"Lonely Planet" coming to India in early 2010

BBC Magazines - a subsidiary of UK-based BBC World wide is all set to launch a monthly travel magazine ' "Lonely Planet", in India, in association with Worldwide Media.

Worldwide Media is a joint venture between the Times Group and BBC Worldwide.

Lonely Planet was launched in UK last year, and will be in India by next fiscal January-February.

Vardhan Kondvikar has been appointed as the editor of Lonely Planet, India. Prior joining here he was working as an editor with "Top Gear' ' an auto magazine.

"India does not have too many quality magazines in the travel space. We hope to rectify that with the launch of Lonely Planet India in early 2010," CEO, Worldwide Media, Tarun Rai said.

"The magazine will be priced at Rs100 and cover international as well domestic destinations," Rai added.

Lonely Planet magazine will compete with the Outlook group publication "Outlook Traveller' and "Travel Plus' from the India Today group.

The publishers and analyst are waiting for the magazine to be released in India, as it will only help the travel market in India to grow.

"Lonely Planet's entry can only expand the rapidly growing travel market in India and there is no dearth of advertisers," said Outlook group publisher Maheshwar Peri.

Media and entertainment analyst at consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, Smita Jha agrees to the above and said, "This market is still very niche and there is no player in the space with the depth, size and scale of Lonely Planet. The market is set to grow."