Insight Guides, founded by Hans Johannes Hofer, is a

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

company based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with offices in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and Warsaw. It sells customised

package tour A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the ...

s as well as

guide book A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

s for hundreds of destinations worldwide. It also produces guide books, travel books, maps,

globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...

s, and travel gadgets for travelers. In 2018, packaged tours represented 18% of revenue.

History

Hofer's first book, published in 1970, was based on the island of Bali, and was funded by a local

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

. From there, he grew his business, creating over 400 guidebooks to over 100 destinations. The Insight Guide branding was first used in the 1980s. Following its focus on Asian guides during the seventies, the company expand into the Americas in the eighties. Insight Pocket guides were launched in 1991. In the late 1990s, he sold his share of the company to

Langenscheidt Langenscheidt () is a German publishing company that specializes in language reference works. In addition to publishing monolingual dictionaries, Langenscheidt also publishes bilingual dictionaries and travel phrase-books. Langenscheidt has la ...

KG. In 2014, Insight Guides and Berlitz Corporation Publishing were sold by Langenscheidt to APA Publications. In 2016, the company began bundling digital media with purchases of print products. In 2017 APA bought

Rough Guide Rough Guides Ltd is a British travel guide book and reference publisher, which has been owned by APA Publications since November 2017. In addition to publishing guidebooks, the company also provides a tailor-made trips service based on customer ...

from Penguin books.

Products

Books

Insight Guides combines photos with magazine-style features written by local experts. As well as providing readers with reliable, practical travel information, Insight Guides puts a historical and cultural spin on their guidebook content.

Trips

Insight Guides offers bookable trips planned by local experts who live in their specialist destinations. Travellers use the website to select where they want to go and then choose from the various trip itineraries on offer. Travellers are put directly in touch with the destination travel expert; they can then either book the itinerary as it is or customise it to suit their needs.

Podcast

Insight Guides runs a podcast called
Insight Guides: The Travel Podcast
', which was launched in May 2019 and is hosted by Zara Sekhavati. The podcast explores the history of various locations around the world, with the very first episode being about th
history of the Panama Canal

Mobile app

Insight Guides offers the Insight Guides Walking Eye

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

, which is offered free with the purchase of a travel guide.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.insightguides.com/ Atlases Cartography Travel guide books