Business English Study © 2011

LONELY PLANET: The Travel Business

Advanced Level:

• Grammar: Prepositions of Place – at, in, on

• Pronunciation: Spot the Homophones

• Functional Words: Travel Vocabulary and Idioms

• Listening: The Lonely Planet Story

• Functional Vocabulary: Adding Information

• Business Vocabulary: Phrasal Verbs of Emotion

• Cultural awareness point: Business Class travel

• Reading: Lonely Planet Limitations

• Role Play: A market for Lonely Planet

• Swear Words 1: Piss

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INTRODUCTION:
Discuss these questions:
What travel guide do you use when you go on a trip?
What do you know about Lonely Planet guidebooks?
Do you know the meaning of these phrases? (You will hear them in the listening):
Overland - bestseller – draw - adventurous – off the beaten track

LISTENING 1:
Visit www.businessenglishstudy.com for the free MP3 listening file
Listen to a spokesman talk about Lonely Planet, and answer these questions.
NOTE: the questions are not in chronological order

1. Does Lonely Planet only publish travel guides?

2. What does Lonely Planet encourage travellers to do?
3. What did the first book contain?
4. Where was ‘Across Asia on the Cheap’ written?
5. What is the company philosophy?

PRONUNCIATION: Spot the Homophones

Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have
different meanings, e.g. too, to and two.

EXERCISE: find the 10 pairs of homophones in the list below and explain the
difference in meaning. Some words are not needed

week – pear – queue – bare – site – here - peace – cue - fought – scene - poor -
pure – air – sit – foot – peas - work - thought – walk – beer – ear – sight - weak –
piece - pour – bear – pair – hear– fort – seen – wick – sigh – hair – fork - barn

FUNCTIONAL WORDS: Travel Idioms and Vocabulary

Decide if the definitions are true or false. If, false give a correct definition:

1. Backseat driver is used to describe a relaxed driver.

2. Hit the road means to leave and go somewhere else
3. Taken for a ride means you have been given a lift
4. On the wrong track means you misunderstand
5. A ticket tout is somebody who sells unofficial tickets
6. The back end of nowhere is an interior room in a hotel
7. Double booked means the ticket has been sold twice
8. The hard shoulder is a difficult situation

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GRAMMAR PRACTICE: Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

At is used to talk about an event where there is a group of people, and a place we
think of as a point rather than an area e.g.
• I arrived at Sydney Airport on Monday
• They were waiting for us at the entrance

In is used to talk about a position inside a larger area, or larger space.

• There has been an earthquake in India.
• If you look in the drawer you will find the book.

On is used to talk about something we think of as a line, such as river or a road, and
a position touching a flat surface e.g.
• Is that my suitcase on the floor
• London is on the Thames

Look at the use of at, in, on, in these sentences.

• Let’s meet at the train station - Seen as a point

• I will meet you in / at the hotel - Within the hotel itself or as building
which is a point in town
• She works in Tokyo - Within the city
• We stopped in Hanoi on our - In is used when we see it as an
way south enclosed area where we stopped for
some time
• The guide was a great help for - In suggests the city
us in Paris
• I am in Moscow on business - In means visiting or living
• She is studying law at Oxford - At means a student at Oxford
University
• He works at IBM - The name of a company
• He works in an office - The kind of place
• I met them at the pub - At is used for buildings such as: bank,
college, pub, restaurant
• I was waiting in the restaurant - In is used to emphasise we were inside
at 8pm the building
• Get in the car - Travel by car or taxi
• I’ll see you on the train - Travel by bus, coach, airplane, train,
boat, motorbike, bicycle

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EXERCISE 1: Complete the sentences with at, in, on and the most likely word or
phrase from the list:

Country – airport – presentation – hotel – jungle – meeting - Cambridge

e.g. I studied business management at Cambridge University.

1. I met Tom the sales yesterday.
2. The trip was spent the Brazilian .
3. The information this is out of date.
4. I will see you the tomorrow.
5. Is there a bar the that serves cocktails?
6. The on business travel was so boring I fell asleep it.

FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: Adding Information

This is used to add information to your point:

In addition – furthermore – on top of that – also – what is more – can I also say /
mention / add - one more thing - additionally - moreover - likewise - as well - plus

SPEAKING PRACTICE:
In small groups, discuss and present your ideas on (use the functional vocabulary
of addition in your argument):

Group 1: Tourism destroys the planet.

Group 2: Tourism is inevitable and is beneficial to the tourist and local

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READING:
Lead-in question: What is the most important thing in a
travel guide? Anything else necessary?

Read the text explain the underlined words and fill the
gaps with a suitable preposition of place or time:

Starting with the book, ‘Asia on a shoestring’, written by Tom

and Maureen Wheeler their kitchen table 30 years
ago, Lonely Planet now has 600 guidebook titles twelve
languages covering 150 countries and regions.

Nowadays, it faces tough competition Rough Guide,

Virgin and Time Out, and is largely dependent the
Strength and tenacity its writers.

This can be a problem, because travel writing doesn’t pay

well and an entire region can suffer if a writer has been
bribed local hotels or restaurants, or hasn’t done the
homework the area.

