Guide du Routard
The famous criticism by Roland Barthes that the Blue Guide perceived “landscape only in terms of the picturesque”. With picturesque defined as anything hilly. This reflects a bourgeois idea of the mountains, a long-standing alpine myth (dating back to the 19th century) that Gide aptly associated with Helvetian-Protestant ethics […]. Just as the ruggedness of the terrain is glorified to the detriment of other horizons, so too do the humans, who inhabit the region, disappear to the exclusive benefit of its monuments. […] “the Spain of the Blue Guide knows only one type of space, a tightly woven fabric of churches, sacristies, altarpieces, crosses, pyx, spires (always octagonal), sculptural groups (Family and Labour), Romanesque portals, naves, and life-sized crucifixes” (1957, p. 123 sqq.), which appears to have been taken at face value by Philippe Gloaguen, co-founder of the Guide du Routard (GdR), who effectively created an anti-Blue Guide (Gloaguen and Trapier, 1994, p. 180)). It should be noted that the value system of the Blue and Green Guides was based on age, elevation, and the unusual, destructive modernity and enduring nostalgia, explaining their focus on old monuments, which were almost automatically interesting (Lerivray, 1975, p. 45).
This logic was challenged with the publication of the first budget travel guides in the United States during the 1950s, such as Arthur Frommer, who published The GI’s Guide to Travelling in Europe in 1955 while serving in the US Army in West Germany. Two years later, he published a version for a much wider audience, Europe on Five Dollars a Day, the first in a long series. After this, in 1960, Dustin Burke and Oliver Koppel launched a guide called Let’s Go in Europe. Based on the off-the-beaten-track tourism practices of hippies in the 1970s, with the “Hippie Trail”, two other major travel guides appeared: Lonely Planet, founded by Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 1973; that same year, Michel Duval and Philippe Gloaguen published their first GdR (Guide du Routard), a worldwide travel guidebook based on Duval’s travels in the United States and Gloaguen’s experiences along the “Route des Zindes” (route to India).
During the summer of 1973, sales of the first guide were good, with 8,500 copies published by Gedalge. In 1975, the GdR moved to Hachette, and four guides were published; 15,000 copies of the Asia edition were printed,12,000 of the others. That year, the illustrator Jean Solé, who was just starting at Pilote and he would later design the poster for the film Le Père Noël est une ordure (1980), created the collection’s iconic logo of the hippy backpacker with long hair and a moustache, dressed in flared trousers and carrying a globe as a backpack. For the Guide’s fiftieth anniversary, this character for which it was famous continued to feature on the cover and spine of books, albeit more discreetly, and his appearance had changed greatly: shorter hair, no more sideburns and moustache, tighter trousers, and sturdy footwear replaced by trainers, and a watch now adorning his wrist, etc.).
Sales increased from 53,000 guides in 1975 to 83,000 in 1979, with an expanding collection (eight guides in 1979). The following year, the number of copies sold exceeded the 100,000 mark. The Routard thrived in the 1980s with an increasing number of guides published, including one on Paris released in 1985 and others on various French regions, starting with Provence-Côte d’Azur in 1987, followed by Brittany. Under Pierre Josse, the guides introduced history and culture, using amusing anecdotes to help tourists understand the people and their society (Gloaguen and Trapier, 1994, p. 238). In 1993, sales reached 1.5 million to mark the 20th anniversary of the Routard collection, which now featured about fifty guides. Today, the Guide boasts over 150 titles and, alongside the traditional guides, the collection now features albums and beautiful books, conversation guides, and cycling guides. Its website has many visitors and over its fifty years of existence, 55 million copies of the GdR have been sold, with annual sales currently ranging between 2 to 2.5 million copies. In 2022, 35 of the top 50 best-selling travel guides in France were published by Guide du Routard, which holds a 30% market share, ahead of Lonely Planet (20%) and Michelin (13%). Its readers are mainly from upper social classes, including professionals, intellectuals, and students (Le Monde, 2 April 2023).
