Travel guides. When was the last time you picked up a guide to advise you on where to go? For most of you reading this, I assume you struggle to think of a time or maybe never have. So, at what point did we lose this classic staple of literature? To get to the crux of this, let’s turn back a few pages to when travel guides began.
Travel started as an aristocratic privilege due to the expenses. This exclusivity became a middle-class possibility around the 1980s. At this time, railways expanded making travel easier and more affordable. The middle-class were able to travel but many did not know that they could or how to. For example, families with fixed budgets needed assistance with activities and accommodation. Travel guides were the solution to this. This form of literature gave knowledge to the middle-class, expanding leisure tourism. Through marketing and advertising, the desire for travel guides grew.
This begs the question of where has this desire disappeared to? I believe that we rely on social media as our newly adapted travel guide. Whenever anyone wants to go abroad their first point of call is to ask for recommendations or hear about someone else’s experience. Due to the wide scale nature of social media, people can now broadcast their opinion on a wider scale, meaning that buying a travel guide almost seems like an inconvenience in comparison to the easily accessible opinions online.
Take me, for example: my friend and I wanted to go abroad in summer. To narrow down the options, we went online to travel companies and travel articles, resulting in limited or already known options. After being unsuccessful in finding a unique location, we turned to social media. Or really, I should say the travel guide of sorts found us, as the algorithm adapted showing us locations for holidays. It wasn’t long until we settled on Gothenburg, Sweden, a place we both have never heard of or even considered.
Social media opens opportunities for travel and unsuspected places. My friend and I would never have considered opening a travel guide of Sweden. Yet, we had an incredible time, and I recommend it wherever I am (as you can see now). So, is social media killing the art of travel guides? Hopefully, travel guides and social media can coexist allowing all to have their own interesting holiday.
Photo by Esra Afşar on Unsplash
