NIVEAU BASIQUE DU SUPPLÉMENT SONORE
Shelly nous donne ses meilleurs tuyaux pour profiter de la culture anglo-saxonne sans quitter l'Hexagone. CD audio ou téléchargement MP3 (sur abonnement)
1996. According to Jane Rawson, one of its first moderators: “A tiny web team was set up and told to figure out what the internet was and whether it was useful to travellers.” In 2016, Lonely Planet’s online community topped 10 million. Social media, it turns out, was kind of a big thing.
9. But there has been upheaval and concern, too, including two company sales, first to the BBC in 2007 for £130m, then to US-based NC2 media in 2013 at the much-reduced price of £51.5m. Challenged by tough market conditions (guidebook sales fell 40% between 2007 and 2012, but have since recovered 27%) and online firms, such as Expedia, TripAdvisor and Google, the company sought to diversify into a multimedia business with TV, magazines, mobile apps, a blogging platform and e-commerce partnerships. Yet, through all this, Lonely Planet continues to finance multi-week research trips to update its guidebooks, and is now the only publisher that does so.
10. In many ways, the company’s fortunes mirror the evolution of mass tourism. In 1973, the year Lonely Planet was founded, the US budget airline Southwest turned its first profit and showed the reliability of low-cost air travel. Since then, tourism has increased as travel has become more accessible. In 2017, the UN World Tourism Organization estimated that the world might see 1.8 billion travellers by 2030. That was before Covid-19. Now, even Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou of easyJet, the second largest budget airline in Europe, thinks his company will feel like a startup again once national lockdowns are lifted.
11. Asked where travel will go now, Tony Wheeler says: “I don’t think the current crisis is going to end the role of the traditional guidebook – whether it’s in print or digital. I’ve already got the new LP guidebooks for travels I had intended to make later this year.” Ver Berkmoes also believes guidebooks will endure: “Once we start travelling again … so many old faces and brands will be gone. People will need that friend next to them in the bar with loads of smart advice.”
A STRING OF SETBACKS
12. He should know, as during his time at Lonely Planet he weathered two catastrophes that ravaged the travel industry – the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which devastated large parts of Asia. “The 9/11 attacks had a profound effect on the company. People stopped travelling and bookshops returned all their guidebooks,” says Ver Berkmoes. “The company lost dozens of talented people. It was wrenching for everyone. But travel did come back and so did Lonely Planet.”
13. In contrast, the tsunami galvanised the company to help in a huge humanitarian effort. The
Wheeler’s donated relief funds and significant resources were deployed to assist where possible. “We had people on the ground in all the most affected areas and we scouted for projects that would make a difference,” says Ver Berkmoes. “There was a comprehensive part of the website that answered practical questions such as: how can I help? where should I travel? how do I get home?”
14. They are the same questions that many people are asking now, which is why the company’s commitment to its guidebooks is reassuring. If the future of travel looks more like the past – fewer trips with logistical challenges that are more carefully considered given new risks and uncertainty – then trustworthy travel information will be of great value. As I write, there are Lonely Planet writers emerging from lockdown in Beijing. They have a view of the road ahead.
In many ways, the company's fortunes mirror the evolution of mass tourism.