为什么旅游指南不会消失？| 经济学人文化
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思维导图作者：
Cece，消防人+经济学人粉丝
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英文部分选自经济学人20240629期文化板块
They declared that it was dead—or, if it wasn’t dead yet, it soon would be. The cause of the malady was viral: first blogs, then influencers on Instagram and TikTok. Yet, for all journalists’ poor prognoses, the printed travel guide is still in fine fettle.Sales in Britain were mostly flat in 2014-19, a period when smartphones became both ubiquitous and powerful. That is not to say there have not been spells of ill health. Frommer’s, the grandfather of American guidebooks, was sold in 2012 for $22m to Google, which reportedly planned to end the series’ print run. (The following year Arthur Frommer, its founder, bought the company back.) Lonely Planet, the best-known publisher, has been through several owners at ever-lower valuations. In 2020 the company ended up in the hands of Red Ventures, a publishing house funded by private equity.
人们之前说旅游指南已死——就算当时还没有，也快了。其病因是网络时代的病毒式传播：先是博客，然后是Instagram和TikTok上的网红。然而，尽管媒体一片唱衰预后，纸质旅游指南依然健在。2014年至2019年间，智能手机日益普及，性能不断提升，英国地区旅游指南的销量却总体保持稳定。这并不意味着旅游指南没有经历过危机时刻。2012年，美国指南书鼻祖Frommer’s以2200万美元的价格被谷歌收购。据报道，谷歌当时计划停止该系列的印刷出版。（次年，创始人亚瑟·弗罗默[Arthur Frommer]又把公司买了回来。）最著名的出版商孤独星球（Lonely Planet）已经多次易主，估值越来越低。2020年，这家公司最终落入了由私人控股的出版公司Red Ventures手中。
The one virus that did come close to killing guides off was covid-19. Guidebook publishers saw 95-99% of revenues evaporate when lockdowns hit. Yet in both America and Britain, the biggest markets for English-language guides, sales are approaching pre-pandemic levels. Last year Americans bought 5.8m guidebooks and maps—down from 6.9m before the pandemic, but up from 4m in 2020.
唯一一个差点完结旅游指南的病毒是新冠病毒。封锁措施实施期间，旅游指南出版商的收入蒸发了95%到99%。然而，在美国和英国这两个英语旅游指南的最大市场，销售额已经越来越接近疫情前的水平。去年，美国消费者购买了580万册旅游指南和地图——虽然低于疫情前的690万册，但比起2020年的400万册已经有所回升。
Any obituaries, then, are premature. But why do guidebooks still roll off the presses when all the information you could need is in your pocket? One answer is that print is a useful medium for information on the go. Books can be scribbled on and dog-eared; they need no charging or internet access. They can be easier to browse than social media, websites or e-books (and attract less attention from pickpockets).
所以，任何讣告都为时过早。但是，当任何信息都尽在你掌握的电子设备之中，为何纸质版旅游指南依然有市场呢？原因之一是，印刷品是可以随时随地使用的信息媒介。书可以涂写、折角，不需要充电，也无需联网。与社交媒体、网站和电子书相比，纸质书更易于浏览（并且没那么吸引小偷的注意）。
Another is that guidebooks have changed with the times. Rick Steves, the author of America’s bestselling guides to European destinations, published his first guidebook 44 years ago. He still personally researches many of his books, which offer a lot of information in small type. His publishers, being more business-minded, also produce pocket guides, which take those tips and enliven them with photographs. Double-dipping is one way to boost profits; many other publishers do it.
另一个原因则是，旅游指南也在与时俱进。作为全美最畅销的欧洲旅游指南作者，里克·斯蒂夫（Rick Steves）出版第一本指南已是44年前。时至今日，他依然亲自为自己的书调研，他的旅游指南字体小且信息量大。斯蒂夫的出版商更有商业头脑，摘取他的旅行建议配以生动照片，推出袖珍指南。这种双重利用内容的发行方式也是一条生财之道，许多其他出版社也这样做。
A more dramatic adaptation is visible in the newest editions of Lonely Planet’s flagship guides, which look like someone printed out an Instagram account. The books relegate restaurant and hotel listings to the margins. Nitya Chambers, Lonely Planet’s executive editor, says the overhaul was driven by market research that showed that readers “have more information than ever before” on eating and stays, but are looking for things to do.
最新版《孤独星球》旗舰指南中体现了更为显著的变革——仿佛是将Instagram账号搬到了书上。餐厅和酒店推荐列表退居书页边缘。《孤独星球》的执行编辑妮蒂亚·钱伯斯（Nitya Chambers）表示，市场调研显示读者掌握的饮食和住宿信息已经够多了，他们更希望获取活动资讯，所以《孤独星球》才做出如此大的调整。
Sales data support Lonely Planet’s claim. Guides that focus on food and accommodation are falling out of favour in Britain according to Stephen Mesquita, the author of the Nielsen Bookscan Travel Publishing Yearbook, an industry bible. Between 2019 and 2023, sales of such guides for domestic destinations were down by 49% and by 20% for overseas ones.
