You know, there are such cult guidebooks called Lonely Planet. Probably, for each country or at least region they have a plump book with a description of where, what and how. They are not published in Russian; in Russia their analogues are guides around the world and other obscenities. And there are routes and interesting places to visit, as well as hotels for any budget and restaurants where you can eat without getting poisoned. A great idea, especially for budget travelers. And for those who decided to refuse the services of travel agents and travel on their own, this is an excellent reference point. It always indicates in which area of the city Europeans live, where conditions are usually more adapted. Indeed, not everyone can live in local neighborhoods in Asia or Africa.
But this is what happens. Inexpensive guesthouses that find themselves in Longley immediately put up a sign that they are recommended by this very Planet and shamelessly begin to raise their prices. And they do it right. Almost everywhere I met crowds of ragged tourists with guidebooks in hand, with crazy eyes, walking down the street in search of a room. Their faces lit up with a blissful smile when the local barker, who accommodates white chickens for a percentage, named them the hotel and they, having checked their bible, were convinced that the hotel was recommended by the LP himself! Well, how can you not take money from such a woodpecker?
I thank them very much for at least recommending visiting places that are well known to everyone and full of tourists brought on a tour bus! The most interesting things are always hidden behind long turns and hard-to-reach roads, and that’s where I’ve never met people with guidebooks and a dumbfounded look. And although in our time it is no longer possible to find places where no one has set foot, it is quite possible to find places where no one has set foot Lonely Planet.
If you use it with your head, then it is very good, although more and more often it is used to look where you don’t need to go. You and I stopped traveling on package holidays not in order to join a sect of idiot backpackers and do everything the same as before, but only by living in bad hotels and traveling on buses full of local peasants, right? It’s better to move from attraction to attraction in comfort and air conditioning, leaving all the worries to the travel agency. Forgetting about the inconvenience and constant bargaining with local drivers, who, seeing a white one, inflate the price three times, and in order to bring it down, you need to spend time. The guide takes you from a wide and convenient highway onto a pedestrian path, where there is a whole crowd of the same cunning lovers of saving money. They run like moose with their backpacks in front and behind and vigorously elbow each other.
A similar thing happened to me in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where tourists tend to spend the night and move on, because LP and experienced travelers (the same adherents of guidebooks) advise not to stop in Jakarta. Therefore, all the few guesthouses on Jaksa Street are occupied in the evening and vacated in the morning. Such a transshipment conveyor. We arrived in the evening. After running for some time in a race with a crowd of backpackers in cheap guest rooms (we usually immediately go to a cafe to eat, and then I calmly find housing without my things), and bumping into Full signs everywhere, I gave up on this matter and rented a hotel room for 22 dollars. With hot water, TV and air conditioning. I was especially impressed by the story of the aunt I met about how they had to spend the first night on the street. And the next day I calmly found a room with an air conditioner for half the money. Thus, if we spent this night on the street, we would have saved about 300 rubles each... Holy shit!
Lonely Planet nurtured a layer between tourists and travelers called backpackers, from the word backpack - backpack. Well, let's call them backpackers. But with what pride they, overwhelmed by the road and the scammers blocking the path to every hotel and every ruined temple, look at the well-fed and satisfied organized tourists. We ourselves, through the desert (forest, village) reached this pyramid (temple, mountains, ruins)!!! In order to become the two hundred millionth visitor and take pictures of everything around with your camera. Oh, how original I am in supporting the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Look, I'm holding the Taj Mahal by the dome!
Good afternoon friends. Today I want to talk about the most convenient guide, in my opinion, for independent and inexpensive travel, Lonely Planet.
Lonely Planet is more than just a guide. This is a brand. Hearing the name of the LP, I immediately understand that we are talking about a professional reference book that I can rely on and know that I will not be lost anywhere with it.
The idea of creating a guidebook originated in Great Britain. A young couple, Tony and Maureen Wheeler, traveled the world comfortably and with virtually no money. After this experience, they wanted to tell how they did it. And so a book with recommendations, “Through Asia, Inexpensively,” was published. Today, Lonely Planet guides are a whole series of books that contain all the useful information on a variety of countries, helping to travel freely, independently and inexpensively.
Tony Wheeler - creator of Lonely Planet
7-15 people work on each book. And these are not just copywriters writing a beautiful booklet to order. Each Lonely Planet guide is created by a group of travelers who have visited that country. And not only that, they constantly visit this country, make adjustments and update information. Therefore, you can see Lonely Planet guides from different years or even months of publication and in different editions.
