The Truth About Lonely Planet

Scott writing in Zanzibar

I’m not the only Lonely Planet author that has a travel blog – actually there are lots of us out there. On any given day fellow scribes will be spouting stories of travel from every corner of the globe. Japan, India, America and even humble old New Zealand all get their fare share of coverage. Most of the time the subject matter covers an equally large scope – everything under the sun gets a look in. in the past few days there has been a certain unifying topic of discussion that has caused nearly all of us to make comment.

Yesterday I was at the dentist – not the most pleasant experience at the best of times – especially when the dentist asks you the question you hope to never have to answer, “do you think you can handle me drilling this filling without freezing?” how the hell is one supposed to answer that one? But anyway I digress. While I was lying prone, mouth gapping my dentist casually mentioned that he’d, “heard on the news that some Lonely Planet author has admitted plagiarising, drug dealing, and not even visiting the country he was researching.” I was half expecting this, it’s been on the news, it’s been everywhere on the web, I just wasn’t expecting it while some guy has his fingers in my mouth.

A former Lonely Planet author (most definitely former now) named Thomas Kohnstamm has just written a book called, “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?” in it he talks about his escapades on the road where he violated every written, unwritten and ethical rule that we have as Lonely Plant authors. He took bribes, plagiarised work, abused his power and got up to all sorts of other nonsense. He’s obviously not to keen on travel writing in the future as he’s told the world of his ‘exploits’ and has named names – mainly Lonely Planet. He says that the company didn’t pay him enough, didn’t love him enough and blames them for a whole host of other things – apparently, I haven’t read the book. Neither have many other people, it hasn’t hit the streets yet, but the speculation and out of context quotes are piling up thick and fast.

What’s my take? What do I think about this guy and his new tell-all book? Well as I said to my dentist, “aghhhaura ara, uar, gna” ok all kidding aside. I don’t know this guy, he’s been out of the system, for a while so I’ve never crossed paths with him personally. He did work on the previous edition to the Caribbean that I just recently worked on – I spent my days reading his words and going to many of the same places that he researched. And as much as I’d like to say a very theatrical, AHHH HA!” his work was up to scratch, he’d been to these places and as best I could tell didn’t take a bribe from anybody along the way.

What do I think about this new book, the book that you have likely heard about in the news? Well I think the foolish actions of one author are being used in an attempt to tar the lot of us with the same brush. I’m pissed off that he’s written this book, I’m pissed off that he is hurting my reputation and the reputation of my colleagues. I’m pissed off that the media is running with the story and attempting to discredit LP. I’m pissed off that by the time the truth comes out that this is one isolated incident (if it even turns out to be an ‘incident’) that the damage will already be done.

LP authors are the best travel writers in the world - the work that my co-writers do is outstanding, the effort that goes into making a guidebook is enormous and to have that reputation tarnished by one unscrupulous bitter, ex-author is sad. I feel sad for my workmates who now have to be questioned about our integrity, credibility and honesty. Sad that I have to spend time writing this blog and asserting the quality of a trusted brand that has been defaced. Sad that this ‘tell-all’ book is getting as much press as it is and I’m sad that travelers are second guessing guidebooks that they’ve trusted for years.

Does this author represent LP authors as a whole? No. Does he represent me? No. Does he represent the culture at Lonely Planet? No. should you pay attention to his shameless bit of self promotion? No.

Every industry has a few bad apples and to continue the colloquial proverb, don’t toss the baby out with this bath water. As a company we’ve tipped a bit of chlorine in the gene pool and the future is looking good.
Cheers,
~Scott