Reaching the end of the unbeaten path? An analysis of Lonely Planet’s Digital Media ‘Requiem’

This paper examines the responses of the online community towards media reports of the potential decline of Lonely Planet (LP) guidebooks. After the sale of LP by BBC Worldwide to NC2 Media in March 2013, reports in July surfaced to suggest that NC2’s new strategy, namely to move away from physical printing to online content, would potentially mark the end of the iconic brand. Through the inductive analysis of Tweets and comments posted in response to news articles in the online version of The Guardian, this findings of this study suggest that two interesting narratives developed in response to potential demise of LP. First, many users expressed nostalgia and feelings of sadness and loss of something they believed to be a key ingredient of previous and indeed, future travel experiences. Second, some users were critical of LP for its exclusionary impact on some businesses and destinations and of the LP users themselves. Thus, this paper adds new perspectives to a growing body of literature that has sought to question and scrutinise the influential role of arguably the strongest brand in independent travel literature and the increasing impact of technology on published guidebooks.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Anatolia on 14 Jun 2016, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2016.1191770