Publisher Lonely Planet Expands to Travel Booking

Lonely Planet, a nearly 50-year-old publisher that built a thriving business out of its comprehensive travel guidebooks, is embarking on a new path of its own and getting into travel bookings. The publisher announced the debut of its official rebrand Dec. 6, which features a redesigned website, logo and business model. The announcement comes almost one year exactly after its acquisition by the digital behemoth Red Ventures. In a sign of the times, and on the lookout for revenue diversification, the publisher has shifted its priorities to focus on becoming a premier destination for travel booking, said Philippe Von Borries, Red Ventures’ entrepreneur-in-residence and the head of Lonely Planet. The publisher declined to provide specific revenue figures, but in the fourth quarter of this year, Lonely Planet only generated 60% of the revenue it generated in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Von Borries. The publisher has long provided travel inspiration and planning advice for the would-be tourist; now it wants to own the booking and commerce components of the consumer journey. Bookings Boon: All Consumers Want This Holiday Season Is to Travel “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely reinvent a well-known brand as the travel industry itself is undergoing a complete rebirth,” Von Borries said. “Lonely Planet was born because there was a lack of information about travel; now there is an overabundance of information. So our mission needs to reflect that.” The evolution mirrors a similar transition that is slowly reshaping the publishing industry writ large, in which publishers work to compress the distance between inspiration and transaction. The shift, embodied by companies like BDG and BuzzFeed, is made possible by new technologies and a growing consumer familiarity with ecommerce. For fashion-adjacent publishers, that means offering on-site shopping for designer clothes; for Lonely Planet, it means shortening the journey between a pang of wanderlust and a booked hotel reservation. A revamped business model Prior to its acquisition, the primary revenue driver for Lonely Planet was its sale of guidebooks, which accounted for 31.5% of the global guidebook market, according to the publisher. Going forward, the physical products will still be available for purchase and may be used as value-adds in certain cases, but Lonely Planet is shifting focus from books to bookings. Using the new on-site purchase functionality, consumers can research, plan and pay for their trips without leaving the Lonely Planet website. Offering the ability to perform all of these core tasks in one place ties back to the redoubled emphasis on providing utility to the engaged traveler, said svp of content and executive editor Nitya Chambers. “We spent the early part of this year in a really significant research exercise, and one of the headlines for us was the opportunity to help more people from more backgrounds experience the joy of travel,” Chambers said. “We want to help them plan surprising, local, exciting experiences.” The publisher also works with advertising partners, such as tourism boards, and has a blossoming affiliate business. The publisher plans to spend 2022 cultivating its audience, which will boost these lines of revenue. Lonely Planet has 6 million followers across its social media platforms, and it publishes a free weekly newsletter with over 500,000 subscribers, though the publisher wouldn't share its open rate. Under Red Ventures’ management Lonely Planet suffered quickly and severely at the onset of the pandemic, shuttering its operations in Australia and London, laying off staff and halting commission of ancillary titles, like coffee table books, in April 2020. In December, Red Ventures acquired the publication for an undisclosed amount and brought the remaining staff of 90 aboard. The headcount has since risen to 116, according to Von Borries. Red Ventures, based in South Carolina, has built a publishing empire out of high-intent digital destinations, such as Healthline, Bankrate and CNET, that consumers often turn to when deliberating over a potential purchase. Its armada of SEO-savvy sites have turned the company into a traffic juggernaut: combined, its brands reach more than 750 million people per month, according to Comscore. Along with Lonely Planet, Red Ventures also owns The Points Guy, which it acquired in 2017. The two brands make up its burgeoning travel vertical, though the company plans to continue on its acquisition spree, Von Borries told Adweek. Onboarding Lonely Planet during the pandemic gave Red Ventures the opportunity to update and streamline the site during a period of relative hibernation. Now, with some elements of travel on the cusp of returning—Omicron notwithstanding—the publisher hopes to reemerge into a market at an opportune moment. “We're really intent on meeting travelers’ short-term needs, as well as helping them with long-term planning, with the pandemic as a backdrop,” Von Borries said. “Whenever they plan on traveling again, we want to be their resource.”

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From Books to Bookings: Lonely Planet Turns Travel Operator Under Red Ventures

The travel guide publisher aims to expand into travel booking

Mark Stenberg

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