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Lonely Planet is to launch its first European own-branded store in Manchester Airport as the publisher reclaims space in a UK travel outlet for the first time since W H Smith locked it out three years ago. The airport sees 19 million passengers through its doors every year.
The 100-square-metre Lonely Planet bookshop, which will open on 29th June in Terminal 1, is being launched in partnership with LS Travel Retail, which has recently opened the Relay store in London’s Cannon Street Station and the Watermark bookshop in King’s Cross. The company is also a partner in Lonely Planet’s other own-branded store in Sydney Airport, Australia.
This will be the first time Lonely Planet has had a strong retail presence in a UK travel hub since W H Smith entered into an exclusive partnership to stock Penguin Travel Books in 2009.
The Manchester Airport store will feature interactive audio screens. In a unique feature, visitors will be able to touch the area in the world they are travelling to on an interactive globe and be given travel advice on it about the region via Lonely Planet’s website.
Shona Gold, Lonely Planet’s sales and marketing director, said: “For us, the fact that we are investing in and opening a new bookstore in the current climate is probably the most exciting thing. We are not sheltered from the current troubles of the book industry. But the idea accelerated after the WHS lockout, as we felt airports were the right place to be. WHS took its decision back in 2009, and it is still hugely disappointing to us that travellers can’t access the guides they want through airports.”
Gold added: “We are absolutely keen on keeping the brand special for customers. That is the whole point of the Manchester Airport store which is going to be really iconic. That is why we are investing in something expensive in this climate.”
Lonely Planet has more than 480 titles, which will all be stocked in-store. A team of knowledgeable and well-travelled employees will be on hand to answer queries. Fin Casey, managing director of LS Travel Retail UK & Ireland, said the shop will also have an area playing audio noises from different parts of the world and feature international stamps set in grooves in the floor. “We wanted it to have the wow factor,” Casey said.
The Sydney Airport Lonely Planet store is the highest-performing retail outlet in Australasia for Lonely Planet guides. “We hope to replicate that in Manchester,” Gold said. She added that even though Nielsen Bookscan figures to 19th May show that the guidebook market has declined 11.7% in volume in the past 12 months, Lonely Planet has grown its share to 27.9% in value, 3.5% points ahead of its nearest competitor.
The Lonely Planet store is the latest example in a series of recent moves from booksellers to enhance the theatre of bookshops to attract customers. Waterstones is embarking on a 100-store refurbishment programme and Foyles c.e.o. Sam Husain has also pledged to make his bookshops more spectacular destinations. “We are showrooms for books at the moment. That isn’t the future, it is already happening, so this is an opportunity for us to do better, more exciting things with our commercial spaces,” Husain told The Bookseller. He also revealed plans for dedicated digital zones when Foyles moves to its new Charing Cross Road venue in 2014.
Meanwhile, Stanfords Travel bookshop in London’s Covent Garden is also diversifying, featuring guest travel companies on the premises in-store.