Irish Examiner view: Changing demands of the lonely planet

Travel and tourism is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

It is 50 years since Maureen and Tony Wheeler — she from Belfast, he from London — self-published a book called Across Asia on the Cheap, laying the foundation for one of the most remarkable enterprises of the past century.

Their first guide famously consisted of a print run of 1,500 stapled booklets with a pale blue cardboard cover but went on to become Lonely Planet, a subjective self-help book for independent travellers. It was produced after the Wheelers travelled overland to Australia via Europe, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore and put their advice notes down on paper while they worked in full-time jobs in Sydney.