Two juniors returned to classes today after an intersession trip far less exotic than their summers in Peru and India as researchers for the Harvard-produced travel guide series “Let’s Go.”

Ultimately, though, their five-city publicity tour may prove more important to the success of the company—but only if favorable sales numbers result.

The media blitz of over a dozen television and radio appearances—primarily during the trip taken by Megan M. Brumagim ’04 and Nitin Shah ’04—promoted Let’s Go’s newly updated guides for 2003, which came out in December.

After marketing research commissioned by Let’s Go and its publisher, St. Martin’s Press indicated that the student publication was “out of step” with students and young people who saw travel as an adventure rather than a vacation, the travel guides have been repackaged for a broader, more culturally savvy audience.

And they said it’s working.

Both St. Martin’s and Let’s Go officials said early sales figures suggest the campaign has been successful, although they declined to provide specific numbers or break down rates for individual titles.

Esti M. Iturralde ’00, St. Martin’s editorial liaison for Let’s Go and a former employee herself, said initial bookstore orders were up by 30 percent almost across the board compared to orders this time last year.

As part of the series’ new look and feel, Brumagim said, guides now focus on a more flexible travel experience, and include options for higher-end accommodations and volunteer opportunities to encourage what Brumagim called “sustainable travel.”

“Traveling with a purpose and trying to be sensitive, leaving nothing behind but your footprints—it seems like a growing trend today,” she said.

New book covers eliminate Let’s Go’s trademark “thumb” logo, which the 2001 marketing report called outdated, while revised content includes more in-depth descriptions of foreign locations and four new guidebooks.

Although guides to Europe have traditionally been among the series’ best-sellers, Iturralde and Let’s Go editor-in-chief Jeffrey B. Dubner ’03 said Thailand and Costa Rica—both new titles—have also done well in early sales.

“The sales of the books you would consider either adventure or developing world have been pretty impressive,” Dubner said, although he added that the publication does not have demographic data on who is buying the new guides.

“The added publicity is certainly a factor in the increase in sales,” he said.

Shah said the media effort is essential to making sure readers notice the series’ revamping efforts for 2003, as Let’s Go has always updated each guidebook on a yearly basis.

“We’ve neglected marketing efforts a little bit in the past,” he said.

St. Martin’s hired a New York City publicist, Mark Fortier, to organize the media campaign, which will culminate in a March 12 discussion on sustainable travel at New York University.

Shah said he hoped the success of this marketing trip would convince St. Martin’s to fund more publicity efforts in the future, plans that Iturralde said are currently under discussion.

Almost Famous

Although Fortier said the radio and television interviews—in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego—were the “core” of the tour’s publicity efforts, Shah said he enjoyed the book signings most of all.

“We actually got out there to spread the gospel,” Shah said of answering questions about travel possibilities and his and Brumagim’s own experiences.

Brumagim said she was “pleasantly surprised” at attendance at the book signings, which attracted between 25 and 40 people apiece.

Fortier selected the two juniors last May—out of about 30 Let’s Go researchers who were interested in the trip—for their combined travel and media experience, he said.

Call-in listeners asked Brumagim, who had been a researcher for the 2002 Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia book, for advice on upcoming trips to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu.

They were particularly interested, Brumagim said, in hearing about her own adventures, which included crawling into a pitch-black cave while bats flew around her head.

The two also advised would-be travellers on alternatives to popular hot spots Bali and Indonesia, which have seen downturns in tourism since recent terrorist attacks. Instead, Shah said, they recommended scuba-diving in Thailand for those interested in going to Asia.

Although some of the more specific travel questions—like how to get discounts on European travel passes—temporarily baffled the Let’s Go researchers, they said they were able to refer to Let’s Go guidebooks they had on hand.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at

theodore@fas.harvard.edu.