Just last summer one would have been hard pressed to find a corner of the globe that wasn't being thronged by eager American tourists. We were clogging the roadways in Tuscany, admiring the views from Machu Picchu and beachcombing on Bali. As PW reported seven months ago, Americans were traveling with gusto—and with armloads of guidebooks ("Now Voyager!," June 4, 2001). Even with the economy beginning to falter, travel booksellers reported strong and steady sales that showed no sign of slowing down.
But after September, those sales had not only slowed, they were in freefall. One prominent travel bookstore closed; others were recording sales drops ranging from 15%—50% (News and Bookselling, Dec. 17 2001). How long would it be before Americans had the heart—or the courage—to travel?
Peter Greenberg, travel editor for NBC's Today and author of the upcoming The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential (Villard) offers an optimistic forecast. "We are a nation of addicted travelers. The question is not if we will travel, but when." Greenberg has logged an average of 6,000 miles per week since September 11—"everywhere from Jordan to Jacksonville, Fla."—and he sees no indication that Americans are about to change the way they spend their leisure time. "If we don't exercise our freedom to travel, then it will become a privilege, not a freedom," he says.
According to the Travel Industry Association of America's Winter 2001—2002 Travelometer, Americans have slowly begun to exercise that freedom, both at home and abroad. One in five (18%) American pleasure travelers say they will travel more this winter than last, while 12% plan to travel less. Roughly 70% of both pleasure and business travelers plan to travel the same amount this winter as last.
After September 11—the Publishers' Viewpoint
But is this cautious optimism about Americans exercising their right to travel now being reflected in orders for publishers and sales for booksellers? The answer seems to be yes.
"The impact on our sales was like a short, sharp punch in the jaw," says Avalon Travel Publishing's publisher, Bill Newlin. "It was most dramatically evident with our bestselling titles, particularly the 2001 editions of Rick Steves's guides to Europe. By the same token, these are the titles that have shown the swiftest recovery. And since Thanksgiving weekend, we've seen a strong recovery in titles about Mexico and Central America; even famously troubled Hawaii has shown signs of recovery in the past couple of weeks."
Another bad news/good news message comes from Michael Springer, publisher of the Hungry Minds Travel Group: "Guidebook sales plummeted directly after September 11, but have been climbing steadily back up from week to week." What we're likely to see in the future, he adds, is "an increase in family travel, by car and RV rather than plane, so a loss of sales on one title has been matched by an increase on another." Springer points to strong advances for The Unofficial Guide to the Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.—"a major seven-volume series launching in March that satisfies America's growing need for safe, inexpensive family vacations."
Linda Kennedy, president and publisher of Globe Pequot, agrees: "Buying seems to have rebounded well, and we've seen strong sales for our domestic travel product across the board. If we consider history, wars and cataclysmic events of any kind have always impacted travel markets, but as the Gulf War, which was also accompanied by a recession, proved in the early '90s, these reactions are not reliable predictors for the long term."
Elizabeth Newhouse, director of travel publishing at National Geographic Books, has been crunching some serious numbers and reports that fall sales of guidebooks for "safe" destinations are up an average of 19% over the same period last year, while guides to foreign destinations recently deemed vulnerable (including Europe and Asia) have decreased an average of 29% over the same 2000 period. But National Geographic has seen "a distinct improvement" in overall guidebook sales since early October, with a 92% increase for "safe" destinations and a 50% increase for others.
Although backorders for Rough Guides were slow in September and October, marketing director Simon Carloss tells PW that "apart from some knee-jerk reactions, returns weren't as high as feared." He adds that buys of new titles and editions have been "cautious, but we're fortunate in that we've redesigned our travel guides with full-color sections and two-color printing throughout." The first of these new look titles started coming out in November and December, says Carloss, and "those were two of our best months of the year."
Intercultural Press in Yarmouth, Maine, specializes in books that help travelers over what can sometimes appear to be impassable cultural divides—and nowhere has that divide become more evident than between the West and the Muslim world. Intercultural went back to press in October with Margaret Omar Nydell's Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Westerners, part of the publisher's InterAct Series, and has scheduled another reprint for this month. In addition, says president Toby Frank, "we've seen a great deal of interest in our InterAct series titles on France, Au Contraire!, and Germany, Germany: Unraveling an Enigma." But Intercultural's bestselling title, Survival Kit for Overseas Living, has not shown a similar spike in sales. The reason, believes Frank, is that companies are now relying on teleconferencing rather than outplacing their executives overseas.
