Press Release - 6th May 2003 Immediate

The first port of call for travelling veggies

Vegetarian Guides relaunch website in time for National Vegetarian Week

National Vegetarian Week (19 - 25 May 2003) sees the relaunch of specialist travel publisher Vegetarian Guides’ travel website at www.vegetarianguides.co.uk Vegetarian Guides is the first port of call for travel information for the UK’s three million vegetarians, and for many more vegetarians around the world, seeking reliable and authoritative advice on where to stay and eat when they visit Europe.

The easy to navigate, relaunched, site offers updates on Vegetarian Guides’ current publications Vegetarian London, Vegetarian Britain, Vegetarian France and Vegetarian Europe, allowing travellers to check out the latest news before packing their suitcase. The on-line shop sells not only Vegetarian Guides’ own publications but also a selection of vegetarian travel guides from other publishers – including guides to Spain and Italy – making it a great one-stop shop for independent veggie travellers. The site also features a helpful links section with suggestions of sites to visit for travel and accommodation, as well as links to animal welfare groups and vegetarian organisations around the world. There are also helpful links to sites with advice on vegetarian nutrition.

Vegetarian Guides, an independent publisher, was founded in 1997 by Alex Bourke, who had previously worked for a major travel publisher, to produce well researched and commercially viable travel guides for vegetarians.

Bourke understands his market well: he is a vegetarian of many years’ standing and a member of the Vegan Society’s national council. Alex has travelled extensively in Europe, is multi-lingual, and has many contacts or ‘spies’ around the UK and on the Continent who monitor all things veggie for him. Bourke knows only too well the problems faced by travelling veggies:

“All too often vegetarians are faced with very little choice on a menu and in some places no vegetarian alternative at all. There may be a great veggie restaurant just around the corner but without an appropriate travel guide you won’t know where to look for it. There are 20 vegetarian restaurants in Paris for example but most ‘mainstream’ travel guides will only list a handful. For less than the price of a decent restaurant main course a Vegetarian Guides travel guide will ensure that you’ll never again be reduced to accepting the ubiquitous vegetarian lasagne or, worse still, cheese sandwich!”

Vegetarian Guides are available by mail order on-line from www.vegetarianguides.co.uk or from all good bookshops throughout Britain and Ireland priced from £5.99 - £9.99.

Ends

For more information, to arrange an interview with Alex Bourke or to receive a review copy of any of the guides, please call Vegetarian Guides direct on 020 3239 8433
alex@vegetarianguides.co.uk
Mobile 07726 51 81 02 (press only)

• National Vegetarian Week is promoted by The Vegetarian Society; a national registered educational charity. For more information visit www.vegsoc.org/nvw or call the press office at the Society on 0161 925 2012.
  
• 5.7% of the UK population is vegetarian. (Mintel Dec 2001, www.vegsoc.org/info/statveg.html) The fastest growing trend in the UK foodmarket is meat reducing with 26% of the UK population stating that they are actively cutting down on meat in their diet. (NOP March 2001)
  
• The Vegetarian food sector is worth £548m and grew by 16.2% in the year to Feb 2002. (TNS Superpanel).