销售数据有力支撑了《孤独星球》的观点。图书数据调查机构尼尔森（Nielsen BookScan）发布的《旅游出版年鉴》被视为行业圣经，其作者斯蒂芬·梅斯基塔（Stephen Mesquita）称，聚焦饮食和住宿的旅游指南在英国正逐渐失去人气。2019年至2023年期间，此类国内、国际旅游指南的销售额分别下降了49%和20%。
If print books are no longer selling comprehensiveness, then what is it they are selling? One answer is authenticity. “I can’t help people that just want to do what everybody else does,” Mr Steves says. Another is curation. “The more content out there, the better for guide publishers,” says René Frey, who publishes Rough Guides and Insight Guides. Trust—or, rather, brand—is important. Mr Frommer, Mr Steves and Lonely Planet’s founders, Tony and Maureen Wheeler, all produced their first guides decades ago, in an era when both international travel and self-publishing were expensive and rare. That allowed them to stand out and build businesses. Now, thanks to cheap air fares and social media, anyone can opine on eateries on the other side of the world. But wannabe travel writers will find that it is hard to gain traction online.
如果纸质指南不再以覆盖全面为卖点，那卖的是什么呢？其一在于真实性。斯蒂夫斯说：“有些人只想跟风做别人都会做的事，我对他们爱莫能助。”其二在于内容策划。《易行指南》（Rough Guides）和《异域风情》（Insight Guides）的出版商勒内•弗雷（René Frey） 说：“（读者能接触到的）信息越多，对旅游指南出版商越有利。”信任，或者说是品牌，至关重要。弗罗默、斯蒂夫斯以及《孤独星球》创始人托尼·惠勒和莫琳·惠勒（Tony and Maureen Wheeler）都在几十年前就写出了自己的第一本旅游指南。当时国际旅行和自助出版都很昂贵，也很罕见。他们借此脱颖而出，建立了自己的事业。现在，得益于廉价机票和社交媒体的发展，任何人都可以品评地球另一端的美食。但立志成为旅行作家的人会发现，想在网上获得关注并非易事。
One market in which guidebooks have struggled is China, the world’s biggest spender on outbound tourism. On June 26th Lonely Planet announced that it was closing its China branch after ten years.Many Chinese travel as part of organised tours, so see no need for guides; younger travellers are more likely to organise their own itineraries, but rely on digital resources rather than books. The most popular app for tourists is Xiaohongshu, which Rest of World, a digital news outlet, describes as “a cross between a niche subreddit, a Tripadvisor page and a video game”. Gaode, a map app, offers user-generated lists of “must-visit sites”.
中国是世界最大的出境游消费国，不过旅游指南在中国市场举步维艰。进入中国十年后，孤独星球于今年6月26日宣布已关闭中国分公司。许多中国人跟团出游，并不需要旅游指南；年轻游客倾向于自己安排行程，不过更依赖数字资源，而不是纸质指南。最受游客欢迎的应用程序是小红书，数字新闻媒体《世界其他地方》（Rest of World）称它 “混合了Reddit细分子版块、猫途鹰（Tripadvisor）页面和视频游戏。”高德地图则提供了由用户生成的“必去景点”榜单。
Perhaps, in time, similar apps may take off in the West. Artificial intelligence is another incipient challenge. Like a good guide, ai’s promise is that it can do the tedious research and produce a precis. Frommer’s, for its part, experimented with using ai to offer tailor-made answers to travellers’ questions, but found that it was making things up too often to be useful. Nothing makes a traveller reach for their trusty guidebook more than a bogus tip.
假以时日，类似的应用程序也许会在西方盛行。另一项挑战来自人工智能（AI）的兴起。AI可能成功的点在于，它可以与一本优秀的指南一样，完成繁琐的研究工作，并提供精炼信息。Frommer's就曾尝试使用AI为旅行者提供量身定制的问题解答，结果却发现AI经常胡编乱造，派不上用场。没有什么比虚假信息更能让旅行者再次拿起他们信任的旅游指南了。
Jack Jan，实践出真知
Dodo，愿识乾坤大、犹怜草木青的同传Dodo
Trista，女，虽然我是无业游民，但是我并没有骄傲
UU，保持低调
Rachel，心有懵虎，细嗅乌龟
小脑袋，努力建设自我支持系统的小翻译
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感想
在中国确实很少见到有人出门旅游带着纸质旅游指南。
一是笨重。出门在外要走很多路，甚至要爬山，如果多背一斤半斤的书，一天下来会累很多。真要带一本旅游指南，恐怕很多人也会选择带电子版。
二是信息可能过时。国内旅游开发速度很快，很多人旅游的初衷是"去看看刚开的那个XXX"，而此时这个目的地的信息可能还没有出现在旅游指南里（旅游指南也不会每出现一个新景点就重印一版）。另外很多为假期实施的临时政策（比如演唱会临时调来的大巴车），也更新不到旅游指南里。
三是纸质旅游指南没有办法根据任意关键词查找相关内容，只能根据主题词查找，很多小众的问题可能得不到解答，而这一点社交媒体做得稍微好一点。
自然，纸质出版物的优势不容忽视。出门在外，如果真的有没电没网的时候，纸质旅游指南可能会是最后的救星。另外，大开本的纸质旅游指南或者地图能帮人一目了然地迅速了解全局，规划几个目的地之间的路线，而手机的小屏幕只能看到很小的一部分，做整体规划恐怕没有那么方便。
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愿景
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