While Lonely Planet's sales in the U.S. have dropped about 10% since September 11, sales in other parts of the world, especially Europe, have remained strong. "Our global distribution has helped keep the impact of sales loss to a minimum," says marketing director Carolyn Miller.
A positive view from abroad is offered by Jeremy Westwood, managing director of the London-based APA Insight Guides. "I don't think September 11 has affected travel publishing per se at all. Some destinations are considered by the public as being unsafe, and sales of those books have suffered and will suffer. However, the British public are still traveling—all the bargain airlines are reporting huge (30% plus) increases over the last few months, which is a tribute to the power of special offers to overcome fear." He adds that at Waterstone's, the major U.K bookselling chain, the sell-through of Insight titles in October was down less than 1% from the previous year, was almost exactly the same in November and, in December 2001, was up 13% from the previous December.
At Fodor's, publisher Kris Kliemann says that while the downturn has affected orders, they're optimistic about the future. "We have an incredibly diversified list and five series—Road Guide USA, Compass American Guides, City-guides, Flashmaps and Around the City with Kids—devoted exclusively to domestic travel."
Americans' increasing interest in destinations within the U.S. has translated into sales for a number of small publishers. Ralph Roberts, CEO of Alexander Books in Alexander, N.C., saw orders for regional guides—such as Walt Webber's Trail Profiles: The Mountains to Sea Trail—increase substantially last month. He echoes several of his colleagues when he tells PW, "I think more people are interested in seeing America first." Another North Carolina house, Walkabout Press in Charlotte, debuted its Play Hard, Rest Easy series last year—designed, says publisher Malcolm Campbell, for the "rugged but refined adventurer who might be happy to scramble up a peak during the day, but wants a whirlpool tub back at the hotel." Orders for Play Hard, Rest Easy New England rose steadily last fall, particularly from distributors who service accounts around New York and Boston. "Just because people are staying closer to home," says Campbell, "doesn't mean that they want to give up a sense of adventure—they want to spice up domestic travel." Certainly Florida promises spice to some folks, as evidenced by the recent performance of a title from Mile Oak Publishing. Publisher Dave Hunter saw mail-order sales from a prepublication promotion for the 10th edition of Along Interstate-75 "shoot up, largely as a result of its being the only drive-to-Florida book on the market."
This fall has been "excellent," for RDR Books, says publisher Roger Rapoport, "particularly for our travel literature series, which includes I Really Should Have Stayed Home. We've also had very good orders for our new book The Getaway Guide to the American Southwest by Richard Harris."
The perennially popular Best Places Guidebooks, says Sasquatch Books senior editor Kate Rogers, "have been lucky enough to maintain steady sales throughout the last four months for titles like Best Places Los Angeles. We focus on guides to the West Coast and Alaska, and have always promoted 'local' travel [Sasquatch is in Seattle], which seems to really resonate with today's consumers."
And terrorist threats have apparently proven to be no barrier to those willing to go to the ends of the earth in search of romance. Lou James, marketing director of Diamond Media Group, has seen sales of the "adults only" The Ultimate Guide to Romantic and Erotic Destinations by Louis James and David West, increase steadily. The grown-ups, he says, "are still going on their honeymoons and enjoying a weekend away from the kids."
From the Retail Perspective
Many booksellers whose businesses sustained major body blows after September 11 are also seeing signs of recovery on the horizon. Immediately after the attacks, Priscilla Ulene, owner of L.A.'s Traveler's Bookcase, saw almost every destination stop selling. "Italy, which has always been our #1 seller, came to a screeching halt. Hawaii, local travel and family travel were the only things selling at all in September, October and November. Then, very slowly, since about early December, some places have started generating more interest. In fact, December turned out to be extremely strong for us." Powell's Travel Store in Portland, Ore., reports sales that fell 10%—15% in October and November are now holding at 6%. Since travel out of Portland's airport is currently off 15%, store manager John Bloebaum sees things "looking pretty good for summer if the trend continues."
