Marco Polo travel guide
Marco Polo travel guides (brand name in capitals ) are the best-selling travel guides in Germany and Europe with 260 titles and are published by the MairDumont group in Ostfildern near Stuttgart. When they were launched on the market in 1991, they were the first colored compact travel guides and are characterized by short information sections. The heart of the series are the “Insider Tips”, whose authors live on site.
history
In 1948 Kurt Mair founded the Kurt Mair Cartographic Institute . In 1952 it was renamed Mairs Geographischer Verlag and has been called MairDumont since 2005 due to the takeover of Dumont Verlag . The publishing house was based in Stuttgart until the early 1970s, but then relocated to Ostfildern-Kemnat for reasons of space . The street of the company headquarters was named Marco-Polo-Strasse, the new office building complex Marco Polo Zentrum .
The company was managed by the founder Kurt Mair until his death in 1957, when his son Volkmar Mair took over the management.
In 1986 the name Marco Polo was protected worldwide. For a long time now, Mairs Geographischer Verlag had wanted to publish a new and inexpensive travel guide series in addition to the Baedeker , a renowned, content-rich travel guide. Since the protected name must be used within five years, Volkmar Mair founded the travel guide series Marco Polo with the help of editor Ferdinand Ranft.
MairDumont founded the subsidiary Marco Polo Travel Publishing in 2011 and opened its own day care center Marco Polo Kids in 2015 , which includes a crèche and a kindergarten.
development
In 1991 the first 39 Marco Polo travel guides were published at a unit price of 10 Deutsche Mark. The typical Marco Polo logo (consisting of the word “Marco Polo”, the two words of which are separated by a stylized globe) has been used since the beginning.
In 1993 the first anti-travel guide to Antarctica was published (no longer in the program).
In 1994 the volumes were equipped with more maps through the introduction of the "triple flap" and Marco Polo became the market leader in the field of German-language travel guides.
In 1995, all insider tips were highlighted in yellow in the text so that readers can see them at a glance. Marco Polo became the publisher's umbrella brand.
In 1996 a new eight-page phrasebook was introduced and the chapter “With Marco Polo into the countryside”.
A major relaunch took place in 1998 : the introduction of the integrated Marco Polo Travel Atlas or City Atlas and an additional four-page route chapter.
In 1999 a travel guide cost 14.80 Deutsche Mark.
In 2002 there was another relaunch with a new look and expanded content ("The perfect day", "The perfect route"). Marco Polo “Berliner”, a glossy magazine for Berlin tourists, was also published, and the Compact Guides and Language Guides were launched.
In 2003, two new travel guides were introduced - from now on there was also Marco Polo for locals: "Stuttgart for Stuttgart", "Berlin for Berlin".
In 2005, the Marco Polo car map with travel guide was published and in the new edition of the Marco Polo travel guide, the cover was referred to for the first time on its own website.
In 2006 the first Marco Polo “Culinary Travel” travel guides came on the market, of which there were a total of six volumes, and the book Football World Cup Cities 2006 appeared on the occasion of the World Cup.
In 2007 a new map series with Marco Polo country maps appeared.
Another change occurred in 2008, when the volumes were modeled on a lifestyle magazine and each chapter was supplemented with “low budget” tips.
In 2009, 16 new Marco Polo travel guides were completely revised, with the new chapter “Full program”, practical pictures, extra slang chapters and more insider tips; also the volumes Germany: the most beautiful tours and walks , balconies and travel photo book .
In 2011 a New York travel guide was created in cooperation with the artist James Rizzi .
In 2012 the series was completely revised and redesigned, a volume now cost 11.99 euros in Germany. Some volumes were published in their 20th edition in 2012.
In 2015 the series "Raus & Los" was created for nature lovers.
2016 was an anniversary year: the publisher celebrated 25 years of the Marco Polo Travel Guide, the sixth relaunch with 80 new volumes included new adventure tours, events, news and a new visual appearance. The Mach's in series was published a year later for Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Vienna. In 2018 there was a relaunch of the City-Guides with a revision of the content as well as the design and the change of the title to The best city in the world .
