Lonely Planet to offer city guides via mobile

The sites will carry 20 Lonely Planet city guides and 10 audio phrasebooks from the best-selling Lonely Planet destinations. Each guide recommends around 200 points of interest, including accommodation, places to eat and go sightseeing, with addresses, information on how to get there and a phone number, with click-to-call capability.

The phrasebooks offer translations and phonetic pronunciations, as well as a feature that will let users click on a phrase and have it read out by the phone.

Chantal Harvard, business development manager for wireless at Lonely Planet, said providing travel information on mobile phones is a key new area for the publisher.

The guides and phrasebooks will be sold for £4.50 in the UK and prices range between €3 (£2.40) and €5 (£3.90) in the rest of Europe.

Earlier this week, Lonely Planet appointed Dominic Rowell to the newly created role of global marketing director, responsible for coordinating all marketing activities and developing a global brand strategy.