"It was frightening," recalls Jude Sales, travel buyer at San Francisco's A Clean Well Lighted Place. "Sales dropped considerably the week after September 11, then they went to nothing." But in the weeks since, the store's well-traveled clientele has been returning and sales have been "slowly building. I don't plan on carrying the amount of overstock I once did, but I'm certainly not going to pass on buying new titles." It wasn't only sales that were down this fall at Beaucoup Books in New Orleans. The store's ceiling, relates owner Mary Price Dunbar, collapsed in early September, drenching "one-third of the U.S. and a little bit of Europe." But despite a soggy start, Dunbar reports that sales of guides to Europe (mostly France and Italy) were "way up by Christmas."
But not all booksellers are seeing light at the end of this tunnel. "We haven't had many large sales," reports a subdued Sandye Wexler, co-owner of Chicago's The Savvy Traveller. "In past years, customers would select a stack of books for holiday gift-giving—including any number of coffee-table books. This year we've sold very few coffee-table books and the ones we have sold have been mainly promotional or remaindered titles." And while sales did pick up last month for New York City's Traveler's Choice Bookstore, its location—just 15 blocks from ground zero—means, says owner Nicholas Christopher "that our customers' priorities are a bit different. We're in a war zone and they're edgy."
Changing Patterns
While the most notable change in customers' buying habits immediately after September 11 was simply the lack of any buying at all, some booksellers and publishers have taken note of new patterns in customer's wants and needs.
Customers at Traveler's Choice are now traveling "spontaneously," says Christopher, coming into the store looking for a destination for the coming weekend or in the very near future. And that doesn't necessarily mean that they want to stay close to home, he notes—"we've sent a bunch of people to the Galapagos Islands." The Savvy Traveller, says Wexler, has been selling "lots of things that teach people about the world—maps, globes, atlases." And the Traveler's Bookcase is seeing a renewed interest in coffee-table photography books—"I think people feel safe looking a beautiful photographs and dreaming," says Ulene.
At Chicago Review Press, senior publicist Kathy Mirkin feels that readers nowadays are looking for "humor and lightness"; she sees titles like their Oddball Indiana: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places "helping people find adventure, mystery and fun in their own backyards." Greenberg of Today predicts travelers will be searching for books that are "about the process, rather than the destination. A guide can tell you it's sunny in the Bahamas, but what people need to know now is what to do if the airport in Nassau loses your luggage or the taxi driver takes you for a 25-mile ride to your hotel instead of two."
Throughout all the changes of the last few months, one group of devoted travelers seems to have remained steadfast in their determination to keep buying and traveling. "Women have become so intrepid in the past 20 years," says James O'Reilly, publisher at Travelers' Tales. "They're traveling in greater numbers and will not be willing to sit idly by because of some fanatics with too much weaponry at their disposal. Our women's travel books, like Marybeth Bond's Gutsy Women, have outshone the rest of the list this year." Similarly, Powell's Bloebaum reports that recent events haven't stopped his store's female travelers from venturing to the ends of the earth—"they didn't miss a beat."
New Destinations on the Horizon
If there is one destination high on the list for travelers in 2002, it's a place called "safe." Fortunately for booksellers and publishers, "safe" covers a fair bit of territory. While some Americans find safety only within driving distance of their homes, others are booking flights across the Pacific and looking forward to spending part of their summer wintering in Auckland or the Outback. But wherever they travel this year, thoughts of security seem to outweigh the desire for spectacular scenery.
"Our British and Canadian travel guides are doing extremely well," says Seven Hills senior publicist Greg Hatfield, "as well as guides to 'safe' destinations like Mexico, Tibet and New Zealand—which has recently been voted the safest place in the world by two leading U.K. polls." Destinations that are not "exotic or borderline trouble" top the list at A Clean Well Lighted Place, reports Sales, and at Powell's, customers are interested in "anything within 1,000 miles," says Bloebaum, "as well as New Zealand and Latin America. Traffic to Italy seems to have quieted—whereas last year everyone in Portland seemed to be there."
Asia, Latin America and the Pacific are on the approved list at The Savvy Traveller — specifically Australia, China, Mexico, and Central America. "Europe is cold," says Wexler. "Perhaps the changeover to the euro is having an effect and some travelers are waiting until they feel they're able to understand it." At the Traveler's Bookcase, Ulene has been surprised by some recent destination turnarounds. "Mexico is really slow. With it being so easy to reach from L.A., I'm surprised that so few of our customers are traveling there—and there has been little or no interest in Canada."