The Sri Lanka guide, which contains a lot of inaccuracies,

is a good example. After all what is the value a faulty
guide? Not that inaccuracy is common Lonely Planet.
The brand is often the most expert guide to use.

Despite wanting to reach a wider audience, the series works

best its niche as a guidebook less-developed,
countries where fun can be found without spending a lot of
money and off the beaten track is still a possibility.

Anyone who arrives Europe, hoping it is cheap

is going to be disappointed minutes of landing
the airport. Lonely Planet is good at what it does,
and is carried trips students and professionals.

But if it is survive the next decade, it will either need

to branch like the Rough Guide has, and start covering
other topics that will appeal readers who trust the brand.

In 2009 it was the end of the road Maureen and Tony

Wheeler, and they sold Lonely Planet to the BBC over
$140 million. The BBC was a natural buyer as it is global and
has a reputation responsibility.

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BUSINESS VOCABULARY: Phrasal Verbs - Emotion

1. If something 'gets you down', it makes you feel unhappy.
• Waiting hours for a bus gets me down.

2. If you 'cheer up', you start to feel happier.

• I bought a new dress to cheer myself up.

3. If you 'liven up', you become more energetic or cheerful. You can also 'liven up'
a place, event or person.
• We need to liven up the trip. Everyone looks sleepy.

4. If you 'calm down', you stop feeling angry, upset or excited. It's also possible to
'calm someone down'.
• Calm down, and I will explain why the train is delayed.

5. If you have had an unhappy experience, you need ‘to get over' it.
• It took me a long time to get over losing my suitcase.

EXERCISE: Put one of the phrasal verbs into the gaps below. In some cases
more than one answer is possible.

1. You need to the rejection, refocus, and start again.

2. When the weather is bad it can me .
3. The promise of a free meal has you a bit.
4. The stress of checking in at the airport me .
5. You need to him a bit, or he will do something stupid.
6. , it might never happen.
7. I when the doctor arrived.
8. The news of the pay rise really them .

CULTURAL AWARENESS POINT:

Business Class Travel
Airlines promote a Business Class travel service to
executives who fly long-haul, but this service carries
a premium price. Top British companies accept this
price for travel, but many smaller companies think it
is too expensive.

Discuss:
• What are the benefits of Business Class travel?
• Is Business Class necessary on flights shorter
than five hours?
• Is it seen as a status symbol?

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LISTENING 2: Visit www.businessenglishstudy.com for the MP3 listening file.

Listen to Tony Wheeler describe milestones and answer these questions

1. What was an accident?

2. What was the first milestone?
3. Why did they bet the company on the book?
4. Why has Tony always loved India?
5. What does he say about opening an office in the USA?

ROLE-PLAY
Background: The management team is looking for new markets to
exploit with the Lonely Planet brand.

Role Play: In small groups, discuss new areas that the Lonely Planet
brand can expand into.
Prepare the idea and present it to the other groups, including the link
to the brand, the product, and the viability of the market.

Practice: Using the pronunciation, vocabulary and functional language

you have learnt in this unit.

SWEAR WORDS 1 – Piss off / pissed off / pissed

Swear words are vulgar and should not be used, but it is helpful to understand them.
Piss literally means urine. These expressions are common in the U.K.

Piss Off (aggressive) means go away e.g. piss off, you are annoying me.
Pissed off means I am unhappy e.g. I am really pissed off with the bad results.
Pissed means drunk e.g. he drank a bottle of wine and now he is pissed.
Take the piss means to make fun of e.g. No more jokes, you are taking the piss
Pissing down means raining heavily e.g. take an umbrella, it is pissing it down

DISCUSS:
The use of swear words in your language. Is there an equivalent to ‘piss off’? Do you
use it? Why? Why not?

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Audio 1 – Adv. Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet – Advanced level
Tony and Maureen Wheeler are the founders of Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, and they
wrote their first book on the kitchen table in their flat in Sydney, Australia. It was 1973 and
they had travelled from England to Australia overland and realized there was no information
available for the adventurous traveller.

This was an opening in the market and the Lonely Planet empire began. Their first book,
Across Asia on the Cheap, was 96 pages of text with hand-drawn maps, and it became a
bestseller.

The original focus of Lonely Planet was aimed at young low budget travelers who carried
everything in a bag on their backs. They are known as ‘backpackers’. The company
philosophy was: "don't worry about your trip. It’s an adventure, now pack your bag and go!"

The guides covered the famous tourist sites and also encouraged travellers to leave the
beaten-track and really get to know the place and people they were visiting.

Lonely Planet has over 600 publications. These include travel guides, walking tours,
phrasebooks, DVDs, atlases and maps.

Audio 2 – Adv. Lonely Planet

Company founder, Tony Wheeler, talks about business milestones.

I guess our first, our first real milestone was not our first but our second book, because our
first book was an accident. But the second book we did we set off with the intention of writing
a book. We set off to write the best guidebook there had ever been on South East Asia.

We started out running the business from the backroom of our house, and it was a milestone
when managed to move out of the house and actually have an office separately. We were still
a very small organisation, just a handful of employees.

