Once upon a time, sending a message in a bottle was your only hope of being rescued if you were lost at sea. Today, thanks to technological aids like GPRS, PDA, iPods and digital maps, you will surely not get lost. Anywhere.
Traditional guidebooks and maps were convenient and, at times life-saving, especially if you got lost in a jungle.
You could roll the map to swat a strange insect and use the guidebook to steamroll a minacious eight-legged creature. And then perhaps find your way out of the jungle bungle.
Convenience, however, is relative to the era it is experienced in. Modern travel is facilitated by light, compact and efficient technological aids that may not be used to swat and one-dimensionalise insects, but can effectively lessen the need for contingency plans.
In the past, print guidebooks and maps were the only aids a traveller needed – or had – to orient himself within a landscape. Now he uses GPS (Global Positioning System), PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), podcasts, digital maps, travel websites and blogs, electronic guidebooks and tour guides, thus creating a shift in the earlier travel paradigm.
We use the internet to seek the best deals, GPS to select routes and podcasts to learn about destinations. We even use foreign language phrasebooks in MP3, obviating the need to carry extra weight. Take Lonely Planet's Audio Phrasebooks for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch for instance.
This switchover demonstrates how technology has changed our travel experience.
Guidebook publishers including Dorling Kindersley (DK), Rough Guides, Frommer's Guides and Lonely Planet have buckled under the force of such services – that provide maps to weather updates – with their own customised online offerings.
And though technology threatens to push print guides and maps and compasses into oblivion, some argue the print guidebook "user interface" is still hard to beat.
"It can work without batteries, can be read in bright sunlight and won't break if you accidentally drop it," says Chris Boden, director of global business development, Lonely Planet Publications, Australia.
It is a tenable argument. Despite the fact that we have new ways to find our way around with digital mapping and Location Based Services (LBS), Boden believes "cost, speed and ease of use have to be aligned before it [technology] supplants paper-based alternatives".
The new culture of travel
The internet influences the way we organise our pre- and post-travel activities from online ticket bookings to hotel reservation and travel blogs. Open content models make interactive guidebooks and podcasts available. And guidebook publishers offer free or paid downloads.
While MP3 players deliver audio tours, Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) enable GPS and navigation to record our movements on a hike or ride; web-based photo sharing services help us upload photos and Smartphones converge all these functions into one.
According to the 2008 Lonely Planet survey of more than 18,000 travellers worldwide, 80 per cent said they use their mobile phone "always" or "sometimes" when travelling. And
56 per cent said they took their iPod when on holiday.
"Smartphones provide an all-in-one package to take care of messaging, voice calls, photos, navigation and through GPRS or 3G connectivity, internet access," says Boden.
Some devices and services have a gamut of functions: Garmin International has voice-prompted GPS with real-time traffic interface, language translator, travel books, MP3 player, audio book player, photo viewer and a National GEO-coded coupon book.
In addition, applications help travellers share personal travel tales. Boden speaks of social media platforms used by travellers to publish and share their travel experiences with friends and family. "These days the internet plays a key role throughout the travel cycle. Travellers increasingly use technology to enhance their journeys," he says.
The new guidebooks
Traditional guidebooks have introduced new categories, formats, business models and extended content to areas of mobile services and navigation devices to keep up with the pace of wireless and mobile phone technology.
Moleskine's City Notebook can be personalised with notes on favourite restaurants, hotels and museums; Time Out's Shortlist Guides focuses on nightlife and entertainment; DK's guides allow travellers to customise online guides; and Lonely Planet has on sale individual chapters from guidebooks, priced at a few dollars each, so one no longer needs to buy an entire book.
Others like Rough Guides, Frommer's, In Your Pocket City Guides and Schmap provide travel guides for download and Tripadvisor, World66, Travellerspoint and Wikitravel allow travellers to contribute to their online open content guides.
Boden says, "Personalisation is the key theme in these examples. Each traveller has a specific need and looks for customised solutions. Lonely Planet decided to sell books by the chapter in response to customer requests."
Another issue that beleaguers guidebook publishers is the demand for up-to-date, newsworthy information. This is primarily due to the frequency of travel influencing a traveller to opt for digital.
"Access to free, up-to-date travel information has certainly raised travellers' expectations in guidebooks," Boden says.
This surge may lead some to believe guidebook sales are negatively affected. On the contrary, print sales have increased. Last year, travel publishers sold 14.8 million books in the US, up 11 per cent from two years earlier, stated Nielsen Bookscan that operates a retail sales monitoring service for books.
This surge in electronic distribution is attributed to the use of downloadable mobile applications – guides and phrasebooks – which can be used on the road without having to connect to the internet and incur pricey data roaming fees, says Boden.
Roaming costs and connectivity aside, digital guides are popular because they can be updated, linked to sources and customised. Whereas print guide books score on being "a trusted filter of information" among online interactive guides.
Boden says, "There is a wellspring of travel information based on users' opinions on the internet. However the job of collecting, collating, checking veracity and accuracy and compiling it into a format which can be used on the road is a daunting task for the average person."
Having said that, digital guidebooks are convenient, but aren't tangible reminders of the journeys made. "When you get home, it [print guidebook] takes pride of place on the bookshelf. Many travellers take great pride in annotating and stuffing them with artefacts. If guides became 100 per cent digital, I think the physical memento would be missed in much the same way we miss record album covers with digital music collections."
The new maps
Again, the ubiquitous use of digital maps and proliferation of new applications like LBS have eclipsed conventional maps.
Our reliance on print maps hasn't stopped yet because maps on mobiles haven't become mainstream. They will "as soon as the user experience and connectivity improves", says Boden.
Maps used to play a central role in how information is organised and found. Increasingly travellers incorporate select information – where to find the best restaurants or general information like crime statistics and weather. One of the advantages of digital maps is it creates mashups of complex data with an easy-to-use interface and access to mobile real-time information.
"The breakthrough with online mapping is the ability to place layers on maps and see a variety of information sources presented in the context of location whether it is personal interest, weather, traffic or directions," says Boden, who also speaks of innovation in the LBS sector, navigational maps and Lonely Planet's LBS guides for Nokia Smartphones. "There are compelling applications being created to take advantage of these new capabilities to answer questions like 'what is around me' or 'how do I get there'?'"
In other words, the new travel aids posit: getting lost in a jungle isn't part of the plan.
Audio Phrasebooks
Lonely Planet's phrasebooks with a portfolio of more than 100 languages from Arabic to Zulu, and annual sales of 1 million copies, have become an indispensable tool for travellers.
It recently announced its Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone and iPod Touch on the Apple App Store, providing travellers with mobile access to phrasebook content in 10 languages.
Each Audio Phrasebook application includes over 600 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases, covering everything from health and greetings to going out.
Applications are currently available for English speakers with phrase translations in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, Thai, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese.