"You would think the U.S. would be the most popular destination," says Dunbar at Beaucoup Books, "but when I look at sales, it doesn't reflect that. But I think we'll really start selling U.S. travel in the spring when people start thinking about vacations." Greenberg looks for Americans "to follow the continuing strength of the U.S. dollar" to destinations like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even Turkey. Turkey? "It's a real bargain," says Greenberg, "one U.S. dollar is worth 1.5 million lire."
It's U.S. destinations, especially the National Parks, that are topping the sales lists at Fodor's, followed by Mexico, Costa Rica and Chile. "And with all the great deals," says Kliemann, "we're seeing more people going to Europe, especially Paris and London." U.S. travel titles are stronger overall and regional travel titles are holding their own for IPG, says trade sales manager Mary Rowles. But she sees European travel titles also holding steady in 2002 as college students and soon-to-be graduates begin venturing out on their coming-of-age European tours. Kris Graef, managing editor of Morris Communications, is optimistic about travel to Alaska this coming summer—and about sales for the company's 54th edition of The Milepost, a detailed guide to roads in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Alaska, she remarks, "is a pretty exotic destination that's well within the reach of the average American."
Touring from the Comfort of Home
"It's a better time to be a publisher of armchair travel than traditional guidebooks," believes O'Reilly at Travelers' Tales. "People don't stop reading when they stop traveling." Travelers' Tales will publish more than a dozen armchair titles in 2002, including classics (Jan Morris's Coast to Coast: A Journey Across 1950s America) and destination anthologies ("they sell year in and year out, so we'll continue to release them no matter how the tourism market is doing overall"). "We love publishing these old gems, you learn so much about lost worlds and our own world by reading them."
The appeal of armchair travel books, remarks Houghton Mifflin senior editor Deanne Urmy, "is that they have always suggested the idea of travel as a way to understand the challenging, even war-torn places in the world." The Best American Travel Writing 2001 begins with guest editor Paul Theroux reminding readers that "travel writing at its best relates a journey of discovery that is frequently risky and sometimes grim and often pure horror."
Another potential advantage held by armchair titles these days is noted by Westwood of Insight Guides. "I think we can safely say that the larger Insight Guides are sold to armchair travelers as well as actual travelers, so they are more immune to such fluctuating circumstances than many of the competitors."
For booksellers, armchair travel has been a continuing bright spot in an otherwise troubled season. "We're certainly selling more travel literature," says Savvy Traveller's Wexler. "I think these books are considered pre-trip warm-ups. When people feel more comfortable traveling again, they'll buy the practical stuff, like guidebooks." Right after September 11, Ulene shifted her Traveler's Bookstore displays to focus more on travel literature. The result: increased sales of books by Bill Bryson and Pico Iyer and the Travelers' Tales series. Bloebaum at Powell's is particularly excited that customers are "reading the classics. We've sold a gajillion of Roff Smith's Cold Beer and Crocodiles [National Geographic]."
Comments like this should be music to the ears of publishers like Roberts at Alexander Books, who harbors a passion for classic travel tales. It's a love he shares with bestselling SF author Mike Resnick, who teamed with Alexander for Resnick's Library of African Adventure, a series of classic "white hunter tales" from the 19th and 20th centuries. The series is selling so well that Alexander recently launched Resnick's Library of Worldwide Adventure, bringing back into print such epic tales as Hector France's Musk Hashish and Blood. National Geographic is undertaking a similar venture, with this month's launch of the National Geographic Directions series of literary travel memoirs. "We've had huge success in attracting prominent writers," Newhouse tells PW, "many of whom have never written about travel before." Plans call for seven titles in 2002, by such noted authors as Oliver Sacks, Garry Wills, John Edgar Wideman and Robert Hughes.
America the Beautiful
It's an exhortation with historic roots. Back in 1916, See America First was the first Broadway musical from Cole Porter; some 40 years later, Dinah Shore was urging TV audiences to "See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet." With or without this inspiration, plans for most travel publishers in 2002 can be summed up quite simply: U.S, U.S and more U.S.
At last August's sales conference with its distributor, Simon & Schuster, National Geographic announced a major promotion push for the spring 2002 travel titles—all with Europe as its centerpiece. "That campaign has now," reports Newhouse, "been retooled to 'Celebrate America,' with a focus on our many domestic guidebooks. The significant point is that we are going ahead with our promotion, with support and enthusiasm from Simon & Schuster."
