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% 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

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% 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...

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