Lonely Planet
has acquired destination content specialist
ArrivalGuides
, a week after announcing a new CEO.
The travel guide brand has brought in Luis Cabrera as its president and CEO from a previous role within BCG Digital Ventures, a division of the Boston Consulting Group.
At the time of his appointment, Cabrera talked of new partnerships and acquisitions, an omni-channel travel platform and the launch of new products such as festivals, tours and a membership scheme.
Terms of the ArrivalGuides acquisition have not been disclosed but the purchase makes sense in the context of some of Cabrera’s comments.
Sweden-based ArrivalGuides provides content, marketing and booking services for travel companies including Hilton, Eurowings and Rentalcars.
Of the acquisition, Cabrera says: “The ArrivalGuides team was able to anticipate what the B2B market demands and have effectively risen to the forefront by building a hub with self-service capabilities and an innovative process to curate content.
"ArrivalGuides' model and established channel will allow us to explore a more aggressive and creative B2B strategy and partner with companies in new ways.”
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Lonely Planet has had an interesting few years.
It was acquired by the U.K. state broadcaster, the BBC, in 2007 before being sold, at a loss, six years later to NC2 Media
.
Guidebook publishers have struggled for a position in the online world with various attempts to diversify and monetize content.
The latest drive to make content pay is believed, by some, to have been sparked by
Culture Trip with its $80 million in funding
and plans to launch an online travel agency.
Rough Guides said recently it planned to offer a trip-planning service
alongside its guidebook publishing business.
The company’s chief executive, René Frey, says it want to be seen as a “dynamic tech company” in the future.
Lonely Planet has offered travel booking for a number of years using partners including Skyscanner and Booking.