Guidebook Guru wins Guild Accolade

The British Guild of Travel Writers presented its 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award to Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet at its annual awards dinner at The Savoy Hotel in London on the eve of World Travel Market. This award, in the gift of the committee, goes to an individual for long-term contributions to the travel industry.

When Tony and Maureen Wheeler fled the 'real world' of London and hit the road in search of adventure, making their way across Asia before landing in Australia in 1972, they had no idea what they were starting.
Once in Australia, people asked so many questions about their trip that they sat at their kitchen table, wrote up and stapled together a travel guide about their journey called Across Asia on the Cheap. This book was later revamped as South East Asia on a Shoestring. In 2000, its 25th anniversary edition sold over 100,000 copes. It consistently appears in Lonely Planet's Top Ten bestseller list - not bad for what started out as a DIY publishing project.
"When we produced our first guide 28 years ago, we were writing for the way we were travelling. We had no idea how independent travel would grow and what a huge part of the global economy tourism would become," said Tony Wheeler recently, when accepting the 'Outstanding contribution to Travel Journalism' award at the Travelex Travel Writers' Awards for 2000.
It was a real DIY company, with Tony travelling in his own - accident-prone - car to sell the books. In 1976 he went to Frankfurt for the first time.
Today there are nearly 500 Lonely Planet employees working in Melbourne, Australia; Oakland, California; London and Paris and more than 100 experienced authors travelling and writing around the globe. Lonely Planet publishes over 600 guides, for destinations all over the world.
Tony Wheeler has written a number of Lonely Planet books from Bali & Lombok, Britain, and Cambodia, to Rarotonga & the Cook Islands, and Western Europe on a Shoestring.