Travel publisher Lonely Planet is launching the new millennium with seven new product categories, and is showing record revenues as well. January was a stellar month for the company, based in Melbourne, Australia, and Oakland, Calif., with $1.5 million in sales, more than double that of January '99. According to Eric Kettunen, Lonely Planet's U.S. general manager, the company exceeded sales projections in 1999--which he had previously estimated to be $35-$40 million worldwide--and he predicted that revenues will increase between 20% and 25% in 2000.
Among the new projects scheduled for release this spring are Healthy Travel, a series of pocket guides on regional health issues; World Food, an eclectic full-color pocket series that mixes cuisine and culture; Read This First, a pre-departure series for first-time travelers; Lonely Planet Condensed, designed as an easy-to-use package series for the short-term traveler; and two new activities series, Cycling and Watching Wildlife. The jewel in the crown, however, is the new Citysync series, which Lonely Planet has created in conjunction with Palm Pilot software developer Concept Kitchen. The series offers condensed palmtop versions of LP guides for each of eight cities, including Las Vegas, Paris and Sydney, fully searchable by price, region, category and other terms.
"Citysync has put us where we want to be," Kettunen told PW, "at the cutting edge. Our maps are scrollable and likable, and the information we've so far created has been databased--which we will eventually do across the board." The Citysync material is available via download from www.citysync.com, an LP site, as well as in boxed CD packages being sold by bookstores. The $49.95 package will include four cities; using a password they are given, customers can go to the LP Web site and receive a fifth free.
In other LP news, a copublishing deal struck in mid-'99 with Geo Planeta, a division of Spain's Gruppo Planeta, will begin producing Spanish-language editions of Lonely Planet Guides in June. "We're trying to do the books simultaneously" in English and Spanish, said Kettunen. Nine guides are expected to be released in 2000, 17 in 2001. "We're hoping to make those titles available to the Spanish-speaking market through Lonely Planet in the U.S.," he added.
To keep pace with its growing line of products, the offices of Lonely Planet have all been expanded. Due to a consolidation of the digital publishing and Web production systems in the Oakland office to produce the CitySync series, that location has grown the most and now has a staff of 128. In Melbourne, the home office, the staff has expanded by 50 to 250, and the London office now has 50 employees.
Today, more than 600 products bear the company's logo; 450 are book products, up 100 from just a little more than a year ago. Most of the titles have print runs of 25,000 for global distribution.
