October News and Travel Trends

Lonely Planet Insider
We asked our global community of staff and authors “Where is your favorite place to celebrate Halloween?” Here are the results:

1. At home, wherever that is!
I like to see the little kids who ring my bell for free candy and their expressions when I give them sugary treats. –Sabrina Dalbesio, Lonely Planet Staff

Nothing replaces the experience of going out in costume, getting cold, and bringing home a bag full of mysterious treats! –Tim Hornyak, Lonely Planet Author

2. Tie between New York City and San Francisco
While San Francisco is a costume kind of town all year round, people really go all out at Halloween and everyone dresses up! The humor and individualism of Halloween costumes always bring a smile to my face and make me think 'God I love this town'. –Aimee Goggins, Lonely Planet Staff

During the day it's all about the kids' parades in Central Park - darling mini-Manhattanites, all under the age of 10, marching about in their costumes while leaves fall from the trees - it's enough to make your heart melt. The freaks come out at night - all of NYC turns into one huge bacchanalian event on Halloween. –Jennye Garibaldi, Lonely Planet Staff

3. Salem, Massachusetts
The celebration lasts all month long, with spooky walking tours, haunted houses, witches balls, pumpkin carving parties and costume parades. On Halloween night, there is a huge outdoor costume party with bands and DJs playing live music. –Mara Vorhees, Lonely Planet Author

Travel Tech News
Lonely Planet, best known as a travel guidebook publisher, has a lot to offer on the digital side offering travel information over a variety of platforms.

Lonely Planet is among the first travel guide publishers to have products available for Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle e-reader as it ships internationally this week.

Lonely Planet is also the first travel publisher in the world to make new ‘augmented reality’ products available for Google Android handsets launching a series of Compass Guide applications to highlight points of interest in cities.

Trippy, Lonely Planet’s experimental collaborative trip planning gadget was featured as part of the Google Wave beta launched recently.

Lonely Planet is opening its doors to developers by hosting its first Hack Day in Australia 7-8 November 2009. Read all about it here!

Lonely Planet “Favorite Places” lists just went live as part of Google’s expanded content for their online maps enhancement. Check out the blog post for full details here. 

Google Sidewiki allows users to contribute helpful information to any page on the web. To help launch Google Sidewiki, Lonely Planet editors Robert Reid, and Tom Hall wrote some of the first entries about their favorite places in New York, London and Glasgow. For more info, see the Google blog announcement here.

The Cities Book in Paperback
We’re excited about the paperback edition of our best-selling The Cities Book. Newly updated, this full-color coffee table book highlights the clamor and throng of our favorite urban landscapes and features gorgeous photos and entertaining information about 200 of the world’s top cities, as voted and ranked by Lonely Planet staff, author and travelers.

The Cities Book includes stunning images that accompany fascinating facts to help convey the true spirit of a city. Read about population, strengths and weaknesses, local nicknames, urban myths, city origins, and the best things to eat, drink, do, and see. In addition, there are chapters on lost cities, ancient cities, and cities of the future.

The Cities Book captures the fun, culture and excitement found in cities around the world. Did your favorite city make our list?

About the Book:
The Cities Book (paperback), new title | 432pp, full color, 12”x9”, $24.99
ISBN: 978 1 74179 887 6 | October 2009

New Leadership
Lonely Planet has announced John Boris as its new Executive Vice President, Lonely Planet & Managing Director, Lonely Planet Americas.

Reporting to Matt Goldberg, Lonely Planet’s CEO, Boris has joined the company in Oakland and will be responsible for defining and delivering the strategy to drive growth in revenues and audiences across the US and leading Lonely Planet’s global client solutions business. Matt Goldberg says of the appointment, “We are excited to have been able to attract such a talented brand builder and media thought leader in John Boris to lead Lonely Planet on the next phase of its growth across the US and to elevate our client solution business globally.  John will be pivotal to transforming Lonely Planet in the US and connecting with audiences across all channels – print, digital and other emerging opportunities.”

John Boris added: “I’m thrilled to be joining one of the world’s best-loved travel brands at such an exciting time, with Lonely Planet rapidly evolving as a cross-media travel player. I’m looking forward to building on the considerable success already achieved in the US inspiring and enabling curious people to experience the world and enrich their lives by getting to the heart of a place.”

Boris has career history of successfully driving revenues and business development opportunities with high profile US operations. He joins Lonely Planet from Zagat Survey, where he was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Interactive, responsible for the marketing, promotions and development of Zagat lines of business including retail, corporate, online and mobile. Boris also held general management responsibilities overseeing various operational departments including Production, Survey Research and Customer Service.

Conventional Wisdom:

Robert Reid, US Travel Editor
Destination of the Month: Halloween in America’s most haunted city, the Georgia charmer Savannah: haunted walking tours, cemeteries, secret tunnels. Food’s good too.
Travel Tip of the Month: Watch TV! Ken Burns’ PBS doc on National Park has inspired us to take road trips while CBS’ guilty-pleasure Amazing Race 15 kicked off street-level travels.
Traveler of the Month: On Twitter, Banff’s hilarious new ‘spokesperson’ – the personable @Banff_Squirrel – offers foliage hiking tips like Minnewanka Loop.

Tom Hall, UK Travel Editor
Destination of the Month: Ghent, Belgium is Europe most underrated city. Find a fairytale castle, cutting-edge modern design and a bar serving 140 different Belgian beers. Ghent is beautiful in Autumn.
Travel Tip of the Month: Pack some digital luggage scales. Airlines are tougher than ever on how heavy your bag is and it could cost you $$$. Prove your point with your own scales.
Traveler of the Month: Renee Bergere’s tales of hiking around Mont Blanc in the Alps details a few mistakes – but I reckon those warm showers and great meals made the trip.

Vivek Wagle, Editorial Director, Australia
Destination of the Month: Mumbai, India, for the riotous Diwali (Festival of Lights) celebrations.
Travel Tip of the Month: Start booking overseas flights! Australian and
Asian currencies are near their most powerful ever.
Traveler of the Month: On Twitter, @TheTravelTart (Anthony from Brisbane) is blogging about fun times in Sumatra.

For more information, please contact PressUSA@Lonelyplanet.com