Until 2012, the LP was not released in Russian. Nowadays, most popular guidebooks are published in Russian. And this is happiness) When I bought LPs in India in 2008, there was only English version and had to spend time on translation. Now there is no such torment. Now you can easily buy a guidebook in Russian on ozon.ru. Now, by the way, the site has a big discount on most of Lonely Planet. You can buy it inexpensively.
Here you will not find literary essays and tempting descriptions of attractions, beautiful photographs and tourist pictures. Priority is given only to useful, high-quality information. And there is a lot of it.
In each guide you will find:
And always, maps, diagrams, and site plans are attached to each section. Even in or in another country where it is difficult to find an address, with such a directory you will not get lost. Everything is tested from personal experience.
It may happen that during your trip you will not be able to connect to the Internet. Paper media is here to stay. At any time, open the book and find the information you need.
Tips: Don't buy a country-wide guidebook if you're only going to a specific state or province.
Example with China:
There are several separate books on cities: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, a separate book on the Southwestern part, on Tibet. And for other countries - big and not so big Lonely Planet always tries to divide information into separate books.
This makes it easier to find the information you need, and carrying a compact small book with you is much more pleasant.
In some countries the LP is very voluminous and large. Many tourists embroider the guidebook at home and take with them only the necessary sheets.
Sincerely,
For poor tourists. In the city, BBC Worldwide, a commercial agency of the BBC, was bought out. Lonely Planet has published more than 500 travel guides, advisors and phrase books in eight languages. The annual circulation of this publishing house's publications reaches 6 million copies.
In 2012, Lonely Planet guidebooks began to be published in Russian.
It’s hard to believe, but Lonely Planet guidebooks appeared in Russian only six years ago - the first books were published by the Bombora publishing house only in 2012. The dollar exchange rate floated around 30 rubles, Aviasales released a mobile application for searching tickets for the first time, and the most advanced iPhone was the 4S version. In 2018, it seems that Lonely Planet guides in Russian have always been with us. That is why we decided to delve into history and tell how they appeared and what they have become now.
This material was made in partnership with the Bombora publishing house, which annually publishes several hundred Lonely Planet books: guidebooks, thematic routes and colorful gift editions about the most unexplored places on our planet.
One of the new Bombora products, which came out literally this week, is "Atlas of Adventures. An unforgettable experience that is worth experiencing at least once.”. This is a collection of the most unusual activities that you can experience on our planet: climbing a Guatemalan volcano, skydiving over the Namib Desert, ice skating on frozen lakes and canals in Scandinavia that recently blew up the Internet, unique cycling routes, snorkeling, kayaking and diving - this book has everything you need to plan your travels for at least the next five years.
Book "Atlas of Adventures" can be bought in the Book24 online store, and with a special promo code PRTBRT it will be 20 percent cheaper!
Until the 19th century, the usual modern guidebook format simply did not exist, because people moved for only a few reasons: religious pilgrimage, trade, military action or expedition. Therefore, most of the known books up to this point are pilgrimage travelogues, diaries or works of fiction.
The description of the route and place of stay is based on the so-called myth of place (“myth of destination”), which is formed under the influence of the cultural image of certain places, mass culture, literature and cinema, as well as information purposefully and independently obtained by the consumer himself, often subjective and random.
Lyudmila Berezovaya, “History of tourism and hospitality.”
It was the “myth of place” that laid the foundation for guidebooks, which began to appear on a large scale in the 19th century thanks to urbanization, the fashion for traveling around Europe after graduation and, of course, medical tourism.
The first professional series of compact guidebooks appeared almost simultaneously. In Great Britain, John Murray publishes Murray's Handbooks for Travelers in 1836 - "A Handbook for Travelers on the Continent", which talks about the Netherlands, Belgium, Prussia and Northern Germany. At the same time, the German Karl Baedeker works in a publishing house that publishes a guide to the Rhine: “A Rhine Journey from Mainz to Cologne”; "A Handbook for Travelers on the Move", written by Professor Johan August Klein.
After Klein's death in 1839, Baedeker expanded and rewrote the guidebook, and then published several guides to other European countries. It was Baedeker's guidebooks that became the prototype of how modern guides are now constructed. Baedeker issued guides only after personal travel, giving practical advice on the best restaurants, saving on tickets, communicating with hotel staff and even the best views from hotel windows.
Karl Baedeker is responsible for another detail that is now widely used in tourism: the star system. He introduced it for landmarks, hotels, restaurants and other places in 1846. Murray did this earlier, but it was Karl’s system that became widespread.
