Arthur Frommer's guidebooks revolutionised leisure travel, by convincing average Americans to take budget holidays abroad. Pauline Frommer, the author's daughter, announced that her father died of complications of pneumonia on Monday. Frommer began writing by drafting a guidebook for American soldiers overseas.
When this sold out, he launched what became one of the travel industry’s best-known brands, self-publishing "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day" in 1957. "My father opened up the world to so many people," his daughter Pauline Frommer stated. "He believed deeply that travel could be an enlightening activity and one that did not require a big budget", she added.
The Frommer’s brand, led today by his daughter, remains one of the best-known names in the travel industry. It includes guidebooks to destinations around the world, an influential social media presence, as well as podcasts and a radio show. Frommer encouraged American travellers to enjoy the authenticity of the destinations they visited.
He pushed them to stay in inns and budget hotels rather than five-star palaces, but also to eat with locals in cafes, instead of fancy restaurants. When reflecting on the 1950s, Frommer stated in a 2017 interview that “most Americans had been taught that foreign travel was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially travel to Europe. They were taught that they were going to a war-torn country where it was risky to stay in any hotel other than a five-star hotel.
It was risky to go in.