Let's Go Guides Expanding Coverage

In a move its director called its "largest new project ever," Let's Go, the leading publisher of budget travel guides, decided last Friday to publish two new guides, one covering India and Nepal and one on Central America.

Let's Go, a student run subsidiary of Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), will begin publishing the Central America guide next year, and the India and Nepal guide in 1997 because it requires much more extensive work, according to Publishing Director Sean T. Fitzpatrick '95.

"Our focus has traditionally been on Europe, which has become very expensive," Fitzpatrick said. "So we continue to follow our readers--the budget traveler... now going to exciting places in the Third World."

"I'm excited, I think it's a great move," said Lawrence W. Cheng '96, president of HSA. "From an HSA perspective, I'm really glad so many students will be able to go to travel and research in India and Nepal to put together the book."

Cheng said that on the Let's Go applications this year India and Nepal has been the most frequently requested destination for prospective writer-researchers.

Let's Go decided to publish the additional books in conjunction with its publisher St. Martin's Press. The publisher usually requests a new guide each year (last year's was Eastern Europe) but this will be the first time that two major projects have been started simultaneously, Cheng said.

"People have been asking for years about a Central America book," Fitzpatrick said. "People never asked about India and Nepal because the area was so big, but ever since we started asking around, the response has been overwhelming."

Fitzpatrick said they expected the India and Nepal guide to sell particularly well in Britain where the area is a popular tourist destination.

Up to Date

"Our books are updated every year which makes us the most up to date on the market," Fitzpatrick added. "This is especially important in areas where conditions change rapidly, like the new areas we're moving into."

Let's Go had previously covered many of the Central American countries as part of its Mexican guide, but never done any coverage of India and Nepal.

The new Central American book will add coverage of El Salvador and Panama and expand that on Costa Rica, Fitzpatrick said.

According to Fitzpatrick, India and Nepal writers and editors will begin working this spring to make maps and write culture essays, then go to India this summer for the usual travel and reporting.

Let's Go editors said they expect to have a skeleton version of the guide done by the end of the summer, bnut will take an extra year to refine the product.

When Let's Go was founded in 1960 it published only a guide on Europe. In the years since, it has expanded its range across regions from East Asia to the Middle East.