Even the longest journeys come to an end, and so has the journey of one of China's most well-known travel brands, Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet, a well-known publisher of travel guides and related content, has closed its China office, ceased all publications in China, and shut down its Chinese social media accounts.
The company announced the news on June 26th via social media and website posts.
“Unfortunately, due to the impact of the epidemic and our strategic adjustments, Lonely Planet has closed our China office and suspended our publishing operations in China. All of Lonely Planet's official social media accounts in China, including WeChat official account, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu etc, have stopped updating,” said the post titled “Wish you a pleasant journey.”
The announcement comes as Lonely Planet's Chinese language magazine will cease publication in 2022.
A collage of Lonely Planet's Chinese guidebooks posted by the publisher on social media platform WeChat. Photo: Lonely Planet
10 years of Chinese travel guides
According to Lonely Planet, since 2013, the brand has published more than 300 Chinese-language travel guides covering domestic and international destinations, restaurants, natural wonders and tourist attractions.
“We are proud to have dozens of excellent Chinese writers, along with equally excellent translators, editors, photographers, designers, illustrators, cartographers and partners who practice our editorial principles of 'responsible travel' and 'telling the truth', and insist on field research and objective, neutral writing,” the post continued.
Commenting on the closures, Chinese culture website Sixth Tone said it has struggled in recent years to cope with a deluge of social media-based travel information, including the rise of influencers on China's travel scene.
“All I want to say to influencers is that they should focus more on travel advice and less on selfies,” Mio Chen, a Chinese travel enthusiast, told the site.
Other travellers contrasted Lonely Planet's hands-on approach with the catchy but superficial online travel advice currently popular in China.
Lonely Planet was founded in Australia in 1973 by husband and wife team Maureen and Tony Wheeler. The brand enjoyed huge success over the following decades, reaching its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The BBC acquired Lonely Planet in 2007. The brand has since changed hands twice, between NC2 Media and Red Ventures.