Our first guidebook to India was a real milestone for us. With our India book we finally had the
finance to put a couple of other writers out on the road and we spent, between the three of us,
nearly a year of travel, and it was a huge, it was really in some ways, betting the whole
company on one book. But the book was much bigger than anything we’d done before, it was
more expensive as well than anything we’d done before, it sold at a higher price, and it also
sold far more copies.

And to this day people ask you, ask me which book I’m most proud of I’ll say our India guide.
It was guide I thought which really opened a lot of doors for us, it was like critical success, but
it was also a popular success, and for that reason perhaps I’ve always loved India.

Opening our office in America was definitely a milestone for us, we, we were an international
publisher from the very start. I remember at the time a lot of people telling us this is a really
crazy decision, you’re doing fine right now with the size you are, why are you trying to have
offices in 2 different countries when you are far too small to do that. And a couple of years
later people were telling us, God that was a really clever idea

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LESSON PLAN – Lonely Planet – Advanced

Key objectives – to practise aural and oral Business English

INTRODUCTION: Ask the students what they know about Lonely Planet. Teacher (T)
– Students (SS) 5 mins

LISTENING 1: Next tell students they are going to hear a spokesman talking about
Lonely Planet. They need to answer the questions at the end. Play the listening and
ask students the questions. (T) – (SS) 10 mins

PRONUNCIATION: Ask the students to pronounce the words and find the
homophones. (T) – (SS) 5 mins

FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: Do the speaking exercise. (T) – (SS) 10 mins

GRAMMAR
Go through the preposition rules and do the exercise that follows.
Ask students to read the questions and answers out loud. (S) – (T) 10 mins

READING: Find out if the students the lead in questions. Go through the reading and
gap fill exercise. (S) – (T) 10 mins

BUSINESS VOCABULARY – Phrasal Verbs – Go through the explanation

and then get the students to fill in the exercise (S) – (T) 5 mins

CULTURAL AWARENESS POINT – Read the text on Business Class travel

and discuss the questions – encourage the students to speak (S) – (T) 5 mins

LISTENING 2: Tell students they are going to hear the 2nd part of the listening. Play
the listening and students answer the questions (SS) – (T) 10 mins

ROLE PLAY: Go through the instructions and begin the role-play. Make sure they
practice the grammar and vocabulary learnt in the lesson and to try and use the case
study material in their argument. Get the other students to discuss and offer
feedback. (SS) – (SS) 20 mins

VULGAR VOCABULARY – Read the text on Swear words and discuss the
questions – encourage the students to speak (S) – (T) 5 mins

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EXERCISE ANSWERS
LISTENING 1:
1. No, travel guides, walking tours, phrasebooks, DVDs, atlases and maps. In response to the lack of
information available to adventurous budget travellers
2. Leave the beaten track and really get to know the places and the people they were visiting
3. 96 pages and hand-drawn maps
4. On the kitchen table of a flat in Sydney
5. "Don't worry about your trip. It’s an adventure, now pack your bag and go!"
PRONUNCIATION:
1.Week – Weak 2.Pear – Pair 3.Cue – Queue 4.Bare – Bear 5.Site – Sight 6.Here – Hear 7.Peace –
Piece 8.Fort – Fought 9.Seen – Scene 10.Poor - Pour
FUNCTIONAL VOCABULARY: TRAVEL
1. False – somebody in the car who tells the driver how to drive
2. True
3. False - it means you have been tricked
4. True
5. True
6. False – it is a very remote place
7. True
8. False - it is the safety / breakdown lane on a motorway
GRAMMAR EXERCISE -EXERCISE 1:
1. I met Tom at a meeting yesterday.
2. The trip was spent in the Brazilian jungle.
3. The information on this country is out of date.
4. I will see you at the airport tomorrow.
5. Do you know there is a bar in the hotel serving cocktails
6. The presentation was so boring I fell asleep in/at it.
EXERCISE 2:
1. We met at the Tokyo office last year. Help us to improve the quality.
2. Louise is doing Tourism degree at Harvard. If you notice any mistakes in this module
3. It was raining so we took shelter in the hotel. please report the error to:
4. We all went to meet him at the station
info@businessenglishstudy.com
5. Frank worked at Lonely Planet for 3 years in the
editorial dept.
6. He won a gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
READING EXERCISE:
on – in – over – from – on – of – by – on – of – in – in – for – in – within – at – on – by – to – out – to –
for - for - for
BUSINESS VOCABULARY
1. You need to get over the rejection, refocus and start again.
2. When the weather is bad it can get me down.
3. The promise of a free meal has livened you up a bit.
4. The stress of checking in at the airport gets me down.
5. You need to calm him down a bit, or he will do something stupid.
6. Cheer up, it might never happen.
7. I calmed down when the doctor arrived.
8. The news of the pay rise really cheered them up.
LISTENING 2:
1. The first book
2. The second book because it was intended
3. It was ambitious, it was a risk, they bet everything on it. It took longer to write and cost more money
4. Because the book was a success, it opened a lot of doors and made the company successful
5. It was a risk but they were an international publisher from the start. People said he was crazy to do
it, but it was a success

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