Shock of Covid-19 for travel guide publisher ‘unprecedented’ – 9/11 and financial crisis did not have as big or deep an impact

Simon Westcott of Luxe City Guides, based in Hong Kong, says the future is more uncertain than ever, as he looks to business-to-business deals

A 40-year veteran of travel guide publishing, Magnus Bartlett of Odyssey Guides, sees a huge market for ‘vicarious travel’ as he lines up new and revised books

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Few people are travelling because of the coronavirus pandemic, and sales of guides to destinations such as the temples of Cambodia are down. Two Hong Kong-based publishers have different survival strategies as they wait to see when and how international travel restarts. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Published: 6:15pm, 9 Aug 2020Updated: 6:42pm, 10 Aug 2020

Since coronavirus has placed worldwide travel in a long-term holding pattern, the industry’s prime movers and shakers – airlines, hotels, tour operators – have been trying to find ways to generate income.

Travel guide publishers, too, are faced with a problem – if hardly anybody is taking to the skies, booking a getaway or even going to the beach, who is going to buy a guidebook or travel app, no matter how brilliantly it has been put together?

Two Hong Kong publishers have found their own solutions.

At the age of 76, and with some 40 years of experience under his belt, Odyssey Guides’ Magnus Bartlett believes there is a desire for armchair travel despite the holiday standstill.

Magnus Bartlett has some 40 years of travel publishing experience under his belt. Photo: Antony Dickson

Odyssey Guides’ first book on Peking (as Beijing was formerly known) was hammered out on manual typewriters and launched in 1979, just as China was starting to open up, when there was hardly any reliable information on the country or its capital. Bartlett swiftly capitalised on its success with guides to Canton (Guangzhou) and Shanghai.

Four decades later, he is going stronger than ever, revising guides and working on a raft of new projects.