Bookstore Tourism Concept Grows

Bookseller Andrew Laties, currently of the Eric Carle Museum Bookshop in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the author of Rebel Bookseller: How to Improvise Your Own Indie Store and Beat Back the Chains (Vox Pop), has launched BiblioExpeditions, a for-profit Bookstore Tourism company. Bookstore Tourism, a grassroots effort to promote and support independent bookstores by marketing them as tourist destinations, was originally developed by Pennsylvania-based writer Larry Portzline.

According to Laties' BiblioExpeditions blog, the business will launch within two months. Initial plans call for weekly bookstore tours departing from colleges in Connecticut and Massachusetts to Greenwich Village, Western Massachusetts, and other destinations. However, Laties plans to expand and change destination routes and the length of trips depending on response.

"It looks like a lot of people are enthusiastic about seeing Larry Portzline's bookstore tourism ideas enacted on a broad scale," Laties said. "So -- I'm very hopeful and grateful."