The guidebooks of Baedeker and Murray were followed by the releases of guides from the travel company Thomas Cook and the famous Michelin guides, which were initially aimed at car tourists.
The 20th century, with its industrialization, the fall of empires and world wars, slightly slowed down the spread of mass tourism, but the most important events of the 1970s changed everything. And one of them was the first Lonely Planet guide - “Across Asia on the Cheap”.
Baedeker Guide
The first Michelin Guide. 1900
In May 1972, Tony Wheeler (26) and his wife Maureen (23) jumped into a car they had bought for £65 and drove east out of Britain. Using this wreck of the prophetic brand Mini Traveler, the Wheelers reached Afghanistan via Istanbul and Esfahan, and in Kabul they sold the car for more than they bought it for. True, only for five dollars.
Next are Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangkok, where the future founders of Lonely Planet ran out of money. I had to hitchhike to Singapore, changing endless ferries and buses, get to Jakarta, and then to Bali. There, chance brought the couple together with New Zealanders who needed helpers to crew a yacht to Australia, 16 days instead of the agreed upon six and ending up in Sydney. It was there that the first guide was collected "Across Asia on the Cheap": 96 pages, $1.80 per book.
Lonely Planet Guides (1983)
Even the story of the name of Lonely Planet is romantic - Tony made a mistake while listening to the lyrics of the song “Space Captain” by Joe Cocker and mixed up the lines
Once I was traveling across the sky
This lovely planet caught my eyeInstead of “lovely planet” he heard “lonely”.
Already in 1973, the Wheelers set off on a second trip to Asia - on a motorcycle and with the understanding that they would bring a new (later cult) guide from this trip. And so it happened, "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring"(the title turned out to be almost identical to the first) was reprinted 19 times, in 2015 Tony talked about more than 2 million copies sold.
“Of course, we didn’t know how it would turn out, but now it seems obvious that this was the perfect moment to create a travel empire:
- baby boomers just grew up ( Wheeler himself was born in one of these periods - in 1946. - Note ed.) and became the basis for a huge wave of travelers;
- "jumbo jets" ( The world's first long-haul double-deck wide-body passenger aircraft Boeing 747. - Note ed.) revolutionized aviation and made it easy to travel to the most remote corners of the world;
- The hippie trail was the dream of every young traveler, while the countries along the trail were calm and relatively safe: and this, by the way, was Iran before the revolution, Afghanistan before the war, Syria and Iraq before the Yom Kippur War, Lebanon before the civil war.”
Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen with the first Lonely Planet guide
By 1975, Lonely Planet had become a small but viable business with its own office and employees. The breakthrough came after the publication of a guide to India in 1981 - the book itself was twice as large as any that had been published before, cost two to three times more and sold better than all previous ones! Within one year, Lonely Planet tripled in size, and the publisher now had the opportunity to send authors abroad. This is how the type of guidebook we are used to now was born.
By 1999, the number of books sold exceeded 30 million copies, and by 2007 - 80 million and 500 books published.
It was in 2007 that Lonely Planet was first sold - the Wheelers, plus John Singleton, a shareholder since 1999, sold 75% to BBC Worldwide. In 2011, the remaining 25% went to the BBC.
On the day of the sale, Tony sent out a letter to everyone, the last lines of which were:
“Of course, we think about Lonely Planet the way a proud parent thinks about their child. Most likely, the child will grow up, wave his hand, say goodbye and walk out the door, but you will never stop worrying about him. And of course, feel proud when it does good deeds, worry when it doesn’t. And this is exactly the moment: Lonely Planet waves goodbye to us, but we will always be its biggest supporters and most loyal supporters.”
It seems that the Wheelers weren't too keen on the digitalization of guidebooks - Tony indirectly confirmed this in a column for the Financial Times: "I admit, this whole multimedia breakthrough was not my hobby; I still like old-fashioned paper guidebooks."
Despite this, Lonely Planet has always been well represented in the digital format - the first website appeared in 1995, followed by the Thorn Three forum, a cult among English-speaking travelers (much like the Vinsky forum in Russia), and the company's email newsletter in 2013 attracted more than a million people, and in 2015 the ten millionth user subscribed to Lonely Planet on social networks. In 2017, the Guides application was released, in which you can find guides to more than 100 cities around the world.
All this happened against the background of the re-sale of the company: in 2013, the rights to Lonely Planet were transferred again - now to NC2 Media, which belongs to Kentucky entrepreneur Brad Kelly. It is Kelly and his company who are the owners of the project now.
