March 4, 2013: Lonely Planet which has outbound travel guides for Indian travelers is all set to launch special guide book for metro travelers. The guide book which will have information about destinations in and around Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai has been given the name “Short Escapes”. This guide book is priced at Rs.395 and will have a design of yellow and pink colour. Short Escapes will have details regarding hotels, restaurants, tourist destinations and all the other details which are essential for travelers.
Lonely Planet is trying to go for a aggressive publishing strategy and trying to tap the domestic travelling tourists which is growing at an average rate of more than 8 per cent. In 2011, domestic tourism grew at 13.8 per cent which in figures is nearly 110 million more than what was recorded in 2010. According to Sesh Seshadri, General Manager, Lonely Planet “Domestic tourism forms 77 per cent of the total number of Indian travelers”. The company has plans to launch low cost books and two travel guides every month targeting Indian travelers.
Lonely Planet has plans to publish 35 guides especially for the Indian travelers in the future and come out with travel guides in regional languages. They will be bringing out guides in Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali to start with.
