‘BOOK’ A VACATION
Remember Will Thacker in Notting Hill, the cute, bumbling bookseller played by Hugh Grant? What impressed many passionate travellers about the movie was not that a star (Julia Roberts) falls in love with Thacker but that he owned a bookstore dedicated to travel books. In Indian bookstores, they rued, travel books take up about one-hundredth the space dedicated to, say, teen vampire novels.
Aashish Gupta of Yellowleg.com is trying to change all that with his online resource devoted to global travel literature. The website is divided by geography into sections ranging from Africa to Antarctica, and stocks guidebooks in all shapes and sizes — from Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to those from less wellknown publishers such as Bradt and Fodor’s. Yellowleg sources books from local wholesalers/distributors, publishers, online bookstores abroad, and sometimes directly from the authors. The inventory has been put together to include interesting travelogues and fiction featuring a certain destination — for instance, the section on central Africa includes books like Congo Journey by Redmond O’ Hanlon and Tim Butcher’s Blood River.
While mainstream online booksellers usually take more than a week to deliver travel guides and books, Yellowleg’s takes three business days. “Besides, we make it easier for customers to find the right book — our collection is highly selective and only the best books are listed, so they don’t need to spend time doing research on what to buy. We also sell used books, giving customers a better deal,” Gupta asserts.
Once the website had taken off, Gupta realised there were still some people who don’t have the time or inclination to do all the research themselves, but still want to travel independently. So Yellowleg started the Travel Ninjas service, which gives people access to an elite panel of destination experts who can help them plan their trips.
Remember Will Thacker in Notting Hill, the cute, bumbling bookseller played by Hugh Grant? What impressed many passionate travellers about the movie was not that a star (Julia Roberts) falls in love with Thacker but that he owned a bookstore dedicated to travel books. In Indian bookstores, they rued, travel books take up about one-hundredth the space dedicated to, say, teen vampire novels.
Aashish Gupta of Yellowleg.com is trying to change all that with his online resource devoted to global travel literature. The website is divided by geography into sections ranging from Africa to Antarctica, and stocks guidebooks in all shapes and sizes — from Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to those from less wellknown publishers such as Bradt and Fodor’s. Yellowleg sources books from local wholesalers/distributors, publishers, online bookstores abroad, and sometimes directly from the authors. The inventory has been put together to include interesting travelogues and fiction featuring a certain destination — for instance, the section on central Africa includes books like Congo Journey by Redmond O’ Hanlon and Tim Butcher’s Blood River.
While mainstream online booksellers usually take more than a week to deliver travel guides and books, Yellowleg’s takes three business days. “Besides, we make it easier for customers to find the right book — our collection is highly selective and only the best books are listed, so they don’t need to spend time doing research on what to buy. We also sell used books, giving customers a better deal,” Gupta asserts.
Once the website had taken off, Gupta realised there were still some people who don’t have the time or inclination to do all the research themselves, but still want to travel independently. So Yellowleg started the Travel Ninjas service, which gives people access to an elite panel of destination experts who can help them plan their trips.
No comments:
Post a Comment