Even the longest journeys must come to an end, and that end has come for the time of one iconic travel brand in China. Lonely Planet, the well-known publisher of travel guides and related content, closed its China office, halted all publications in China and closed its Chinese social media accounts.
The company announced the news on June 26 via social media and a post on its website.
“Although we are reluctant… we still regret to inform you that due to the impact of the past epidemic and the company’s strategic adjustments, Lonely Planet has closed its China office and ceased publishing activities in China; all official social media accounts of Lonely Planet in China, including official WeChat accounts, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, etc., have stopped updating,” read the message titled “I wish you a pleasant journey.”
The announcement follows the closure of Chinese-language magazine Lonely Planet in 2022.
Ten years of Chinese travel guides
According to Lonely Planet, the brand has published more than 300 Chinese-language travel guides since 2013, covering domestic and international destinations, restaurants, natural wonders and tourist destinations.
“We are proud to have dozens of excellent Chinese authors who, together with equally excellent translators, editors, photographers, designers, illustrators, cartographers and partners who keep the company running, put into practice the editorial principles of ‘responsible travel’ and ‘telling the truth’ and insist on field research and objective, neutral writing,” the message said.
Chinese culture website Sixth Tone weighed in on the closingnoting that in recent years the company has struggled to keep up with the abundance of travel information on social media, including the prevalence of influencers in the Chinese travel scene.
“The only thing I would like to say to these influencers is that they should focus more on giving travel advice and less on taking selfies,” Mio Chen, a Chinese travel enthusiast, told the site.
Other travelers compared Lonely Planet’s hands-on approach to the catchy but superficial online travel advice popular in China today.
Lonely Planet was founded in Australia in 1973 by husband-and-wife team Maureen and Tony Wheeler. The brand enjoyed great success over the next few decades, before reaching its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The BBC acquired Lonely Planet in 2007. Since then, the brand has changed hands twice more, first to NC2 Media and then to Red companies.
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