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 ...
and
reference
Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...
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 customers’ individual criteria.
The Rough Guides travel titles cover more than 200 destinations beginning with the 1982 ''Rough Guide to Greece'', a book conceived by Mark Ellingham, who was dissatisfied with the polarisation of existing guidebooks between cost-obsessed student guides and "heavyweight cultural tomes".
Initially aimed at low-budget backpackers, the guidebooks have incorporated more expensive recommendations since the early 1990s, and are now marketed to travellers on all budgets. Since the late 1990s the books have contained colour printing. Much of the books' travel content is also available online.
Penguin
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...
became responsible for sales and distribution in 1992, acquiring a majority stake in 1996 and buying Rough Guides outright in 2002.
In November 2007, after the company had celebrated "25 Rough Years" with a celebratory series of books, Ellingham left Rough Guides to set up a new green and ethical imprint, GreenProfile, at
Profile Books
Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science.
Profile Books is distributed in the UK ...
. Rough Guides was run from 2003 until later in the decade by co-founder Martin Dunford and Andrew Lockett, under the aegis of Penguin before their merger with Random House.
In 2017, Rough Guides was sold to APA Publications, parent of
Insight Guides
Insight Guides, founded by Hans Johannes Hofer, is a travel company based in London with offices in Singapore and Warsaw. It sells customised package tours as well as guide books for hundreds of destinations worldwide. It also produces guide book ...
. It is now based at APA's offices in Mill Street,
Bermondsey
Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...
, southeast London.
The slogan of Rough Guides is "Make the Most of Your Time on Earth".
Books
Most of the series' early titles were written or edited by John Fisher, Jack Holland and Martin Dunford, who along with Mark Ellingham were co-founders and owners of Rough Guides. In 1995, they negotiated the sale of the series to
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.world music, rock, hip-hop,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, and individual artists – and topics such as film, literature,
popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
,
ethical living Ethical living is the philosophy of making decisions for daily life which take into account ethics and moral values, particularly with regard to consumerism, sustainability, environmentalism, wildlife and animal welfare.
Practice and implementat ...
,
true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
,
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, pregnancy and birth, plus the Internet and related subjects such as
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
,
blogging
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
and
iPods
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes w ...
.
Trips
In November 2018, Rough Guides launched its tailormade trips service. The service offers individualized travel experiences chosen by the traveller, planned by a local expert, and booked by Rough Guides. In keeping with the brand ethos, the trips generally include some sort of adventurous component, dependent on what the traveller has asked for.
Digital publishing
Rough Guides migrated to digital platforms with the launch of Rough Guides city guides for iOS, Android and Windows platforms, interactive e-books, and downloadable guide chapters. In January 2013 Rough Guides launched new website From 1 April 2019, Rough Guides started rolling out a scheme to offer a free downloadable e-book with every print guide purchased.
Podcasts
Rough Guides runs a podcast called The Rough Guide to Everywhere ', which was launched in 2017. The podcast explores topical travel issues and interviews inspirational travel personalities who have unique stories to tell.
Th first episode went live on 30 January 2017 with the first two series being hosted by Greg Dickinson. On 3 May 2019, Rough Guides announced series 3 and introduced the new hosts, Rebecca Hallett and Neil McQuillian The first episode of series 4 went live in May 2019 and is hosted by Aimee White.
On 9 April 2019, it was announced that ''The Rough Guide to Everywhere'' had been nominated for the Best Branded Podcast category at The British Podcast Awards.
Music
In association with UK-based record label World Music Network, Rough Guides has issued over 350 recorded
anthologies
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
of the music of various nations and regions. In addition to their "Rough Guide" Series, the record label World Music Network has released 130 recordings in their other "Introducing", "Riverboat", and "Think Global" Series.
Television
In the late 1980s, the Rough Guides brand was spun off into a series of travel shows on United Kingdom television channel BBC 2. Initially part of Janet Street Porter's DEF II strand, alongside Rapido and
Jovanotti
Lorenzo Cherubini (; born 27 September 1966), better known as Jovanotti (), is an Italian singer-songwriter, rapper and disc jockey.
The name Jovanotti derives from ''giovanotti'', the plural form of the Italian word ''giovanotto'' ("young man") ...
's Gimme 5, the show became established in BBC 2's early 1990s evening schedule.
Later editions of the show, usually hosted by
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a British new wave band formed in 1982 by former Generation X bassist Tony James. The band have had three UK top-40 hit singles, including " Love Missile F1-11" and " 21st Century Boy".
The band's music, image and in ...
associate
Magenta Devine
Magenta Devine (born Kim Taylor; 4 November 1957 – 6 March 2019) was a British television presenter, journalist and music promoter best known for presenting the travel programme ''Rough Guide'' and youth programme ''Reportage'' on BBC2 in the 1 ...
(with various male co-presenters through the show's run), were repeated on the Sky Travel channel until 2005.
A new Rough Guide series of fifteen thirty-minute programmes started production in November 2007 and began airing on Channel 5 (the UK's fifth terrestrial channel), on 7 January 2008. A second 'Rough Guide to…' series was aired starting in November 2008.
Environmental campaigns
In May 2007, Mark Ellingham said he had grave concerns about the growth of air travel because of its growing contribution to
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
.
He launched a joint awareness campaign with
Tony Wheeler
Tony Wheeler (born 20 December 1946) is an English-born Australian publishing entrepreneur, businessman and travel writer, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook company with his wife Maureen Wheeler.
Born in England, his father worked for ...
(
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books.
History Early years
Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embark ...
founder), and Rough Guides began including a " health warning" in each of its travel guides, urging readers to "Fly less, stay longer" wherever possible.