Monday, May 4, 2009

Free downloads surge

TRAVEL GUIDES

Free products are attractive at the best of times. At the worst of times, they are snapped up like hotcakes, as free PDF travel guide supplier Fastcheck revealed in its April 2009 trend report.

Indeed, travellers on a budget are rapidly turning to the Internet to obtain free travel guides, resulting in an average of a 24 per cent increase in downloads from over 100 Fastcheck-partnered websites in the past six months.

The Sweden-based company provides free guides — covering more than 380 destinations in 22 languages — to airlines such as Tiger Airways and Air New Zealand, and travel-related sites such as MSN Hong Kong and BootsnAll Travel. The guides are also available at www.arrivalguides.com, which recorded a 42 per cent increase in downloads in the past half year.

"We have seen a steady growth every year, but the recession is definitely speeding up the process," said Mat Tidstrand, chief executive officer of Fastcheck, which aims to reach 14 million travellers this year.

Produced by a writer living in the area, the guides provide leisure travellers with a need-to-know overview of the destination. The guides cover attractions, restaurants, lodging and transportation. Full-colour maps and a street index can be found at the back.

Although the guides feature advertisements, Adrian Leben, Fastcheck's sales and marketing director Asia Pacific, said the information is unbiased as no paid content is allowed. Guides are updated every 12 weeks by the company and each can be quickly downloaded and printed. According to the trend report, the most popular guide is for London, followed by Barcelona, Paris, Rome and Berlin. Singapore is 31st on the list. Jennifer Chen

From TODAY, Traveller – Thursday, 30-April-2009

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