The Lonely Planet travel guides are by far and away the most popular travel guides in the world. Most people who have ever set foot in another country have had one in their position at one time or another. Some people revere the books in such high esteem that they might as well be called “The Backpacker’s Bible”. The company was originally founded in the 70’s by Maureen and Tony Wheeler, an adventurous travel couple who were way ahead of their time. Before there were travel bloggers and digital nomads, before all of the INSTA-famous travel girls and globetrotting Vloggers, before WWOOFING and Couchsurfing, before all of that bs, there were some REAL deal adventurers. They began writing their first small travel guides and selling them for barely any profit. Their guides were based on their own adventures and intended to help other crazy enthusiasts make their way around the developing world on the cheap. Imagine what world travel must have been like before the internet became big. Picture using actual paper maps and having no method of communicating with the outside world while you traveled in a foreign country. The original guides they wrote were made of hand sketched maps and contained tips and advice from themselves and other travelers they encountered on their treks. Not a lot of people were traveling for pleasure in the far corners of our globe back then. So at the time their rough guides were not only useful, but necessary to traverse those territories safely.
The BBC Worldwide
An image of the BBC corporate headquarters In 2007, the original Lonely Planet crew sold the majority of the company to BBC Worldwide. What was once a small company banded together by travel enthusiasts, was about to become a multi-million dollar conglomerate.
Lonely Planet is a highly respected international brand and a global leader in the provision of travel information. This deal fits well with our strategy to create one of the world’s leading content businesses, to grow our portfolio of content brands online and to increase our operations in Australia and America.
-BBC Worldwide CEO, John Smith-
This corporate buyout was just the first blow to their reputation of humble beginnings, though. In 2013, the BBC went on to sell The Lonely Planet to NC2 Media at a huge loss for $77.8 million. NC2 Media is owned by an American billionaire named Brad Kelly. So now the company has twice been handed down to an enormous media conglomerate who were just looking to make a buck off of the brand equity they had built.
The Problem Now
The Lonely Planet guides are far from what they used to be. The first published edition was title Across Asia on The Cheap, and now to the contrary, the books feature 5-star hotels, fine dining, casinos, night clubs, and resorts. The authors are typically freelance journalists and luxury travel writers, who barely take the time to examine the cities they write about. If they do, it is definitely not from the perspective of a backpacker or budget traveler. Lonely Planet frequently recommends that I stay at hostels for $50 bucks a night, or that I get a shrimp cocktail by the pool at a hotel that’s $200 a night. They are missing the mark on backpackers now for sure, and that’s only part of the problem.An image of a tourist reading the Lonely Planet
The other part of the problem is that the guide gives an unfair competitive advantage to a select few businesses within local communities. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing when I first witnessed this phenomenon. I was in Veradero, Cuba, walking down the bustling main street. There were some average sized crowds in most establishments, but then I came upon one seemingly random Cuban restaurant. There was nothing different about it from any of the surrounding restaurants. They had the same sign and the same menu, but for some reason they had a line wrapped around the block. Why are all the people waiting in that line foreign, I wondered? I mean, there was not a single local eating there, which came in sharp contrast to the other restaurants on the block. Why is the guy with the almost identical restaurant next door standing in his doorway with a menu and not a seat filled? I looked closely at the crowd and noticed that almost everyone in line was holding that distinct blue book. I got out my own copy of The Lonely Planet Cuba edition and flipped to this section. Sure enough, there was this restaurant. It just so happened to be the one restaurant that the writer of the Veradero section ate at when they were in town, and so by default, it is the “best” restaurant in town.
I witness this same phenomenon all the time now. In Busan, South Korea, we visited the famous Jigalchi Fish Market. Instead of the book simply advising you to visit the market food court and eat some fresh seafood, they go one step further and select one booth to feature out of hundreds. Did the author try all of the other booths and select the best? Heck no. All of the booths there literally use the same menu because they have the same food and the exact same prices. However, this one booth is in the Lonely Planet. So, they have a line of tourists that is 20 people long while the other booths sit there empty.
This is where the major problem is. While business is booming for one restaurant, all of the other local restaurant owners stand by in dismay, wondering what is wrong with their business or what their neighbor did to earn the business of every tourist in town. The truth is that they didn’t do anything different, though. The writers of the book choose to feature about 5 restaurants per city in each edition and unknowingly give them a near monopoly on the tourist market. This is the case with hotels, restaurants, tour agencies, and any other business they write about. Tourist spending is the driving force behind the local economies in many developing countries. Everybody in those communities rely on those tourist dollars, but the Lonely Planet is giving unnecessary spotlight and priority to just a few random establishments.
The Solution
an image of the Lonely Planet Maldives editionThe Lonely Planet has such a loyal following now that many people base their entire trip off of what is between the covers of these books. If it’s not in the book, they won’t see it. So that sense of adventure and exploration is lost entirely. Whatever happened to making your own tracks and discovering those secret hole-in-the-wall places? In my humble opinion, the Lonely Planet has lost its core values and not only gives an unfair advantage to a select few businesses, but it no longer represents the backpacker or the shoestring/budget traveler at all.
If I were to fix the Lonely Planet I would say it needs to be way more vague, or way more inclusive. It should either tell you the street where the restaurants are, or list every restaurant on the street. It should not just recommend one particular restaurant on that street just because its the one place the author tried.
I think its beyond repair, though. I traveled in South America for 8 months using those guides. I’ve had them elsewhere on other trips too. However, over recent years, I have decided to ditch the guide entirely. I don’t need one person’s opinion in a stupid book to tell me what to do. I make my own way. Plus, we all have phones now with access to maps and reviews and hotel booking sites and more. If you want to find a restaurant in Bangkok, GOOGLE IT! Don’t go to the same place every other 20 something year old on spring break is going to go. Go find that hole in the wall. Go find that place that will make your experience unique and different from everyone else’s.
An image of a restaurant in Nha Trang Vietnam
I can always tell when I have walked into a place and they have never had a foreign customer before. You might get invited to meet the owner’s whole family and then all take pictures together. Then you go and see their home after dinner. Those places not only make an impact on you, but you make an impact on them. Wouldn’t you rather that experience, then to be seated in a restaurant rammed with tourists, paying inflated prices, and next to every other Westerner in a tank top and flip-flops in town?