Simon Calder, of the UK’s Independent recently interviewed the founders of Lonely Planet and posted the results as a podcast. Love them for freeing independent travelers with their wealth of information, or hate them for making everywhere accessible to the backpacking masses, the Lonely Planet guides have undeniably remapped the face of travel in the 30-odd years since they debuted. Writing to finance a traveling habit while they had full time jobs, the Wheelers spent the first 10 years of Lonely Planet’s existence thinking of themselves as “travelers who published” rather than vice-versa. Today, they’re very positive about the changes brought by greater access to destinations through guidebooks and the internet. “I think one of the things about travel is that the more you travel, the more you find out about places you haven’t been to,” says Tony. “So the world doesn’t get smaller, it just keeps on getting larger. If you keep a list of places you want to go, after 10 years that list hasn’t shrunk, it’s just expanded.” Maureen downplays the magnitude of their influence, saying: “we didn’t invent the jumbo jet” and deflects Calder’s questions about whether it’s “all been done” with: “when I was 20 and started traveling, there were already people who said “oh, you should have gone to Bali ten years ago.” Plus ça change. (via Gadling)

– Tagged: Guidebooks
– Tagged: Podcast
– Tagged: Lonely Planet