It’s quite common to consider the Internet a threat in the editorial world. It’s almost as if the perception were “we had a great business model, but now there’s the Internet to disturb and ruin it all”. But to consider the Web as an enemy is a mistake. Rather, we have to turn the Internet into an ally when obtaining better information. For instance, by allowing us to have a simpler contact with our readers, in case of travel guides. What for? To update info, prices, locations, for example. Nowadays, to think about a model of contents creation completely made by paid specialists just doesn’t make sense anymore, since most of these functions can be carried out better if we are able to create a community around our product. The idea is not simply “to lower costs”, but to help the always meager budgets destined to create a travels product find better ways to present information. That is: not just dedicate to collect information. That doesn’t have any aggregate value. We cannot compete with the Internet there.

As I’ve said before, I believe travel guides still have great opportunities in this market, even when the presence of the Internet is, for some, a threat. Part of these opportunities are so thanks to a central point: guides are capable to formalize information and present it neatly; to do the same with the Internet, we’d have to spent a lot of time searching, and finally we’d end up with a bunch of printed sheets, not too confortable to carry around.

This trend to formalize more adequately information is something that distiguishes guides such as Lonely Planet, for example. Recent editions are placing emphasis on the subject of tours. For instance, they make sections where they recommend what places to visit in a determined city, depending on how many days do we have available. This way, they help the tourist organise better his time, a scarce resource when we travel.

The other interesting thing is that guides should emphasize the trend the Internet is finishing to establish: it’s not only about having a didactic speech, from “specialist to student”; rather, there should be a relation among equals. That is, from traveller to traveller. The important thing is not to teach the other what he should see, but to provide him the tools he needs to live his own travel experience. Because that’s travel: an experience.