"We are increasing our guidebook program," says RDR's Rapoport, "and planning a major tour for The Getaway Guide to the American Southwest, with author Richard Harris doing signings and talks. Publicity for I Really Should Have Stayed Home will continue—we've done more than 200 bookstore events for this series, including one where my car was stolen while I was in the store." Globe Pequot, says Kennedy, plans to "take advantage of being the country's largest publisher of domestic travel guides. We plan to capitalize on our Insider, Off the Beaten Path, Fun with the Family and Quick Escape series with a marketing program that highlights all the wonderful things to do in the U.S."
One of those wonderful attractions is getting considerable attention at PassPorter Travel Press, which is increasing the print run for the 2002 edition of PassPorter Walt Disney World by 50%, reports publisher (and co-author) Dave Marx. "Attendance at the park is already rebounding and Disney parks remain on the top of most people's lists because they're seen as safe havens for family vacationing."
Really Great Books, says managing editor Kristin Petersen, "will be moving forward aggressively with our 2002 list," expanding its Glove Box Guides Hungry? series to nine new North America cities. "The Hungry? New York editors took on the project specifically to help New York—by profiling mom-and-pop stands and neighborhood cafes, they're expressing their pride for the city and encouraging tourism."
As New York struggles to regain its status as a top tourist destination, Carloss offers an upbeat report on the Rough Guide to New York City. "It's always been one of our top-selling titles, and in the months following September 11, we've seen an increase in sales—I can only suppose Americans are responding to the call to come visit. We had similar success with the title in the U.K., too, where I understand New York was the top destination for Brits during the holidays." Carloss expressed overall optimism for the Rough Guides program in general: "It's business as usual for 2002."
Business continues pretty much as usual at Fodor's, too, says Kleimann—"We'll continue to publish guidebooks to America's favorite vacation destinations. We will use the current travel climate as an opportunity to further broaden our list and publish the kinds of books customers need now. And publicity will be strong for 2002. Our editors have never been in so much demand by the media—since September 11, they have been heard on over 1,000 radio stations across the country as well as seen on national and local market TV."
Even before September 11, Lonely Planet had plans in place to expand its U.S. titles, as did Alexander Books, which recently discontinued the last of its European guides. "We have no plans for any new ones," says Roberts. "We do plan on issuing more books about the Southern mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina." Sasquatch is moving ahead with plans for new guides to California's Marin County, the Central California Coast and the Baja Peninsula. "We're optimistic," says Rogers, "that domestic travel as well as travel to Canada and Mexico will be strong over the next 12 months." Graphic Arts Center Publishing of Portland, Ore., says associate publisher Doug Pfeiffer, will be adding additional domestic guides and coffee-table books to its list as well as updating backlist bestseller Oregon IV, the fourth edition of the photo-essay book that's sold 200,000 copies.
In the month following the attacks, Avalon delayed several titles about "long-haul" destinations in Asia and the South Pacific and accelerated several titles to destinations in the U.S. But apart from minor scheduling adjustments, says Newlin, "we believe that our core publishing strategy is very sound, and we aren't retreating from it. Our new city series, Moon Metro, will be launched with national advertising and metro transportation ads. We plan to leverage Rick Steves's high name recognition on public television into as much national media as possible and conduct a nationwide series of radio interviews with Jamie Jensen around the publication of the third edition of Road Trip USA."
Berlitz is in what Adler terms a "somewhat unique position," because its titles are created for the world market. "We are therefore buffered a bit from downturns in any particular market. We'll continue to publish for this market and will assess things just after the first of the year. If there are changes, they are most likely to involve prioritizing titles differently rather than canceling them altogether." Trailblazer Publications has also decided to take a wait-and-see attitude before scheduling future trekking guides to the more remote locations such as India, China and Asia. The publisher plans to bring out a line of "domestic" (U.K.) walking guides.
Despite the travails of the past four months, travel publishers seem determined to persevere. "To be in travel-related publishing, you simply must take the long view," says Adler. "Travel is here to stay. Its benefits and pleasures have been discovered by too many people. Add to this the increase in globalization and international business activities, and I think we are virtually assured that this category will successfully weather the current storm."
