Travel Guidebooks as Educational Media?

By Melanie Uth

Printed travel guidebooks remain popular and widely used in Germany, with an annual market volume of more than €400 million. For many travellers, they are the primary source of information about a destination’s people, history, traditions and languages. Their texts are typically written in a clear and engaging style, giving readers little reason to question the information presented. As popular educational media, travel guidebooks enjoy a high level of trust in the expertise of their authors and continue to shape the ideas and expectations with which people travel.

Against this backdrop, many representations in contemporary travel guidebooks warrant critical scrutiny, as research conducted at the Institute of Romance Studies at the University of Potsdam demonstrates. Population figures, for example, sometimes differ dramatically from official census data –by as much as two thirds – and many of the key social processes and conflicts shaping the regions described are omitted altogether. This is particularly the case where local relics of a “glorious past” (such as archaeological ruins) can be presented as attractive tourist sites.

Comparisons of different travel guidebooks covering the same destination also reveal extensive copying between publications. In some cases, new editions appear without important corrections, allowing outdated information and long-standing errors to be reproduced. At the same time, the quality of guidebooks varies considerably between publishers.

The Problem of “Worth Seeing”

Since the everyday lives of local people are often not considered worthy of a visit – that is, “worth seeing” – travel guidebooks tend to present a distorted picture of destinations by directing readers’ attention to a limited number of places deemed particularly spectacular or noteworthy. In the process, local communities are reduced to little more than a backdrop or to service providers whose role is to facilitate the recommended “must-see” experiences. At times, they are even portrayed as obstacles to be navigated with caution. Travel guidebooks frequently include comments such as “not worth a visit”, “better to drive straight through”, “beware of …”, or recommendations to “avoid” certain neighbourhoods altogether.

From the perspective of travellers seeking memorable experiences, such language and recommendations may appear entirely reasonable. It is often the question “Is it worth it?” that structures entire itineraries. From the perspective of local communities, however, intercultural encounters under these conditions are frequently marked by everyday tensions. The expectations conveyed through travel guidebooks can encourage behaviour that local residents often perceive as disrespectful and degrading, sometimes with considerable consequences for their quality of life.

The seriousness of these challenges is illustrated by the Mexican anthropologist Pedro Antonio Be Ramírez in his 2024 study of residents in the tourism hotspot of Cancún (Be Ramírez, 2024, pp. 79–80). The following quotations reflect the views expressed by many of the interviewees and deserve greater attention from both travel guidebook authors and their readers:

“People are treated like exhibits. That is the worst part of it –
the culture is not respected in any way.”
(21-year-old resident of Cancún, Mexico)

“It’s like theatre. … People look at what tourists like, [and start] performing things over and over again. … They do it every day. It makes no sense. … They see it as a form of advertising to attract more resources. … Then [the tourists] go home with false information and a distorted picture.”
(21-year-old resident of Cancún, Mexico)

Colonial Continuities and Exoticisation

The problem of “worth seeing” goes hand in hand with often unconscious colonial narratives and processes of exoticisation of destinations. Both continue to appear in many contemporary travel guidebooks and are, in some cases, reproduced from one edition to the next. Innocuous phrases such as “here you can observe women in colourful traditional dress” or “here you can still discover largely untouched ruins” reproduce the colonial notion of exploring an exotic “other” and contribute to reducing local communities to little more than part of the surrounding landscape.

Managing inflated expectations is challenging in general. Travel guidebooks sometimes create expectations that are simply unrealistic. As a result, travellers may arrive with a sense of disappointment or frustration that local communities must deal with on a daily basis, alongside the environmental pressures associated with tourism. When, for example, a permanently crowded and heavily worn trail leading to a “lost city” in an Indigenous mountain region of Colombia is promoted as an “exciting jungle adventure”, or an archaeological site in Mexico receiving up to 40,000 visitors a year is described as “lonely and mysterious, hidden in the jungle”, guidebook authors rarely consider the social consequences of the expectations they create – not to mention the daily realities of managing large tourist flows. While travel guidebooks have begun to cover issues such as overstretched water supplies, waste management, traffic congestion and land-use conflicts in tourism destinations more frequently, these issues continue to be significantly underrepresented.

The exoticisation and idealisation of selected – mostly historical – cultural heritage sites as relics of a glorious past reinforce the perception of culture as a commodity while rendering the concerns and realities of today's local communities invisible. Owing to their strong focus on ruins and monuments, travel guidebook authors often appear unfamiliar with – or consider unworthy of mention – the contemporary cultural expressions and “highlights” of the places they describe.

Towards More Responsible Encounters

Although a focus on (supposedly) spectacular ruins and natural landmarks has become almost second nature to many travellers, culturally sustainable tourism requires a fundamental shift in perspective. This means looking beyond sensationalist and exoticising representations of destinations and engaging with local communities in ways that respect their contemporary cultures, lived realities and concerns – or choosing not to visit at all. It is to be hoped that travel guidebooks will continue to evolve in this direction and play a greater role in making tourism more socially just and responsible.

Melanie Uth is Professor of Romance Linguistics at the University of Potsdam. As part of an international research team, she studies cognitive, cultural and socio-political aspects of Romance languages, cultures and societies in Europe and the Americas, with a particular focus on linguistic and cultural diversity and sustainability.