Online research replaces the travel books

Long gone are the days where people read pages and pages of text about a future destination filled with static pictures of certain landmarks. Today people want more and that is what is available now on the web. Ed Lester who created an online website called “So Much World” commented, “The travel guidebook is dying as the medium for travel research and trip planning. Denying this is denying the truth.”  Lester continued to comment on the topic and discussed how today’s traveler wants more than what a book can offer. Media such as video clips of what they could see in different locations, both live feeds as well as older clips can provide travelers with more than any guidebook.

Lester has also increased the technology available on his own website to involve other forms of media to help a traveler planning his trip by introducing blogs, live chat and other forms of real time data transfer between a future traveler and a resident of the location they plan to visit. Forums on the web filled with past visitors sharing their experience both the good and the bad, can help a traveler determine what to see and where to stay more accurately than any guidebook filled with one persons opinion.

Lester commented on why the web will succeed to pass the guide book, “those websites and blogs who embrace quality and conversation, and who understand that travel represents basic human needs, they are the future of travel online.”