Even the longest journeys must come to an end, and that end has arrived 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 website post.
“Although we are cautious… we regret to inform you that due to the impact of the recent epidemic and the company’s strategic adjustments, Lonely Planet has closed its China office and stopped publishing in China; all Lonely Planet official social media accounts in China, including the official WeChat accounts, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, etc., have stopped updating,” the message, titled “Wishing you a pleasant journey,” read.
The announcement follows the closure of Lonely Planet’s Chinese-language magazine 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 attractions.
“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 cultural website Sixth Tone responded to the closure, noting that the company has struggled to keep up with the flood of travel information on social media in recent years, including the presence of influencers in the Chinese travel scene.
“The only thing I would say to those 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 Ventures.
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