The adventure began in April 1973 when Philippe Gloaguen, a business school student, managed to have his low-budget travel story on the road to India published. After 18 refusals, a 19th small publishing house, Gedalge, published the story, which sold 8,500 copies.

Fifty years later, the guide published by Hachette since 1975 is the best-selling in France (between 2 and 2.5 million copies annually).

"The secret of the Routard is a loyalty of the first customers with each year the arrival of a clientele of young people," Philippe Gloaguen, 71, told AFP.

"Le Routard has evolved because the clientele has evolved", according to him, "the young student has become an executive, has children ... From the youth hostel it went to the charming hotel... From hitchhiking he went to the rental car."

"This is the iconic collection of travel," Sidonie Chollet, director of the Hachette Tourism department, told AFP, "with a catalogue of 150 titles, which is not frequent."

Of the 50 best sales in France in 2022 of tourist guides, 35 are backpackers, according to the ranking published in March by Livre Hebdo and the Gfk research institute.

"The Backpacker is sincere..."

Among his competitors, there are the Lonely Planet, born the same year as him, the Michelin or the Petit Futé.

Today, the paper guide faces competition from the internet and social networks. The boss of the Routard acknowledges that this may have slowed down his sales, "especially the arrival of Tripadvisor".

"But the major flaw of the internet is that you don't know who is writing," he adds. "The Routard is sincere...", he assures, highlighting his editors and the 25,000 letters and emails from readers received per year.

The adventure began in April 1973 when Philippe Gloaguen, a business school student, managed to have his low-budget travel story on the route to India © published Eric PIERMONT / AFP / Archives

Le Routard has not escaped the call of the internet and now has its site, owned 50% by Hachette and 50% by Le Routard and which employs about twenty people.

For the guides, Hachette pays the copyright of the collection to Philippe Gloaguen, the sole and happy owner of the Routard brand.

It is then up to him to pay his teams - a model that has earned him criticism -, 22 authors and thirty freelancers (paid by the task), all specialists in their destination. For 2023, the boss of the Routard expects a turnover of 2.6 million euros.

Red line of the guide: safety. "As soon as there is a security problem in an area, we withdraw Le Routard from sale."

Because of the war in Ukraine, Philippe Gloaguen has withdrawn from sale guides from Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Baltic countries and Poland.

"Putin cost me 10 backpackers"

Poland, for example, "hosts a lot of Ukrainian refugees in hotels, I don't want tourists cohabitation with families who are suffering," he explains, adding: "Putin cost me at least ten guides of the Routard."

The guide also has partnerships with local authorities, Huttopia campsites and E.Leclerc shopping centres, which in June will sell a special Tour de France backpacker.

Today, the paper guide faces competition from the internet and social networks. The boss of the Routard acknowledges that this may have slowed down his sales, "especially the arrival of Tripadvisor" © Eric PIERMONT / AFP / Archives

Since 2021, after the Covid crisis during which sales of the guide had fallen by 85%, the guide is also available in quarterly, "Routard magazine".

Another source of income, the "beautiful books" of travel, sold around 40 euros, are also a "great success". One has already sold 130,000 copies since 2017 in several languages. Another, "50 trips to do in his life", accumulates in turn "more than 35,000 copies sold" since the end of November, says Sidonie Chollet.

The next adventure will be cinematic with a film written by the screenwriters of Tuches telling the peregrinations of an author of the Routard in Morocco. Release scheduled for 2024. Philippe Gloaguen will play his own role.

© 2023 AFP