Publishers

BAEDEKER
Karl Baedeker publishes his first travel guide in Koblenz (Germany) in 1832. The first guides are in German and French, followed in 1861 by the English editions that soon put Baedeker in competition with Murray of London. The Baedeker house relocates to Leipzig in 1872. Its travel guides are to become famous for their thoroughness and accuracy: "Kings and governements may err but never Mr. Baedeker". Besides covering Europe, the series includes titles on the Mediterranean, Constantinople, Egypt, Palestine & Syria, Russia, India, the U.S. and Canada.
For more information see the BDKR.com site, the bibliographies of Alex Hinrichsen and the book Baedeker - Ein Name wird zur Weltmarke (Verlag Karl Baedeker 1998).

BIBLIOGRAPHISCHES INSTITUT
The Bibliographisches Institut is founded by Joseph Meyer in Gotha (Germany) in 1826, moves to Hildburghausen in 1828 and then to Leipzig in 1874. After many successful publications such as Meyers Lexikon (encyclopedia) and Meyers Universum (pictures in steel engraving), the company starts to publish German language travel guides in 1862. Besides the European titles one finds editions on the Mediterranean, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine & Syria, the World as well as an air travel guide.
See Werner Hauenstein's 1993 bibliography Meyers Reisebücher.

HACHETTE
From the 1850s Louis Hachette expands his educational publishing company (established in Paris in 1826) by purchasing the travel guide activities of Ernest Bourdin and Louis Maison. From 1855 he puts Paul Joanne in charge of editing a growing list of Hachette travel titles, the Guides Joanne. Following WWI the series is renamed to Guides Bleus, and - with ever expanding coverage - continues to be published to this day. Other Hachette travel guide activities include the Guides Diamant and the Guides Madrolle (covering Asia). The titles are mostly in French language.
See L'art du voyage - 150e anniversaire des Guides Bleus (Hachette 1991).

JAPANESE RAILWAYS
Following extensive research the Imperial Japanese Government Railways publish the remarkable five-volume Official Guide to Eastern Asia covering Manchuria & Chosen (1913), South West Japan (1914), North East Japan (1914), China (1915) and the East Indies (1917). In 1933 volumes 2 and 3 are combined into an updated Official Guide to Japan, followed by editions called Japan, The Official Guide published by the Japan Tourist Bureau in 1941 and post-WWII.

MURRAY
From 1836, while Baedeker is still busy finetuning a few regional German editions, John Murray launches an ambitious series of foreign travel guides covering many areas of Europe, the Near East and ultimately India, Japan and New Zeeland. After 1849 he starts introducing the guides describing London and the English counties. For a while the English Murray guide is the reference in travel guide land. But from the 1870s this position is gradually eroded by the more practical Baedeker guides. In 1901 John Murray IV exits the market and sells off most of the copyrights and remaining stock to Edward Stanford.
For more information see Lister's A Bibliography of Murrays Handbooks for Travellers (Dereham 1993).