WHEN I started the Travel Bookshop in Notting Hill — yes, the one that featured in the film of the same name — there were no guides to what was then Czechoslovakia. It was 1979 and tourists to Eastern Europe were few and far between. Now, of course, the east has opened up and there are more than 20 guides to Prague alone.

In fact, with so many new players in the field, you may wonder how old favourites such as Lonely Planet and Rough Guides survive. In my experience, it’s because most people are brand-loyal. If they bought the Lonely Planet guide to India they will buy the Lonely Planet guide to Australia for their next trip rather than looking at a Rough Guide or another alternative. It’s understandable, but not necessarily wise as, though each series has an overall identity, the individual books have different authors and the quality of writing and information within varies enormously.

However, both series have taken steps, such as listing a wider range of mid-range and upper-range accommodation, to maintain their original readership of backpackers, which is, of course, now older and more affluent.

In the 25 years I spent in Notting Hill, I witnessed many changes in guidebooks. Perhaps the most striking of these was the move away from books about destinations towards themed guides. In much the same way as travel literature went through a period of gimmicks with titles such as Wheelbarrow Across the Sahara (Grafton Books) and Round Ireland with a Fridge (Ebury Press), a trend emerged for ever-quirkier guides.

These days, it seems to me that series editors are racking their brains to come up with new ideas to capture a sector of the market. Andrew Steed, purchasing manager for the travel bookshop Stanfords, says this is something that small to medium-sized publishing firms are doing, and an area where they can flourish.

For instance, Cadogan has done well with its Buying Property series, while Bradt has become very well known for jumping straight in and publishing books about countries that are really off the beaten track. The publisher said its sales were up 20 per cent this year on last year, with considerable demand for books on Montenegro, Ukraine and Serbia. This year, it also launched a guide to Nigeria for the adventurous traveller.

This demand for new destinations and a thirst for more specialisation is being fuelled by an increasingly sophisticated traveller who is buying more specific hotel guides — witness the demise of the Which? hotel guide, whose last edition was published in September 2004 — while niche hotel guides such as Hip Hotels are flourishing.

Increasingly, travellers want information tailored to hobbies or activities. Shoppers and clubbers are particularly well catered for, with Insight Guides’ Shopping In series, A Hedonist’s Guide (Filmer) series as well as the Where to Wear (Fairchild & Gallagher) guides.

Charles Potter, managing director of Portfolio, which distributes travel books from about 60 publishers, says: “There is a greater demand for more specialist books and there is a trend upmarket, and these things converge with, for instance, the Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection series (Spy Publishing).

In fact, Mr & Mrs Smith’s success has been so phenomenal that since it launched in October 2003 it has sold in excess of 40,000 copies, an amazing amount for a guidebook. In some cases, this specialisation has become extreme, with guidebooks such as Travelling M25 Clockwise, written by cab driver Roy Phippen, who drives almost daily on the motorway, and has written down the information he gives his passengers when passing certain motorway sites. And there’s the even quirkier Z-Z of Great Britain (Icon Books), which tells you about everywhere you can go that begins with the last letter of the alphabet.

As people become more time-poor, they are also demand more soundbite information, which has given rise to handbag-size guides. Lonely Planet has a condensed series that has only the best things to see or do in one place, Dorling Kindersley a Top 10 series and Cadogan a Flying Visits series. Patricia Schultz’s hugely successful 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (Workman Publishing, £12.99) dedicates an average of just half a page per destination in its “ traveller’s life list”.

Another trend results from our increasingly technological world. Because they take so long to compile, guidebooks may well be out of date by the time they hit the shelves, so some publishers incorporate technology with their books — In Your Pocket, for instance, offers free downloadable PDF guides, and Dorling Kindersley has its DK e-guides. Technology is now advancing so much that some people opt to do away with the conventional guidebook.

Podcasting, which downloads travel information to your MP3 player, is in its infancy, but could be one of the big trends of the future. Virgin Atlantic has published four podcast guides to New York on the website http://virginatlantic.loudish.com and plans to produce guides to all its destinations in the next year.

It’s easy. You get to a particular area, then scroll through your iPod to choose which information you want from the menu bar. It’s also free.

But will it take over from travel guidebooks? The information is certainly not as comprehensive as that you’d get in a guidebook. As Andrew Steed says: “There is an element of déjà vu here. People have predicted the demise of books for as long as I have been selling them but there is something about the written word that cannot be beaten.”

Additional reporting by the Times travel desk

The latest trends

Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide (Bradt, £15.99)

The latest guide to Nigeria does little to allay travellers fears, the author stating: “It is simply one of the world’s most difficult places to travel in.” A great read and very personal account with excellent practical advice.

Venice for Lovers (Armchair Traveller, £12.99)

More travel writing than a guide, this attractive hardback book is definitely worth slipping in your luggage to read when you’re away. It’s one in a series that includes Damascus, Taste of a City, which comes with recipes.

Shopping in New York (Insight Guides, £5.99)

There are four guides in Insight’s Shopping In series (London, New York City, Paris, Rome, of course) — this one to the greatest shopping city of all. It lists an extraordinary number of shops in ten “shopping areas”.

Phaic Tan (Quadrille Publishing, £8.99).

A follow up to the very funny, but fake Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry, this new spoof guide tells you all you need to know about Phaic Tan where pool fencing is banned to curb overpopulation. A truly hilarious read.

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