Arthur Frommer believes in equal opportunity travel. The mind behind the Europe on $5 a Day enterprise jumped at the idea of starting Budget Travel with magazine industry veteran Donald E. Welsh, who founded Outside and served as president of Us.

For travelers who have grown weary of magazines filled with pricey trips to exclusive locales, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel offers a welcome relief. Subheaded "vacations for real people," Budget Travel caters to the American masses with high-volume, reasonably-priced options in globetrotting.

"The greatest puzzle in American journalism is that no one put a magazine like this out before," Frommer told USA Today last February. In its debut that same month, Budget Travel experienced phenomenal sales that reached 71,000 on the newsstands, significantly beating more subscription-based titles like Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler and Travel & Leisure.

Some skeptics have forecasted dreary horizons in the advertising department, claiming that travel magazines must cater to the affluent to get substantial, long-term ad dollars. Frommer and Welsh say that's just not so. The pair says they are looking to the "mid-market base" of advertisers like General Motors, Days Inn and Howard Johnson. This ad plan is tailored for Budget Travel's average readera 45-year-old with an annual household income of $50,000 who takes three vacations a year.

Budget Travel's editorial content is well-suited for this casual traveler. A budget guide to New York, tips on touring China cheaply and safely, and how to fly for less on upstart airlines were all featured in the Summer 1998 issue. For photographs, the magazine relies heavily on stock images to entice readers to explore the world through decently-priced travel.

More discriminating tastes may be turned off by features like the one on older cruise shipscomplete with realistic photos of small pools and slightly rusted boats. That's fine with Frommer because he's not trying to reach the "caviar" crowd.