Lonely Planet travel guides go high-tech

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and enterprise solutions, today expanded its travel and leisure guide portfolio with the addition of Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ: Travel Guide.

At launch, the travel guide will cover 19 cities in Australia and New Zealand, with expansion planned to other countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand soon thereafter.

Offering reviews for thousands of points of interest (POIs) throughout Australia and New Zealand – both of which ranked among the top five travel destinations according to Lonely Planet’s 2008 Travellers’ Pulse Survey – the content enables navigation applications to provide recommendations about where to stay, eat or spend leisure time.

Consumers increasingly rely on and seek more information from their navigation systems and mobile devices. In fact, according to the Travellers’ Pulse Survey, 82% of respondents said that they always or sometimes take a mobile with them on their travels and 24% indicated they use mobile phones to obtain practical travel information. NAVTEQ’s unique ability to seamlessly combine a navigable map along with travel guide content helps meet this growing demand.

Over one hundred million times each day, people around the world turn to the NAVTEQ(R) map. They’re the maps travelers everywhere rely on to help them find stores, restaurants, fuel stations and more. Whether it’s for in-vehicle navigation or pedestrian-oriented applications, Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ will help save end-users valuable time while providing relevant information from a trusted brand.

As with all NAVTEQ’s rich POI content, Lonely Planet for NAVTEQ lends itself to quick and flexible integration into location-aware applications. First, Lonely Planet content is precisely matched to the NAVTEQ map, enabling consumers to navigate to their desired destinations. NAVTEQ also leverages integration-friendly formats and innovative location referencing which will speed integration into customer applications. Plus, NAVTEQ’s ongoing relationship with Lonely Planet also allows updates to Lonely Planet’s content to be accurately reflected in the product.

“At Lonely Planet we have a long history of providing information about sights, restaurants, shops and other locations all over the world,” said Jeff Trounce, global manager of client solutions for Lonely Planet. “Whether you are travelling or you’re a local, it’s important to get this detail in the right place at the right time, and this collaboration with NAVTEQ allows us to do this on a mass scale.”

“The Lonely Planet content is a welcome addition to our travel and leisure guide portfolio,” said Aaron Dannenbring, vice president Asia Pacific map and content products. “As a premier travel guide brand, Lonely Planet content will augment our customers’ pedestrian and vehicle navigation solutions on a variety of platforms.”

Not so “Lonely” anymore

Fresh from an epic journey across Europe, Asia and Australia in 1972, Tony and Maureen Wheeler sat at their kitchen table stapling together notes. The first Lonely Planet guidebook, Across Asia on the Cheap, was born. Inspired by the guide’s success, the Wheelers began publishing books to Southeast Asia, India and beyond. Over the years, Lonely Planet extended its coverage to every country and into the virtual world via lonelyplanet.com and the Thorn Tree message board.

In October 2007, BBC Worldwide acquired a 75% share in the company, pledging to uphold Lonely Planet’s commitment to independent travel, trustworthy advice and editorial independence. Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Melbourne, London and Oakland, with around 500 staff members and 300 authors.

For more, visit www.lonelyplanet.com.