The travel publisher, which has since printed more than 120 million books in 11 languages, sold a 75% stake in the business to BBC Worldwide in 2007. Wherever we are going, in the post-Covid landscape, we're going to need trusted travel voices more than ever.T ony and Maureen Wheeler co-founded Lonely Planet in 1973 after the couple travelled overland from London to Australia. From lockdown in Istanbul, she wonders: "If you hack off nearly all of a tree's branches, will it ever look the same again? I hope Lonely Planet, and the fulfilling experiences it's given travellers for nearly five decades, survives, but if it doesn't, perhaps that leaves a gap in the market for a couple of intrepid millennial or Gen Z overlanders to fill." Physical guidebooks may one day be museum pieces, but the curiosity and need for trusted traveller information will never go away."ĭigital nomad Lauren Keith was a Lonely Planet commissioning editor until last year. Kevin Raub, Italy-based Lonely Planet author of 95 guides, from Brazil to UAE, says: "The optimist in me thinks that if Lonely Planet plays its financial, editorial and technological cards right, the company could emerge as a force for travel's future. Many of us will want to support the small, special businesses that make each destination unique – and we'll need reliable, encouraging, well-researched voices, like Lonely Planet guidebooks, to help us find them." His daughter, Isabella, who also writes on Spain and India, says: "Travel is likely to become more expensive and complicated. As long as that goes on, a lot of them will be wanting some good guidance." John Noble, an expert on destinations including Spain, India and Mexico for Lonely Planet since 1986, says: "It's tragic that so many highly experienced, dedicated, talented, knowledgeable inhouse staff are losing their jobs." But, he adds: "People will always want to explore the world they live in. Some insiders believe that the latest cuts are in order to make the company a more attractive prospect to a new buyer. However, reports of the death of the guidebook were premature, and Lonely Planet and other companies, such as the smaller Bradt Guides, reported a steady climb in sales in the years pre-Covid. In 2013 BBC Worldwide sold the company again, to the US-based NC2 (owned by the Kentucky-based billionaire Brad Kelley), for less than half the price it had paid. I remember one where Matt Munro (the photographer) and I were commissioned to go to Borneo - just for one feature, we summited Mt Kinabalu, trekked into one of the island’s last untouched areas of rainforest and travelled a day upriver to stay with an Iban tribal chief."Īs digital media made it easier to crowdsource your way around the world, and as the global financial crisis bit, times got tougher in publishing. Oliver Berry, a freelancer on the magazine, describes the early research trips: "They were fiercely hard work, but amazing fun. Creating stories with author and photographer teams, it won multiple press, writing and photography awards. The BBC's commercial arm steered the company through more difficult times, but one of its successes was the launch of Lonely Planet's magazine. In 2007, the Wheelers sold the company to BBC Worldwide for £130 million. Despite the company's many changes, it has always funded authors to visit every place they write about, providing an authoritative and independent voice in an increasingly information-overloaded space. The experiences were incredible, interviewing a young man who'd spent his formative years sleeping in New Delhi railway station, testing a route overland between Mali and Mauritania, and chartering a rattling van to drive across the Egyptian desert. Nowadays, authors receive a file of one-line emails, but still there's a connection between writer and readers. Setting out to research, I used to receive a folder of scrappy reader letters, sometimes surprisingly detailed diaries, occasionally diatribes. Thus began my career as a freelance Lonely Planet author. A few months later, myself and many colleagues were made redundant in the fall out. I worked for the company first as an editor, and was in the London office as we watched, transfixed in horror, two planes fly into the World Trade Centre. I have been involved with Lonely Planet for over 20 years. However, the company is to fold Lonely Planet magazine, halt production of its "inspirational" titles, and the once mighty Thorntree traveller forum, a pioneering exchange of digital information, has been set to read-only. In announcing the global redundancies, Piers Pickard, managing director, confirmed the company remains committed to publishing its guides their Dublin and Tennessee offices remain open, albeit with some job cuts on the cards. Maureen and Tony Wheeler's first guidebook sold 1,500 copies in a week