Making the planet a bit more Lonely

Lonely Planet, the travel bible for backpackers across the globe, is to triple its publications on the mainland in the next five years, at a time when outbound tourism is approaching 100 million a year.

"We would like to take our business in mainland China to the next level," said Anthony Dorment, the general manager for Asia and global strategy at Lonely Planet.

When Lonely Planet first came to the mainland in 2006, it mainly provided content to then-partner SDX Joint Publishing for translation into Chinese.

But now it is in the process of setting up its first office in Beijing and hiring its own staff so as to gain more control of its publications.

The company is now in the final stages of identifying a new joint-venture partner after it terminated a four-year partnership with Joint Publishing, a Beijing-based publisher, at the end of last year.

The one-year cooling-off period provides a buffer for its old partner to sell off the existing guide books, including 55 Chinese-translated guide books and eight guide books written by mainland writers.