, but these are really feature articles embedded in the content of its main website and do not necessarily describe a personal travel experience or have a blog-like structure (Time Out 2016). Written in a similar vein, but more like a blog in format, is Arthur Frommer Online, a text by the editors and founder of Frommers and hosted on its website (Frommer Media 2016). For the most part, this publicises the best travel deals available and comments on issues pertaining to commercial travel. It presents these as a series of posts in reverse-chronological order. It is not, despite its allusive title, a narrative of the travels of the founder Arthur Frommer, or indeed his own blog in entirety, and cannot in this sense be regarded as a travel blog. In general, the abovementioned publishers have engaged to some degree with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to gain more visibility. However, as erstwhile Frommers online editor Jason Clampet observes, ‘Guidebook companies know that growth will come from digital, but they’re all legacy print operations paralysed by fiefdoms and an older skill set…. when they try content, old-school content companies just bumble when it comes to digital’ (G.M. 2013). This may account for their reluctance, thus far, to strengthen and extend this online presence to other platforms such as blogs.