Lonely Planet is one of the largest and well know travel guide
publishers, but recently they have been putting out travel-related titles that
aren’t just guide books.
Founded in 1973 by husband-and-wife team of Tony and Maureen
Wheeler, Lonely Planet is now wholly owned by BBC Worldwide. Its core business
has always been in travel guides, but over the past five years its trade and
reference titles have been rapidly increasing.
Asia Pacific sales and marketing director Chris Zeiher
says; “We believe that publishing an inspirational and reference list of titles
will create more frequent engagement with our travellers, and potentially reach
a new audience, or a non-travelling market, for example, the armchair
traveller.”
Lonely Planet has accumulated a large portfolio of images over
the years and Chris Zeiher says this was the inspiration for a new line of
books. “We had an idea to pack these stunning travel photographs in book format
for customers to enjoy.
“This is when titles like Chasing Rickshaws and One
Planet were created back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.”
The success of One Planet made the company realise that
there is a demand out there for inspirational titles. This resulted in Lonely
Planet investing in, and creating, its most successful non-guide book to date: The
Travel Book.
The company is also reaching out to younger readers with its Not-For-Parents series
launched just last year. The aim of which is to inspire young minds to
travel. This is not a series of guidebooks for children, but enchanting and fun
volumes for children to get inspired about the world around them.
Currently, non-guide books comprise approximately 17% of Lonely Planets’
volume, and Zeiher expects this to continue rising in the years to come.
“We believe that publishing in other genres will inspire our travellers,
and our loyal community, to think about destinations in different ways, and
want to experience genuine connected travel experiences. This is at the core of what it is that Lonely Planet does; connecting
travellers to the heart of a place.”
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Image: xlibber, Flickr
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