15. June 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: books

Just over a year ago, I was in Canada, about to fly on to the UK. I was browsing Lonely Planet’s website, looking to buy one of their electronic books in PDF form, for England and Scotland. I found one, at what seemed like a reasonable price, in Canadian dollars – however, the moment I entered my Australian credit card number, the price jumped by more than 50%.

I couldn’t believe it. An electronic book has no delivery costs, and yet they were operating a multi-tiered pricing scheme for them, based on the country from which your credit card is issued.

I was interested to see if this pricing scheme is still in operation – and, yes, it is.

When I go to the Lonely Planet website and look at their Germany Travel Guide book, from here in Australia, the price for their “buy all chapters” PDF edition is AUD$35.99 (US$38.49). I asked a friend of mine in the US to look up the same book from there, and she said it would cost her US$22.49.

I also have access to a server based in the UK, so I checked the price of the same e-book when purchased there: £13.59 (US$22.27). So Australians are being charged a disgusting 73%25 more for the same electronic book than UK or US residents would have to pay.

How can anyone justify this at all?

I’ve listed the prices of a few of their e-books, in both Australia and the UK, in the table below, along with the price of the same book in a Kindle version, if available.

Book Australian Price (PDF) UK Price (PDF) Markup Kindle Edition
Germany Travel Guide

AUD$35.99 (US$38.49) £13.59 (US$22.27) US$16.22 (72%) US$15.39
Western Europe Travel Guide

AUD$37.59 (US$40.20) £14.39 (US$23.57) US$16.63 (70%) N/A
USA Travel Guide

AUD$36.79 (US$39.35) £14.39 (US$23.57) US$15.78 (66%) US$16.49
Australia Travel Guide

AUD$39.19 (US$41.92) £14.39 (US$23.57) US$18.35 (77%) US$16.49
Thailand Travel Guide

AUD$39.19 (US$41.92) £13.59 (US$22.57) US$19.35 (85%) US$14.57

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The Age is reporting that the commercial arm of the Lonely Planet, the publishers of the travel-guide books that many of us make considerable use of. The founds will keep a 25%25 stake of the company.

I will confess that I’m a big fan of the books (although a little less so of some of the maps in them), and have regularly used them for planning trips and for finding out-of-the-way places of interest that a traveller might not necessarily discover themselves. I realise that there’s a couple of diametrically opposed poles when it comes to guidebooks – those who consider them responsible for “cookie-cutter” travel and those who take one everywhere they go.

I definitely fall somewhere towards the latter group; you definitely need to research your destination before you go, and it really helps to know its history. It’s not always possible for people to spend weeks in a library or on the internet tracking down the right information, and a well-written guidebook can provide everything from useful history, to accomodation advice and transit planning. Furthermore, there’s always going to be a town or city where the attractions are so hidden, or off-beat, that a newcomer is unlikely to be able to find them for themselves, and a guidebook can definitely help them make the most of their trip.

So, with that said, I must say that I got somewhat of a shock to see Lonely Planet being sold. Obviously, they could have done far worse than the BBC; at least we can be sure that their editorial independence is safe – but I do wonder what happens in the long term if the BBC ever decides to sell…

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Lonely Planet have announced the release of a number of updated guidebooks:

  • British Columbia, 3rd editiion
  • China, 10th edition
  • Great Britain, 7th edition
  • Iceland, 6th edition
  • Perth & Western Australia, 5th edition
  • Romania & Moldova, 4th edition
  • Slovenia, 5th edition
  • Sydney & New South Wales, 5th edition
  • Wales, 3rd edition

Link: Lonely Planet press release

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