Jasons has well and truly spanked AA Travel this year in the race to hit the streets with their guides well before the busy season ahead.
The courier van dutifully delivered our brown boxes of Jasons Guides to our motel on the 24 October and we have only today received our boxes of the 2013 AA Accommodation Guide.
At 880 pages this year's AA edition is still a weighty door-stop, however not surprisingly it has slimmed down (by almost 10 percent) compared to the last year's edition.
Much like the Jasons Guide, AA have placed numerous calls-to-action for readers throughout the 2013 Guide to connect with their dynamic online content, in particular the AA iPhone App.
These days it's a difficult task to sex-up a static paper-based directory, but there is still a place for printed guides as they remain a valid part of many customers multi-media decision making process.
A reasonable portion of these guides will still find their way into traveller's car glove boxes - particularly in the domestic leisure market. But, I've noticed over the years that these books are becoming more difficult to give away....with the advent of connected portable devices that can quickly display up-to-date content, the validity of these guides is waning...
It's interesting to contemplate just how much longer it will be before the cost of advertising in these slabs of dead-wood will cease to be cost effective for accommodation advertisers...
