Physical Bible Replaced With Digital Version In Newcastle Hotel

The four star “boutique” Hotel Indigo, located in Newcastle, has become the first hotel to switch the traditional bed-side read, Gideon’s Bible, with Amazon eReader version.

This happens to be the first instance when a hotel has started using eReader instead of physical copy of Bible.

The hotel now provides the Bible pre-loaded in the Kindle in all its 148 rooms. If a customer wants to read other books as well, the cost of purchasing those books from Amazon Store would be added in the customer’s bill.

The hotel would also tackle with the needs of people belonging to other religions. For this purpose, scriptures of other religious would be available free of cost.

This would, however, apply only if the scripture would cost no more than five pounds, which is quite reasonable.

Adam Munday, the general manager of the hotel, said that, “In the 18th Century, Newcastle was one of the largest print centers in Britain and we’re in Grainger Town, close to the Literary and Philosophical Society.”

He further added that the hotel management wanted to reflect the literary history of the city in a very contemporary way. This gave rise to the idea of giving digital copies of Bible preloaded in Kindles.

Provision of the Gideon’s Bible would be continued for the hotel guests till July 16^th after which it would be decided whether the idea is successful or not.

If the idea turns out to be successful, it would be extended to the Hotel Indigo chain and its branches worldwide. Bible is the most widely read book in the world due to the largest religious following.

According to various estimates, annual sales of physical version of Bible happen to be about 25 million. So far, accurate estimates about the number of digital versions sold ever since the inception of eReaders have not been provided, but it sure would be interesting to know the figure.