Socotra: Could the first crowdfunded guidebook help save an Indian Ocean island?

In what is believed to be a first for the industry, a new travel guide to an exotic Indian Ocean island is soon to be published through crowdfunding.

Hilary Bradt, who founded Bradt Travel Guides nearly 50 years ago, visited the Yemeni island of Socotra early in 2020.

The firm, which specialises in off-the-beaten-track destinations, already has a guide to Yemen. With most parts of the war-torn country off-limits, and interest in Socotra increasing, she believed that a stand-alone guide to the island would be viable.

Ms Bradt said: “This year my long-term travel dream of Socotra became reality. Before going, I talked the team at Bradt Guides into scheduling a thin photo-based guide, inexpensive to produce, just to showcase the island’s beauty.”

The book was scheduled for publication in autumn 2020.

But by the time she and co-author Janice Booth finished their research, they realised that a more substantial book was needed to do the island justice.

“Fellow travellers told us their stories and Socotra specialists shared their knowledge, so we could reveal this ‘secret island’ to the wider world,” she said.

“No longer slim, our book was becoming a unique and useful source of information.”

But when lockdown was imposed in the UK and much of the rest of the world, guidebook sales dried up along with global travel.

They were told that the guide would have to be deferred until 2021, or published as a no-frills book.

Adrian Phillips, managing director of Bradt Travel Guides, said: “In March, our revenue fell off a cliff. We didn’t have a wealthy backer to see us through. We’ve had to fight to survive.

“Difficult and frightening as that has been, it has also been enormously stimulating. We’ve received tremendous backing from our authors and readers, who have buoyed us with messages of support and bought books from our website at a time when there were no sales through the shops at all.”

Until June, Socotra had managed to avoid being caught up in the bitter proxy war being fought in mainland Yemen. But then the island was taken over by the rebel Southern Transitional Council – which fights for separation for the south of mainland Yemen.

At that point Hilary Bradt launched an appeal to the wider travel community, setting up a crowdfunding site and saying: “This instability threatens Socotra’s natural and cultural heritage, its unique wildlife and its Unesco status.

“Our full-colour, information-packed guide to Socotra is sitting, completed, in our computers now. If we can raise the funds, it can be published by November, not just for travellers and dreamers but also to educate those in power, whose political wrangling risks crushing the heart out of this uniquely precious little island.

“Please join us in saving Socotra for tomorrow’s travellers to enjoy.”

With two weeks to run, the appeal has raised over £7,000. Ms Bradt said: “The book can now go to the printers in mid-September in its full glory.

“It’s been such a positive experience. People have been interested, generous and supportive. Socotra stirs special emotions so I’m not totally surprised, but still relieved and very happy.”

Any surplus above the production costs will be split between marketing the guide and organisations supporting Socotra and its natural and cultural heritage.

Socotra is a niche destination. It is the same size as Suffolk and the Spanish island of Mallorca, but rather harder to reach.

The nearest mainland is Somalia in east Africa, 200km away. Even in normal times, the only flight is a weekly departure from Cairo via mainland Yemen, costing around $1,000 (£800) return.

The Foreign Office has warned against all travel to Socotra and the rest of Yemen for many years. “If you’re in Yemen, you should leave immediately,” says the FCO.

Travellers who expect a reliable electricity supply, hot running water, wi-fi or alcohol will be disappointed.

For some travellers, though, it is an enticing destination.

With almost no tourist facilities on the island, the appeal is all natural. The allure stretches from some of the finest beaches in the Indian Ocean (occasionally disfigured by gently rusting military hardware) and exquisitely sculpted sand dunes.

Notable visitors earlier this year included the journalists Matthew Parris and Julian Glover, and the Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler.

He wrote: “Socotra has been described as the ‘Galapagos of the Indian Ocean,’ but [it is] its vegetation rather than animal life which makes the island so unique.”

The signature species is the dragon’s blood tree – so named, say the locals, because it grew from the blood of a dragon killed in a fight with an elephant.

The tree’s profile resembles a giant mushroom or wayward parasol. It thrives on the Diksum Plateau, a table mountain 700 metres above the Indian Ocean.

Some visitors are country-counting adventurers who want a Yemeni stamp in their passport without taking too high a risk.

But Tony Wheeler said simply: “I always like a place where the official advice is ‘leave immediately’.”

“We’re confident of getting to the other side of this, and when we do we will be a stronger company for having battled our way through it.”

You can watch Simon Calder's film on Socotra here