To quote Heraclitus, no one visits the same destination twice. Travel publishers are taking this view to heart, revising existing travel guides and offering new perspectives on popular travel destinations.
At Lonely Planet, Piers Pickard, the publisher’s managing director, says: “We are updating our pocket guides to make them more inspirational. Bags LondonFor example, it will include more photos and sections that make it easier for users to navigate by experiences rather than places.”
The series, designed for one- to seven-day trips, also ventures to two new destinations: Pocket Azores And Bags-Cape Verde are due to be released in October. “The Azores are perfectly located for travel, in the Atlantic between Europe and the US,” says Pickard of the Portuguese territory, adding that the island chain “like everywhere else in Portugal has been a popular destination during the pandemic because the country has remained very open.” Both the Azores and Cabo Verde, an island nation near West Africa, “are relatively small, so we thought Pocket was the appropriate format.”
Avalon Travel’s Moon imprint has historically been strongest in Asia and the Americas, but, says Avalon publisher Jaimee Callaway, “We have had our eye on Europe for some time.” Moon’s expansion to the continent, which began in 2019, continues with Moon Seville, Granada & Andalusia: With Cordoba, Malaga & Tangier (November) And Provence and the French Riviera (January 2025). Overtourism was already a problem before 2020, Callaway says, so “there was a need for titles that highlighted travel outside of core cities.”
Travel impresario Rick Steves, whose eponymous label is under the Avalon umbrella, made his name guiding visitors from the United States to Europe, but his geographical resume is more extensive. In 1978, he traveled overland from Eastern Europe to Nepal, an experience he documented in the diaries that form the centerpiece of his forthcoming On the Hippie Trail (February 2025) When Steves made this trip, Callaway said, “a generation of backpackers realized there was no information available for the kind of travel they wanted to do. So they created their own guidebooks.”
Double shots
New offerings at Fodor’s include the InFocus Lisbonby editorial director Doug Stallings says it is “an expanded version of the Lisbon content from our larger Portugal guide,” and a recently released, in-depth guide to Mexico City. “We have a book called In Mexico City in 2020, geared toward people renting Airbnbs and staying longer,” says Stallings. “But it’s such a big, sprawling city that it’s difficult to cover this in a condensed format, so we decided to publish a comprehensive treatise.”
At Hardie Grant, a new approach is reinvigorating the publisher’s take on a classic. “Japan is a perennial destination for international tourists: Between October 2023 and March 2024, 629,000 visitors came there from the United States,” says Amanda Louey, editor of Hardie Grant. “And with the current interest in sustainable travel, travelers are switching to rail.” Japan’s convenient rail passes make rail travel particularly attractive for visitors, she says; Train Japan (Dec.) by Steve Wide and Michelle Mackintosh offers “both geographical and thematic itineraries.”
In January, Rough Guides published Bag Rough Guide Genevathe first time that the publisher has dedicated an entire book to the Swiss city. “We have a travel guide for Switzerland,” says Sarah Clark, publishing director at Rough Guides. “But even though Geneva is an important financial center, I have never seen a travel guide for Geneva. It could have an interesting reach because Geneva attracts tourists, but also people who come to work or fly in because they are going somewhere nearby, for example to the French Alps.”
Also on deck: The Rough Guide for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan (November), the publisher’s first foray into the Caucasus region. “We have an extensive European roster,” says Clark, “and we felt that this region, which is interesting but not a mainstream destination, was not being adequately covered by us and other publishers.”
Whether it’s exploring new regions or rethinking old approaches, travel publishers have always had the same goal, says Clark: “We create showcases for our authors’ and editors’ knowledge and love of travel.”
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A version of this article appeared in the December 8, 2024 issue of Publisher: under the heading: Congratulations
