By Madhusree Chatterjee

New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) The pull of the unknown, wanderlust and India's richness as a destination of great heritage are the flavours of the 17th Delhi Book Fair 2011.

It is hardly surprising: the official theme of the fair, which opened Saturday at Pragati Maidan, is travel and tourism.

More than 250 Indian and foreign publishers are hosted here in a bid to promote the domain of travel and tourism in India by linking it to travel literature, a genre whose appeal cuts across all divides.

"The boom in travel in the last decade has created a demand for cheaper travel books in India," Bikash D. Niyogi, managing director of Niyogi Books, told IANS. "Travellers look for books that they can read and throw away."

Three of Niyogi's new high-end travel titles include Mussoorie Merchant by Hugh Ashley Rayner, a volume on Chittorgarh Fort by Dharmender Kunwar, and Tracing Marco Polo's Journey: The Silk Route by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia.

"In the lower price segment, we are publishing Hugh and Colleen Gantzer's travels in four volumes," Niyogi said.

One of the highlights of the fair is "The Highway on My Plate" by travellers and foodies Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma. The anthology reviews more than 100 eateries across India, including the Tawang monastery kitchen in the heights of Aruanchal Pradesh.

The demand for updated destination guide books has been consistently growing because of increased domestic travel.

"In India, when people set out on a holiday, they do not think of buying a book," Atulya Dev Issar of Diamond Books said. "They buy it impuslisvely at the destination."

Foreign buyers, on the other hand, plan their itineraries and arrive armed with destination guides, he said.

Jaico's new travel titles - The Afghan Journey, Twitchhiker, The Man Who Swam the Amazon and The Last Tourist in Iran - are targeting the growing tribe of outbound travellers.

The DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, published by Penguin Books, and the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry's state travel guide books have been logging steady sales, an India Trade Promotion Organisation spokesperson said.

Old favourites like Pico Iyer and William Dalrymple remain in demand. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors has a database that combines guidebooks, fiction and travel education books.

"Increased domestic travel has created a new segment of readership - the Hindi-speaking readers who look for quality travel literature and translation in Hindi," Rajkamal Publications CEO Amod Maheswari said. "These are travelogues with stories."

According to a spokesperson for Wisdom Tree, which has 10 'Incredible India' books on destination, art and culture, "The genre has immense potential but it needs more books."

An outlook by the ITPO says the Rs 80-billion book publishing industry is riding a wave of success through innovative marketing and blog discussions.

"Every book on India featuring its history, culture, places of interest and religion is a travelogue," said Tarun Kumar of Universal Voice Publishers.