Arthur Frommer, Budget Travel Pioneer, Dies at 95

19.11.2024 - 11:35 / skift.com / Jason Clampet

Budget travel pioneer Arthur Frommer passed away yesterday at the age of 95, his daughter Pauline Frommer wrote yesterday afternoon.

As an active-service officer with the United States military working in Europe in the post-World War II years, he self-published his GI’s Guide to Traveling in Europe in 1955. It became the prototype for every English-language guidebook series that followed, from Lonely Planet to Let’s Go to Rough Guides, and more. He turned the follow-up, the seminal Europe on $5 a Day, into a brand and then a publishing empire that’s now run by his daughter.

The GI guide came about because, as a soldier, Arthur realized that when he had a few days off, he could hop on a military transport plane and be in a different European destination in a matter of hours. He took advantage of this benefit, and then he told his colleagues and then the world how they could do the same.

For the next 70 years, he kept telling people where they might enjoy a great experience outside the comforts of home.

This was not a straight path. Arthur was a first-generation American. His mother and father were recent immigrants to the U.S. who met at a Jewish Social Club in Syracuse, New York.

He grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri, and then moved to New York City with his family when he was in his teens. He graduated from New York University in 1950, got a law degree at Yale, and was then drafted into the military, which oddly led to his career as a travel pioneer.

After the success of Europe on $5 a Day, things moved quickly. Multiple books in the series followed as both dollar amounts and geographic regions expanded. In the meantime, he built four hotels and started a tour company.

For Arthur, the focus was always on value. After the success of his first self-published book, Frommer remained steadfast in his devotion to budget travel even as he became a successful publisher and expert on travel.

Frommer on whatever-dollar-a-day became a mainstay for three decades. For anyone looking at the travel guidebook lineup in a library or a bookstore, the numbers in the titles showed what world was possible for American travelers venturing abroad.

His travel guide brand changed hands multiple times from the late 1970s, starting with Simon and Schuster and finally to Google in 2012 before he got the name back in 2013.
In between, Arthur had a local and then syndicated radio program in New York City and beyond. He launched Frommers.com in 1997 and then started Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel Magazine, which ran from 1998 to 2012.

Upon the 50th anniversary of Europe on $5 a Day in 2007, Frommer began a daily blog at Frommers.com, which he published every weekday for nearly a decade, with only a 6-month break between when