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As a child he collected stamps from all over the planet and enjoyed asking for Christmas or his birthday globes from which to track unusual incones. His father also worked in the airline sector, so his childhood was spent jumping from the Bahamas to Pakistan or Canada. Of course, he never spent more than two years in the same place. All unequivocal signs that the trips would mark the days of Tony Wheeler (United Kingdom, 1946), an engineer by training and founder, together with his wife, Maureen, of the most famous guides in the world, those of Lonely Planet, which currently total 150 million copies, of which 7.5 are in Spanish.

The first, Across Asia on the cheap, would see the light in 1973, just now 50 years ago. It was the result of a hippie journey of the couple that began in England and ended in Australia 18 months later with just 27 cents in their pocket. Today, at 77 years old and after selling the publishing house in 2011 -although he continues to collaborate with it-, the British remembers that "wonderful adventure" and all those that would come later -including his idyll with Extremadura- from a hotel in Madrid's Gran Vía. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of its offspring, which come with a new format, more field research and more images.

Wheeler and his wife, Maureen, in Asia.

Question. What has changed since that decade of the 70s when it comes to traveling the world?

Answer. A lot and, at the same time, very little because the illusion of discovering new places remains the same. However, now we are more informed and everything is easier thanks to the Internet: booking hotels, flights... Destinations have also changed. 50 years ago, nobody could go to China and now nobody wants to go to Russia, for example. In my case, the economic level is also different, of course. On that first trip I went camping and we managed to eat cheap. On the other hand, to come from London to Madrid I paid a little more to go in Business, something I would never have done before for such a short flight, but they offered it to me for a very cheap price and I accepted.

Q.- Does the guide you use for your travels define your way of being?

A.- Yes, I like those that give useful, independent, different and above all honest information, such as Lonely Planet. It is fundamental.

The businessman at the Iberostar Las Letras Gran Vía hotel.

Q.- And will they continue to be published on paper with so much information available on the Internet?

A.- Both supports are combined. Each has its role. The guide enters more into the culture of the place because the person who has written it is an expert; He is someone reliable. On the Internet many times you do not know where the information comes from. In Lonely Planet there are also real gems, like this guide [points to one of El Mundo in general that holds in your hands as if it were gold in cloth]. It is a collector's item; to have it on your shelf as a reference of the places you would like to go at some point in your life. It is a temptation.

Q.- The Lonely Planet is a bible for globetrotters, but its name is the result of a mistake, isn't it?

A.- Yes, when we were looking for names, I heard a song by Joe Cocker (Space Captain) that said lonely planet and I liked it. But I got it wrong, it was lovely planet, as my wife corrected, but that's how it stayed...

The businessman and his wife, when they were young.

Q.- Have any of the guides marked a before and after in your life?

A.- Yes, apart from the first one, which was the beginning of this adventure, we published a very complete one from India in 1981, since until then we had only made small guides, since we did not have a budget for more ambitious projects. So, we decided to bet on this country, which had not yet been explored enough. We did a good job, the success was enormous and we got the company to multiply its size.

Q.- You haven't stopped moving around the planet since you were a child, but which trip has impressed you the most?

A.-The first through Asia from the UK to Australia, of course, and in 2017 we went the other way around, driving from Bangkok to London for four months. I also remember another one I did with Maureen 10 years ago touring Africa in an old plane. We visited Namibia, South Africa, Mali, Angola, Gabon... These are countries that are difficult to reach. Every day we discovered something new and it was great.

Q.- What fate do you have pending?

A.- The Camino de Santiago. It's my dream. I hike, I've climbed Annapurna... I am missing the Way.

Several Lonely Planet guides.

Q.- And of all Spain, what other place would you stay?

A.- The first time we were here we rented a car and toured the country from Barcelona. I loved Extremadura! I remember the architecture of their cities and I thought it was an incredible place.

A NEW (BETTER) WAY TO TRAVEL AFTER THE PANDEMIC

Not everything the coronavirus brought was going to be negative. There are things that have changed for the better and one of them is the way of traveling. "We move differently. Now we take more of the train than the plane because of the environmental impact and we make seven-day trips instead of a weekend," says Wheeler. We also look at places nearby, around us, "that we didn't appreciate before." This translates, in his opinion, into a greater concern for sustainability, as he points out in his latest book, In Defense of Travel. "We learn more about destinations; There is more social and ecological awareness. We have educated ourselves in that sense and excessive tourism is no longer an option."

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