Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book publisher in the world.[3] The company is owned by American billionaire Brad Kelley’s[4] NC2 Media, which bought it in 2013 from BBC Worldwide for US$77 million (the equivalent of £45.5 million in May 2014) after it was valued at US$250 million in 2008.[5][6]

Originally called “Lonely Planet Publications”, the company changed its name to “Lonely Planet” in July 2009 to reflect its broad travel industry coverage and an emphasis on digital products. The Lonely Planet books were the third series of travel books aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travellers, after the Let’s Go travel guide series that was founded in 1960, and the BIT Guides from 1970.[7] As of 2011, the company had sold 120 million books since inception and by early 2014, it had sold around 11 million units of its travel apps.[6]

As of 2014, Lonely Planet’s largest office is located in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, but its Franklin, Tennessee, United States office is the company’s de facto headquarters. Other Lonely Planet offices are spread throughout the world, in locations such as London, United Kingdom; Beijing, China; and Delhi, India. Lonely Planet’s online community, the Thorn Tree,[26] was created in 1996. It is named for a Naivasha thorn tree (Acacia xanthophloea) that has been used as a message board for the city of Nairobi, Kenya since 1902.[27] The tree still exists in the Stanley Hotel. It is used by over 600,000 travelers to share their experiences and look for advice. Thorn Tree has many different forum categories including different countries, places to visit depending on one’s interests, travel buddies, and Lonely Planet support. The Lonely Planet website includes travel articles, destination and point of interest guides, hotel, hostel and accommodations listings, and the ability to rate and review sites and restaurants.

Lonely Planet temporarily closed the Thorn Tree community on 22 December 2012, with a notification stating: “We’re sorry to let you know we’ve found it necessary to temporarily close the Thorn Tree section of Lonelyplanet.com as it has come to our attention that a number of posts do not conform to the standards of the Lonely Planet website. As soon as we have completed the necessary editorial and technical updates we will let you know but in the meantime we are very grateful for your understanding and patience.” Later, Lonely Planet clarified the alert to say that it had found numerous posts containing “inappropriate language and themes,” and the site would be reopened once these posts were found and deleted.[28] Thorn Tree returned on 5 January 2013, having shut forums they felt were non-travel related.[29] Now, the forum is regulated regularly and allows users to flag responses they deem inappropriate or not relevant.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a disgruntled former user alerted the BBC to numerous posts related to paedophilia. A source close to Lonely Planet management told the Herald that BBC executives still smarting from the Jimmy Savile scandal went into “full freak out, panic attack mode” over posts about the age of consent in Mexico and child prostitution in Thailand. However, a BBC Worldwide spokesman denied there was any evidence of paedophilia discussions on the site.[30] The BBC subsequently stated that the cause of the shutdown wasn’t paedophilia, but general concern with language and themes that the BBC was “uncomfortable” with.