The Alberta Handbook, published in 1995, was the first guidebook I authored, and 17 years later my publisher recently advised me that they would not be publishing any further editions.
Alberta is booming, it’s Canada’s wealthiest province, and it welcomes over 30 million visitors a year. But sales of the most recent edition of Moon Alberta have been down. The reason is very simple: Two other major guidebook companies, Frommer’s and Michelin, have published 1st edition Alberta guidebooks in the last couple of years, taking a big chunk of market share that the Moon guide enjoyed by itself for the last decade and a half.
Below are the seven Alberta covers from 1995 to 2010.