Lonely Planet Travel Guides May Have Been Faked/Plagiarised
A sizable number of foreign tourists who visit Japan use travel guides produced by Lonely Planet, and I myself own a copy of their Japan guide. However, a former Lonely Planet writer’s new book has revealed shocking information that raises questions about the value of such brand name guidebooks:
In one case, he said he had not even visited the country he wrote about.
“They didn’t pay me enough to go Colombia,” he said.
“I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating – an intern in the Colombian Consulate.
“They don’t pay enough for what they expect the authors to do.”
An email to management, posted on the company’s authors’ forum, describes Mr Kohnstamm’s book as “a car crash waiting to happen”.
“Why did you (management) not understand that when you hire a constant stream of new, unvetted people, pay them poorly and set them loose, that someone, somehow was going to screw you?” author Jeanne Oliver wrote.
Ms Oliver, an experienced travel writer having written for Lonely Planet on eastern Europe, France, Germany and Greece, admitted to sending the email, but did not wish to comment further.
Other writers believe some practices described in the book are widespread. Lonely Planet forbids their authors from accepting gifts or discounts.
Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism will go on sale April 22nd.
