Times Online Travel Editor Steve Keenan on the role of technology:

Ask the concierge for information at Rome's Cavalieri Hilton this summer and, along with sage advice, inside tips and a street map, you'll also be offered an MP3 player.

The hotel has loaded up two walking tours, lasting six hours and spanning between four and five miles through the city's main sights. Forward thinking, innovative, original? Well, up to a point. The idea, acknowledges the hotel, is simply to meet guests' "evolving needs and interests".

The ripping up of the travel rulebook is an unstoppable force. Sales of package holidays are declining, as the growth of independent travel continues unabated. Travel to Europe and the US is at a standstill while long-haul travel is up 30 per cent year on year.

Within a decade, low-cost flights and the internet have liberated travellers. They have taken control of their bookings and decided what they want, rather than being forced to choose from a brochure. So why should it be any different when it comes to travel information?

Half a million people a month use timesonline.co.uk/travel for research every month. One in 10 travellers research a hotel on tripadvisor.co.uk. Others will use Lonely Planet's Thorntree to exchange tips. Mobiles and email keep people in touch, and sharing photos or diaries on a blogging site is now the norm for anyone under 25. There are half a dozen US-based blogging sites dedicated to travel and they are starting to emerge here. The most established, wayn.com (where are you now?) now has eight million members worldwide.

Whither print or pod? The publishing revolution has, on one hand, seen the emergence of niche, targetted guidebooks, a wonderful development. Organic B&Bs in Britain, Scottish biking trails and Ireland for Garden Lovers are just three such guides I've recently ordered.

I applaud Bradt guides for its coverage of emerging countries including Rwanda, Namibia; Dorling Kindersley for its fantastic imagery and Rough Guides for accompanying me through my 20s. But there is a reason that Lonely Planet will next month begin offering its guidebooks online (you pay per chapter and print off a PDF, ensuring you get what you want, and when).

Whatever the niche or specialist appeal of a printed guidebook, the Achilles heel is always going to be in its lead-in time, that period of time between the final checks and commas and the purchase at the airport. In most cases, it will be more than a year. In some, more than five.

We are now in a world in which TV and radio shows can be watched on demand, where we download music and 18-25s talk to each other via Facebook or text. And there has been an explosion in travel multimedia to match.

As Rome's Hilton presciently says, customers' needs and interests are becoming more refined, more specific. We expect more from our holidays, more choice. This week, the Association of Independent Tour Operators (Aito) joined in, offering 30 podcasts covering several countries. Aito has taken a "relevant yet light-hearted," approach, says chairman Derek Moore, the content largely being interviews with tour leaders, journalists and customers.

Many podcasts will be bland, may be commercialised, and could teach you nothing. But key in "London podcasts" into Google, and you'll find offerings from The National Gallery, Guardian Food, South Bank and FunkyHouseLondon. There has to be something you'll like.

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