Keep the car running

Rajesh Diwan, a 36-year-old from Mumbai, has already covered 790 of the 1,000 places on his must-see list. And he does not mind adding more names to the list. When this writer checked with Diwan if Chhattisgarh, which was carved out from Madhya Pradesh in 2000, will be a part of his to-do list, Diwan’s response was a mere, “Let’s see”.

But Diwan could change his mind in the days to come. Lonely Planet, which travellers across the world swear by as a travel guide, recently set its eyes on the state and introduced not one, but five different pocket guides dedicated to Chhattisgarh. A major resource in the travel information space, Lonely Planet has published titles to almost every destination in the world and has printed over 120 million guides in its over four decades of existence. The company established only its fourth global office in Gurgaon, India in 2011, owned by US-based media company NC2 Media. Its other offices are in Melbourne, London and Oakland.

It’s not only Lonely Planet that is interested in India. The attraction is mutual. Indians form the fourth largest segment in terms of traffic to Lonely Planet’s website after the US, the UK and Australia.

So, why has Lonely Planet set its eyes on an Indian state that most people associate with Maoists? Any conversation on travelling to India centres around Agra, Jaipur, or God’s own country, Kerala. Lonely Planet is keen to take travel talk to lesser known, but equally beautiful, locales. “Everybody talks only about Maoists. That’s so not true. Here I took Daniel (the global CEO of Lonely Planet) to Chhattisgarh, and brought him back alive,” jokes Sesh Seshadri, director, Lonely Planet India.

Seshadri says many interesting facets of the state are not known to even Indians. For instance, Chhattisgarh claims to have the Niagara Falls of India in Chitrakoot — though many in Kerala would dispute that, arguing that Athirappilly Falls, near Thrissur, is equally impressive. Seshadri also points out that the state of Chhattisgarh has a unique tribal museum.

If it’s not the natural beauty of the place, it could be the food. Lonely Planet’s next stop will be Punjab. (The company is currently having discussions with the state government.) Everyone talks about the Golden Temple, but the food of Punjab is equally worth exploring, says Seshadri, hinting at things to come.

From a business point of view India, with its huge population and diverse landscape, presents a huge opportunity.

But more than 80 per cent of Indians focus on domestic travel. So after publishing a fair amount of outbound titles that are suited to Indians travelling abroad, the publisher has decided to focus increasingly on the domestic market where the numbers are higher. Daniel Houghton, Global CEO, Lonely Planet, says, “We want to inspire even people who are not active travellers.”

Globally, to expand its footprint in the content space, earlier this year Lonely Planet acquired a strategic stake in action sports content producer Teton Gravity Research. It has also re-launched Lonely Planet Kids and is making its presence felt in the educational space.

As travel and food go hand in hand, the company has its sights firmly set on that space as well. “There is a huge amount of content just about food. Every 200 miles there is a new cuisine,” says Houghton. Will it soon be guided tours offered by the title that travellers trust? Houghton, much like any other CEO, only has this to say: “It’s hard to tell what the future will hold.”