Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of the famous Lonely Planet publishing house, received the thirteenth UNWTO Lifetime Achievement Prize. This prize is awarded each year to personalities who have given a decisive impetus and made a major contribution to the global tourism sector.
Lonely Planet has been a great source of inspiration all over the world for travelers, writers and the tourism sector in general, and is the main reason why the Wheelers were awarded the UNWTO Lifetime Achievement Award.
The couple founded Lonely Planet Editions in 1972, after a trip to Asia. Over the past 40 years, their guides have sold more than 100 million copies, in English and other languages. Lonely Planet has also made inroads into many other branches of the travel world, including a television series and an award-winning travel website.
Beyond the Lonely Planet editions, the action of Tony and Maureen has taken on yet another dimension within the framework of the Planet Wheeler foundation. It currently supports more than 50 projects in developing countries, mainly in South-East Asia and East Africa, which focus on poverty reduction.
There is, in addition, a Tony & Maureen Wheeler Chair of Entrepreneurship at the London Business School which is dedicated to entrepreneurship in developing countries. The establishment in Melbourne (Australia) of the Wheeler Center for Books, Writing & Ideas played an essential role in the recognition of Melbourne as a “UNESCO City of Literature”. Maureen is Chair of the annual Melbourne Arts Festival and was the principal patron of Opera Australia’s performance of Wagner’s Tetralogy in Melbourne in 2013 and 2016. Tony is Director of the Global Heritage Fund, which works to protect and enhance archaeological sites in developing countries.
For Tony and Maureen Wheeler, traveling is about more than seeing new places; it’s also about introducing others to little-known stories and carrying values