Lonely Planet has become a guide to the world of travel for thousands and millions of people, but the guidebooks even managed to influence the geopolitical situation. Tony, in an interview, recalled a story from Ethiopia during the civil war. The British journalist was with the rebels who were supposed to capture the city. At some point, the rebels did not know where to move next or where the government buildings were, so they simply borrowed a Lonely Planet guidebook with maps of the country from a journalist and used it to successfully solve the problem.
Tony admitted in an interview that the guide to the USSR was a failure. The reason, by the way, is prosaic: it came out at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. “We spent more time and money than we expected, and as soon as we released, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.”
Cover of a guide to the USSR
Piracy has also had a major impact on LPs, especially in Southeast Asia. “They got faster and faster, within a week of the release of our next book, pirated copies were flooding Vietnam. Our publication was the fifth in a row, and the pirates printed “6th edition” on the cover and inserted all the text from our fifth edition there. This allowed them to mislead customers."
On May 30, a press conference was held at the RIA Novosti multimedia press center dedicated to the entry of the cult Lonely Planet guidebooks into the Russian market.
The founder of the brand, the man who changed ideas about independent tourism, traveler and writer Tony Wheeler, came to Moscow especially for the launch of the project.
The press conference was opened by the editorial director of the Eksmo publishing house, Evgeniy Kapyev, who emphasized that Lonely Planet is not just guidebooks. This is one of the most authoritative travel brands in the world, uniting a wide variety of media products - from television shows to the largest online community: “We are proud that Russia is among the countries where Lonely Planet guidebooks will be published in translated versions. Negotiations on Lonely Planet’s entry into the Russian market lasted for five years, and I am glad that they were crowned with success.”
Tony Wheeler himself told an interesting story about how the history of the brand began, how he was able to fulfill the dream of millions of people and turn his passion into a source of income: “In 1972, my wife and I lived in England and, before settling in one place, we decided to take a vacation for a year, go on a trip to see the world. We were young and had virtually no money. After purchasing a used car, we decided to drive as far East as we could.
We crossed Holland, Turkey, Iran, reached Afghanistan, sold the car there and continued the journey. Through India we went further to the East. We hitchhiked to Singapore and crossed Indonesia. By the time we reached Australia, our journey had already lasted 6 months. And we decided to settle in Sydney for a year. During that period, many people asked us questions about how to organize such a trip, were interested in our experience, found out how we were able to cross Asia with practically no money, and asked for advice on some practical things.
Tired of answering endless questions, we decided to write a guide. My wife was 22 years old at the time, I was 25 years old. So we wrote mainly for young people like us. We dreamed that people would travel and strive to see the world. This is how the story of Lonely Planet began."
For over 40 years, Lonely Planet travel guides have helped millions of people travel the world freely and independently. And now Russians will be able to appreciate Lonely Planet. Sales of guidebooks in Russian will begin on June 1. In 2012, 15 books are planned to be published. Guides to Spain, Croatia, Ukraine, France, London, China and Eastern Europe will be released soon.
Website especially for readers
Tony gave some advice to readers of the site. to the question, where a woman can safely go on vacation, even if she is going on vacation alone, the writer replied: “A woman can go anywhere if she is “crazy” enough for this and if the spirit of adventure is strong in her. A few years ago I went to Saudi Arabia. It is common knowledge that this country has very strict laws regarding the appearance and behavior of women. They must wear special clothes, be hidden from head to toe from male gaze, not drive a car, and so on. At that time, we were just making an addition to the Lonely Planet guide to Central Asia, which included Dubai, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and many other places.
And one of our authors said that she wanted to write about Saudi Arabia. We were surprised and tried to dissuade her, arguing that it is extremely difficult for a woman to travel around Saudi Arabia alone, and the author of Lonely Planet should travel the length and breadth of the country and visit all the most interesting places, even if they are difficult to get to. But she assured us that she could do it, and she did it! Events unfolded like in a fairy tale. Miraculously, she met a certain Arab prince, and he helped her obtain a visa and organize the entire trip. She traveled all over the country and wrote an excellent guidebook. Yes, I think a woman can do whatever she wants."
He also named Places you should definitely show your child before he becomes a teenager: “If you name any specific places, you can’t help but mention Disneyland, which millions of children around the world dream of visiting. You can also have a very interesting time in Africa. There you can show your children wild animals sitting not in zoo cages, but at arm's length.
You can go to Africa, Europe or America. There are so many interesting places in the world. The main thing is to clearly define the goals of the trip and ensure that they meet the interests of all family members. If you go to the Louvre today, don’t forget to stop by Disneyland tomorrow.”
