The man credited for completely transforming international travel has died aged 95.
Arthur Frommer published his traveling guidebook, Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, in 1957, encouraging everyday Americans to see the world.
His daughter Pauline revealed on Monday that he had died, aged 95.
‘Throughout his remarkable life, Arthur Frommer democratized travel, showing average Americans how anyone can afford to travel widely and better understand the world,’ she said.
‘I am honored to carry on his work of sharing the world with you, which I proudly do with his team of extraordinary and dedicated travel journalists around the world. We will all miss him greatly.’
Frommer died at home, surrounded by his loved ones.
He built a travel guidebook empire over the span of his life, selling more than 75million books to would-be tourists.
Speaking in 2007 of what motivated him to write, he slammed the false belief from the 1950s that travel was a luxury only afforded to the rich and powerful.
‘You were told by the entire travel industry that the only way to go to Europe was first class,’ he said, adding ‘that this was a war-torn continent coming out of World War II, that it literally wasn’t safe to stay anywhere other than first-class hotels.’
Frommer said staying in first-class hotels was actually a disservice to the traveler.
‘The moment you put yourself in a first-class hotel, you become walled off from life, in a world devoted to creature comforts,’ he said.
Over the years, Frommer would return to Europe every summer, maximizing the annual leave he was entitled to from his day job at a lawfirm.
He would ‘hit the streets’ and begin work on updated editions of his famed guidebook.
More to come