BBC buys Lonely Planet.... unfair, they cry!

The news that the BBC had bought up Lonely Planet, the famous travel guide publisher, brought out the expected cries of anguish from commercial publishers. The Financial Times asked how a BBC-owned Lonely Planet would make a contribution to "the cultural life of the UK", supposing that to be the remit of the BBC, while the Conservative party reaction was that the BBC was "nationalising" a publisher.

The Lonely Planet purchase may have escaped even louder cries of Unfair! from the private sector because its HQ is in Australia and it was controlled privately by its founders. Competing with Lonely Planet in guides to budget, independent travel are Let's Go, the Harvard-based grandaddy of backpacker advice (founded 1960), the Rough Guides and Time Out.

Low-cost flights have fuelled the demand for guidebooks which tell you where to stay and eat on a budget, although green-aware young people are worrying about the extra low-cost flights and, in some cases, about how the budget guides prevent travellers from contributing much cash to their destinations, often poorer countries.

The deal certainly has tantalising implications for the leisure side of UK media. Lonely Planet was actually bought by BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the publicly-funded Corporation. The BBC is paid for by the Television Licence Fee, effectively a form of taxation to support public-service broadcasting; the latest government review means that the Fee will continue until at least 2016, taking the BBC well into the new digital era of broadcasting as a tax-subsidised corporation.

BBC Worldwide had sales of £810m in 2006/07, generating handsome profits of £111m, and there is no doubt that the BBC has benefited from its public television and radio franchise in launching into other media and entertainment markets (video, music, books, magazines etc). The Worldwide arm is believed to have several hundred million Pounds to spend and is likely to focus its investment on digital media, particularly online products. The BBC's main website is already one of the first ports of call for surfing the Web in the UK, with highly rated news and sports pages.

Lonely Planet may have been a pioneer among travellers researching their trips before setting off but independent "reviewing" has flourished, even for package holiday and luxury hotel users. TripAdvisor is the main player but sites like Holidays Uncovered tell you where to go for the best (or worst) karaoke nights and, in one case, which hotel to avoid because of the wild dogs running around the hotel gardens....

Photo source: lvivlviv.com