They reckon, guidebooks will soon be *GONE*
July 3rd 2008 11:30
Category: No Category
Was just flipping through the 'Travel Industry News' at lunch time taking a break from work, one small article got my attention as a contributing guidebook writer: Information Age brings death to guidebooks. Interesting. I read on.
They reckon that with the internet filled with so much information from all over the world, and information sharing of travellers and everyone else alike, getting travel and local information on attractions, accommodation, passport requirements and all other bits and pieces that a guidebook usually offers, it is now so easy to gather what is needed to know about a travel destination that purchasing a guidebook will no longer be necessary soon.
A quick click of the mouse and some creative thinking involved with putting keywords in search engines everyone can create a little guidebook of their own for the destination of their choice, whether or not they have been there.
Makes sense, but that's what they said a long time ago about having a paperless society. With the development of technology and the ability to communicate electronically, they said that it is possible to have a paperless office where everyone simply work off their computers, leave each other messages through computers, diary entries in our applications and have everything stored online. It's been a long time since the evolution of emails and online databases, but people are still printing things out to read. Why? coz it's simply a pain in the backside to have to stare at the computer all day.
Maybe this is one little thing that might just save the guidebooks for another couple of years? Personally I love books and I'll never replace my bookshelf with stacks of 'hard disk drives' with stored ebooks. There is nothing to replace the physical feel of paper, of turning a page to reveal another new page full of stories and adventures; of being about to trace each sentence with your finger, highlight the important parts and having finished it, close it and return it to your bookself knowning that it'll still be there with every page intact, ready for your next browse.
Perhaps the same thing can apply to guidebooks?
They reckon that with the internet filled with so much information from all over the world, and information sharing of travellers and everyone else alike, getting travel and local information on attractions, accommodation, passport requirements and all other bits and pieces that a guidebook usually offers, it is now so easy to gather what is needed to know about a travel destination that purchasing a guidebook will no longer be necessary soon.
A quick click of the mouse and some creative thinking involved with putting keywords in search engines everyone can create a little guidebook of their own for the destination of their choice, whether or not they have been there.
Makes sense, but that's what they said a long time ago about having a paperless society. With the development of technology and the ability to communicate electronically, they said that it is possible to have a paperless office where everyone simply work off their computers, leave each other messages through computers, diary entries in our applications and have everything stored online. It's been a long time since the evolution of emails and online databases, but people are still printing things out to read. Why? coz it's simply a pain in the backside to have to stare at the computer all day.
Maybe this is one little thing that might just save the guidebooks for another couple of years? Personally I love books and I'll never replace my bookshelf with stacks of 'hard disk drives' with stored ebooks. There is nothing to replace the physical feel of paper, of turning a page to reveal another new page full of stories and adventures; of being about to trace each sentence with your finger, highlight the important parts and having finished it, close it and return it to your bookself knowning that it'll still be there with every page intact, ready for your next browse.
Perhaps the same thing can apply to guidebooks?
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