Marco Polo was the first travel guide to be linked directly to the internet. Each volume was assigned its own web address, where the reader could call up relevant daily information.
In 2019 a travel guide in Germany cost 12.99 euros.
Digital development
In 2000 marcopolo.de went online with travel information. In 2003 Falk Marco Polo Interactive was founded, a merger of Falk Media GmbH and Marco Polo New Media. The Internet-active Marco Polo travel DVDs with insider tips were launched in 2004 and six Marco Polo audio books in 2007. The portal has been expanded since 2008 - including social media elements.
In 2009 Frank Mair took over 80% of the shares in Falk Marco Polo Interactive - in this area there were now two companies FALK NAVIGATION (formerly Marco Polo Interactive) and FALK Content & Internet Solutions (newly founded). The contents of the Marco Polo travel guide were available on the go.
With navigation devices of the Falk M-Series Marco Polo Edition , up to a million sights could be controlled. The most important of these were presented with picture and sound and had an explanatory text of up to 4,000 characters, which corresponds to about a DIN A4 page. The M series was 15.5 millimeters high and had a 3.5 inch screen.
Since January 2009, 28 Marco Polo travel guides have also been available for the iPhone and iPod Touch in iTunes. The content corresponded to that of the printed travel guide, but with more entries and could also be used offline. In 2010, the brand's first iPad app named Marco Polo Experience Berlin was published. In 2012 Marco Polo launched 40 new e-books.
The channel MARCO POLO TV GmbH was founded in 2013 and the pay TV channel Marco Polo TV started on December 1, 2013. In 2014 the weather report was added.
For the 25th anniversary, the travel guide was relaunched with a new free tour app and update service. The website was also redesigned in 2017.
positioning
With around 260 titles worldwide, including 40 titles on German destinations, Marco Polo is the largest travel guide series in Germany and with a market share of 23.2% (as of July 2008) the market leader in Germany and Europe. Over 100 million Marco Polo travel guides have been sold since it was first published. Every fourth travel guide sold in Germany in 2016 was a Marco Polo travel guide.
The travel guides are translated into English, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian.
More rows
City guides, phrasebooks, travel audio books, culinary travel guides, cartographies and special titles are also published under the Marco Polo brand.
The map series was taken over by RV Verlag in 2007 and renamed Marco Polo. The Marco Polo regional maps are for France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia, the country maps are for all nations of Europe and the continental maps show countries and continents outside Europe.
In January 2009 the well-known general maps of Germany, Austria and Italy were renamed and revised as Marco Polo maps.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d 40 new Marco Polo travel guides | MAIRDUMONT. Accessed January 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Dr. Volkmar Mair (80). In: buchmarkt.de. BuchMarkt Verlag K. Werner GmbH, May 6, 2011, accessed on January 13, 2019 .
- ↑ The Sunday question / Why does MairDumont open its own kindergarten? Accessed January 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Michael Wald: When the youngsters take over the business. July 18, 2011, accessed February 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b BuchMarkt Verlag K. Werner GmbH: Mair Dumont relaunches Marco Polo / Now with an update service and free tour app. In: BuchMarkt. September 29, 2015, accessed on February 15, 2019 (German).
- ↑ SWR: The professional for globetrotters - travel publisher MairDumont in Ostfildern | made in southwest. June 9, 2017, accessed February 15, 2019 .
- ↑ MairDumont relaunches Marco Polo. September 10, 2015, accessed on February 15, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Travel information in HD / Mairdumont launches pay TV channel. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Marco Polo on a new mission. November 25, 2013, accessed on February 21, 2019 (German).
- ^ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Mairdumont publishing house: Marco Polo is renewed for the anniversary. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.mairdumont.com/presse/2016/08/05/40-neue-marco-polo-reisefuehrer/