Not For Tourists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not For Tourists (abbreviated NFT) is a series of guides to major cities (thus far, all American ones). Unlike traditional tourist guide books, NFT guides are designed for people who live in or commute to their subject cities. As such, they differ in several ways from the typical guide book. In addition to highlighting landmarks, restaurants, bars, etc., NFT guides point out "essentials" like supermarkets, parking lots, pharmacies, and banks.
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[edit] History
NFT originated in Jane Pirone's early-morning search for an open gas station in 1990. She and Rob Tallia published the Not For Tourists Guide to Manhattan 2000 ten years later.[1] The name was changed to the "Guide to New York City" in 2002, which also saw the release of NFT's second city, Los Angeles. In late 2003, the guides were opened up to advertisements for financial reasons.[2]
[edit] Format
NFT guides have simple black and silver covers. The pocket-sized guides have very small typefaces[3] and no photography.
In addition to having little introductory/orientation material (every NFT simply begins with an introductory letter, a table of contents, and then a map of each neighborhood for that city), NFT differs from other guides in that its trim size is variable--the New York City guide is pocket-sized, while the Los Angeles guide is quite larger as it is meant to be used as a driving/navigational tool in addition to a basic reference. Cities such as Chicago and Washington, DC have a trim size that is in between that of the pocket guides and the larger Los Angeles guide. NFT states that each of its guides' sizes is based solely on the "coverage area" for each city--San Francisco being close to 50 square miles, for instance, and Los Angeles covering close to 500 square miles. Los Angeles has five times the population of San Francisco.
[edit] Content
NFT guides are organised by location, breaking cities down into neighbourhoods. The books are divided into maps which are cross-referenced with an appendix listing and briefly reviewing everyday destinations such as supermarkets, gas stations, hardware stores, and mass transit, as well as landmarks, restaurants and hotels.[4]
Recommendations are based on information from residents and details fact-checked. The founders encourage readers to inform them of errors through their website, and this is used to improve future editions. Every page of every book is also available for downloading for free from the website.[1]
[edit] Current NFT guides
Currently there are 11 titles, with the most recent being Seattle which was released in October 2007. The company is planning to expand to international cities in the near future, beginning with NFT London to be released fall 2008.[4]
NFT has released guides to:
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Slobodzian, Joseph A.. "A guidebook off the tourist track", The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 June 2005.
- ^ Lazare, Lewis. "Ads in new editions of Not For Tourists guides", Chicago Sun-Times, 3 December 2003, pp. 81.
- ^ The Associated Press. "Not for Tourists books packed with detail", National Post, 15 November 2003, pp. PT02.
- ^ a b Teplitsky, Ariel. "Guides help real travellers rush in where 'tourists' fear to tread", The Toronto Star, 21 October 2006, pp. K16.
