Guidebook, schmidebook

Is there a dirty litlle secret behind that heavy, chunky guidebook tucked into your backpack?

An interesting exchange on the forum concerns “desk updates”, which one writer refers to as Lonely Planet’s “dirty secret”. The fact is, “desk updates” are not just Lonely Planet’s “dirty secret” but the industry’s dirty secret. It is little commented on, but the huge proliferation of guidebook titles that now line bookshop shelves coincided with the rise of the internet. In times past, the only way to research a guidebook was to actually go there — the alternative, plagiarising another guidebook, was, and still is, difficult to cover up. Today, you can sit at home and Google the town you might otherwise be exploring on foot, and hopefully some random blogger has done the legwork for you. - age.com.au