Was thinking about this as I rode down to Seminyak and back. I don’t think guidebooks will survive Covid19, at least not in the traditional, ground researched, listings format. The glossy Insight style things maybe, but think listings, as a product, are done.

To expand slightly on this. A guidebook generally has a research to print lead time of what? 12-18 months? Let’s be wildly optimistic and assume that 18 months from today enough people are travelling in SEA to create a market for hotels etc to reopen.

Until that happens there’s nothing to research. (Am using hotels as an eg, but same goes for restaurants, museums etc). So that means you can’t even start researching till say Dec 2021. With an 18 month leadtime, that puts a new Thighland edition on shelves at mid 2023.

How many traditional publishers can hold their breath that long? I dunno.

Cede listings to OTAs for accommodation, food, activities etc. a new product, along lines of the Insight guides kinda thing, concentrating on front & back of the book. 100% desk researched.

This all on the assumption “recreational travel” as a thing ever actually returns. Think I need to lie down for a bit.

The transition to desk research has been happening for many publishers for years anyways. Covid19 will just accelerate it.

If someone in the industry disagrees, I’m all ears!