Lonely at the top

Gordon Peters
Thursday, 09 December 2010 16:40

IT People - People

Travel content provider and publisher, Digital Lonely Planet has promoted one of its own to managing director to lead the next phase of the growth and expansion of its digital business.

Dominic Rowell, a key member of Lonely Planet's senior executive team since September 2008, has been promoted from his previous role as Lonely Planet's first global marketing director.

CEO Matt Goldberg said Rowell had played a significant role accelerating the company's digital marketing strategy and 'delivering a marketing and brand proposition that supports and enhances the company's aim to become the world's leading travel media organisation.'

'Dominic Rowell has an exemplary track record as our Global Marketing Director and has demonstrated a keen insight into Lonely Planet's digital efforts. He and his digital marketing team have been critical to our success in driving traffic to lonelyplanet.com, growing and commercialising our email data base, and connecting travellers to our wireless products in new and creative ways.'

'We are fortunate to have such a versatile and talented executive in Dominic, who will lead Lonely Planet's digital business into its next phase translating our amazing guides and developing new products and services across every platform travellers find useful.'

According to Goldberg, Lonely Planet's digital business is gaining momentum across a broad range of platforms and services.

'Lonelyplanet.com is consistently acclaimed as an award-winning site that attracts over 8 million visitors per month. The website features informative travel editorial, Lonely Planet guidebook content, images, videos and maps covering over 8,500 destinations, as well as the ability to book, hotels, flights and a range of other services. Over the past year, Lonely Planet's community of regular followers has grown to nearly two million people.'

Over the past year, Lonely Planet has produced content and new products to support the major wireless providers, including Apple, Nokia, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.  The company also released its first iPad app '1000 Ultimate Experiences' in April 2010, and released its Discover ebooks range in August 2010. More than five million Lonely Planet iPhone apps have now been downloaded.