It doesn’t take a genius to know that 2020 and 2021 were not great years for travel, so you won’t need me to tell you that they weren’t great for travel publishers either. Travel publishing has always been a sector that has been subject to events and trends that are not always significant for the rest of the publishing industry—in travel, the sands shift quickly. Global and local events lead to rapid rises and falls in international travel as a whole, and in the popularity of individual destinations.

All this makes the business of being a publisher of paper guides and maps challenging; even before the global pandemic effectively stopped everything in 2020, many sectors of the travel publishing market had seen a period of sustained decline, although that decline had slowed in many markets in recent years as consumers seemed to return to an appreciation of what the printed product could offer in comparison to free online information.

Travel publishers have always understood the obvious—you need to be going somewhere to buy a travel guide, and in 2020 and much of 2021, nobody was going anywhere, effectively wiping out travel guide and map sales. With travel now back on most people’s agenda, one might assume that 2022 sales would be back to 2019 levels, but sadly it’s not that simple.

Here are some “highlights” of the U.K.’s travel publishing market in 2020 and 2021 (the figures are approximate because sales for the weeks of lockdown in the U.K. were not available):

  • Guides to overseas destinations were down by more than 60% in both 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019
  • Sales of World Travel Guides to overseas destinations (guides in international series) were down more than 70% in 2021 compared to 2019
  • Sales of maps and atlases to non-U.K. destinations were down by more than 60% for 2021 compared to 2019

The category of World Travel Guides suffered a major decline in market share of all guide sales: in 2019 they made up 69% of all guide sales, but by 2021 this had fallen to 39%. Even the sale of guides to U.K. attractions fell by around 10% in 2021 over 2019, as many attractions were closed for some periods and as overseas tourists stopped visiting the U.K.

U.K. Walking Guides

But among the gloom of downward trends, a few happy faces could be seen—and they belonged mainly to the publishers of U.K. Walking Guides. In 2021 U.K. Walking Guides sales were up more than 30% on 2019, as walking remained one of the few activities people were able to pursue freely. In Q2 2021, sales were up on Q2 2019 by 70% and while in Q2 2022 sales were down again (-28% on Q2 2021), they are still up 27% on Q2 2019.

By the end of 2021 there was a slight improvement to the U.K. market overall. World Travel Guide sales, which were down 75% in Q2 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, were down “only” 53% in Q4. Would the trend continue into 2022, as most restrictions on international travel were slowly and haphazardly lifted? In Q1 2022, sales of World Travel Guides to non-U.K. destinations were down 48% on Q1 2019. In Q2 the decline was down to “just” 32%. Sales of guides to short haul destinations have recovered more quickly than long-haul.

It’s a long way from back-to-normal, but this is hardly surprising given the difficulties experienced by the U.K. travel industry in summer 2022. Talking to travel publishers in other countries reveals that these trends (with some local variations) have been closely mirrored in many other markets.

The full year’s figures for 2022 will be keenly awaited. If you want to find out more about how U.K. and other travel publishers fared in 2022, the 2023 Nielsen BookScan Travel Publishing Year Book will be available in February 2023 offering data and analysis on 2022 sales of travel guides and maps in the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Australia.