Forget backdating scandals and accounting scandals, a new fraud revelation is shaking the travel guide industry! Thomas Kohnstamm, a travel writer for among other publishers, Lonely Planet, is making news by blowing the whistle on the crafting of guidebooks. In particular, Kohnstamm claims that the payment schemes for travel writers (who contribute to guidebooks for a fee, but share no royalties and are not reimbursed for expenses) creates incentives for writers to cheat: accept free meals and lodging, cut and paste information on tourist sights from other sources, and include information for places not personally visited. As an outrageous example, Kohnstamm admits to not visiting Colombia while contributing to Lonely Planet's guidebook to that country. Kohnstamm recounts the results of these agency problems in his new book Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics & Professional Hedonism.
What is interesting is Kohnstamm's unapologetic non-whistleblower stance. Kohnstamm obviously thinks guidebook publishers should pay more if they want to get more, but he also thinks that buyers of guidebooks should take them with a grain of salt. I was listening to an interview with him on Sirius NPR, and he stressed that no guidebook is the insurer of the reader's vacation. So, if a reader stays at a resort based on its review in the book, which turns out to be recycled for years gone by, and the resort turns out to be a dump -- that's the readers fault for being so gullible. Interesting.
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1. Posted by andie morrison on May 13, 2008 @ 9:26 | Permalink
Christine,
You obviously haven't read the book that you are commenting on and are judging it from cobbling together some random press reports and a radio interview that you clearly misunderstood. What kind of journalism is that? If you had actually read the book you would see your comments to be off base and rife with factual errors.
2. Posted by Eli on May 14, 2008 @ 11:54 | Permalink
I can't claim to have any deep insight into this, but my sister and her husband recently spent a year and a half running cabinas on the ocean in Costa Rica, and I myself spent two months there helping them. While I was there, the Lonely Planet guidebook travel writer came by, asked a few questions, and looked into the rooms. Their entire inquiry lasted maybe 15 minutes at most, and we found that the past editions of Lonely Planet that discussed our place of business and the surrounding services in the community were full of inaccuracies. Whether that was due to bribing or just poor investigation is anyone's guess, but I would assume it depends on the travel writer.
3. Posted by Christine on May 14, 2008 @ 15:21 | Permalink
Eli, that's hilarious! I bought a guidebook yesterday because my daughter and I are going to Montreal in two weeks, and I specifically did not buy the Lonely Planet guidebook.
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