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How did the concept for the Un-Tourist Guide begin? My wife Maxine and I were in France and in a bookstore, I spotted a book called S’Installer a Toulouse: Le Guide Anti-Touristique . Roughly translated, that means making yourself at home in Toulouse. If you were moving to Toulouse, I thought that was a terrific idea but assumed that every destination city in the U.S. would have such a guide. I was wrong. Living in Naples at the time, I knew a very talented writer — Alysia Shivers — who had also become a successful real estate agent. Alysia and I worked together and in 2013, we published Moving to Naples: The Un-Tourist Guide. It’s been very successful and sold thousands of copies. How does the concept work? The concept is simple in that we try to provide all the information you would need to know if you’re planning to move or have recently moved to a new area. Each book has similar kinds of content, although, of course, each town has unique attractions and attributes. How many guides are there currently, and are there plans for more? Currently, we’ve published eight books covering Naples, Sarasota, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Palm Beach County in Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia. We have three more in the works — Orlando, Greater Fort Myers, and Austin, Texas. What’s the key difference between an Un-Tourist Guide and a Tourist Guide? A tourist guide would include just the sorts of information you need to have fun when you’re spending a short time in a particular location. The Un- Tourist Guide includes all the fun stuff but also adds information about neighborhoods, schools, local economy, job opportunities, and other items you’d want to know about when relocating. Obviously you’ve hit on something — what makes them so successful? I think there’s so successful because those of us who’ve done a lot of moving really need the information the books provide. Although most of the information would exist across dozens of websites and various pamphlets and brochures, it doesn’t exist in an organized way in a single location. So we’re really the go-to resource when you’re going somewhere new, relocating to a new town or area.
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