However, this success story has been marred by several criticisms in recent years. These mainly concern Philippe Gloaguen, who conveys an image of a free-spirited adventurer, and who is the sole owner of the Routard brand. He pays his employees, about twenty of whom are permanent staff members, with royalties. As a result, he pays very little in employer contributions, and these freelance writers, who are paid per article, do not benefit from social allowances such as unemployment benefits. Accustomed to taking legal action against certain publishers, Philippe Gloaguen, a graduate of the Paris School of Business (ESCP), registered his guide’s name with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in 1975. He failed in his attempt to have the term “routard” excluded from the Robert and Larousse dictionaries, however, (Le Monde, 21 March 1987) the word was actually invented by Jean-François Bizot (1944–2007), the then director of Actuel and co-founder of Radio-Nova. His carefully crafted narrative, which presents him as “cool” (Gloaguen and Trapier, 1994; Gloaguen, 2006), was seriously challenged in the book by Baudouin Eschapasse (2006). In Plateforme (2001), Michel Houellebecq criticised the GdR for its moralising tone:
“While the principle of the Guide du Routard was to prepare travellers for their journey to Thailand, in reality it expressed strong reservations and, in its preface, felt compelled to denounce the scourge of sex tourism, an abhorrent form of slavery. In short, these “routards” were grouches whose sole aim was to spoil the joy of the tourists they despised. […] Them and their ‘great group of mates who had helped them with the book’ were nothing more than self-righteous humanitarian protestants, whose ugly mugs featured prominently on the back cover”.
(p. 58).
However, on this point, the GdR was simply following changes in society. with page 81 of the 1988/89 edition of the Routard guide on South-East Asia, noting that:
“In any case, most male tourists coming to Bangkok want “their” experience. It is their goal, whether they admit to it or not. Here are a few pieces of advice to consider or disregard, depending on your moral values and principles. After all, our intention is not to judge our readers”
(Équipe MIT, 2002, p. 76).
While some might find the complicity that the GdR attempts to establish with its readers amusing, implying that it is sharing “great tips” with its friends, through a blend of subjectivity, humour, and colloquial language, as shown by the frequent use of colloquial expressions like “neat” or “cool” (Eschapasse, 2006, p. 203), its hypocrisy could easily become somewhat grating. In an article published by Le Monde on 19 April 1980, Philippe Gloaguen draws a line between tourists and the clientèle targeted by his guide, portrayed as adventurers seeking an “extraordinary experience”. This type of self-promoting platform perpetuates clichés about tourists who avoid “any contact with the local population, its customs, and its food”, preferring to view countries “through the tinted windows of air-conditioned coaches”, oblivious to local life as they relax in luxury hotels, on exclusive beaches, or at pretend folklore events. The commercial success of the GdR is built upon the distasteful stereotype of a tourist effectively showcasing its products to an extensive tourist clientèle at increasingly popular destinations (Paris, Côte d’Azur, and the Balearic Islands, etc.).
The GdR can be seen as a model of duplicity, especially in light of Philippe Gloaguen’s professed “anti-tourism” ethos (Gloaguen and Trapier, 1994, p. 182). Millions of users are led to believe they are discovering untouched landscapes, practically pristine ecosystems, and authentic local populations. One of the first consequences of these guides is that it opens up destinations to visitors chosen precisely for their lack of tourists. There is almost an element of deception, since with the GdR being printed in millions of copies, it actually contributes to the high numbers of visitors in some areas, something which it criticises despite being partly responsible for it. Considering itself as a travel guide, the GdR aligns itself with the great tradition of criticising tourism (Gloaguen and Trapier, 1994, p. 357). Apart from the quality and useful nature of the information provided, its success, may well stem from a certain sense of superiority it offers some tourists, leading them to believe that they are not merely tourists but rather genuine travellers.
Bibliography
- Barthes Roland, 1957, Mythologies, Paris, Le Seuil, 252 p.
- Équipe MIT, 2002, Tourismes 1, lieux communs, Paris, Belin, 320 p.
- Eschapasse Baudouin, 2006, Enquête sur un guide de voyages dont on doit taire le nom, Paris, Éditions du Panama, 283 p.
- Gloaguen Philippe et Trapier Patrice, 1994, Génération routard, Paris, JC Lattès, 390 p.
- Gloaguen Philippe, 2006, Une Vie de routard, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 286 p.
- Houellebecq Michel, 2001, Plateforme, Paris, Flammarion, 370 p.
- Lerivray Bernard, 1975, Guides bleus, guides verts et lunettes roses, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 158 p.
- Rauch André, 1997, «Du Guide bleu au routard. Métamorphoses touristiques.», Revue des sciences sociales, n° 24, p. 146-151, https://doi.org/10.3406/revss.1997.3160