WANDERLUST is a landmark contemporary history feature
documentary chronicling the genesis, meteoric rise and global
impact of Australian guidebook publisher Lonely Planet over
three seismic decades – from the early 1970s to the turn of the
millennium. In an age before smartphones, apps and curated
feeds, Lonely Planet was a countercultural bible, an inspirational
global brand, a passport to adventure and a trusted source
of information. Its guidebooks defined travel for an entire
generation.
With unparalleled access to Lonely Planet founder Tony
Wheeler and a legion of Lonely Planet authors and travellers,
WANDERLUST tells how a maverick guidebook publisher, run on
the smell of an oily rag, changed Australia and sparked a global
travel revolution by persuading us all that travel was not just a
hedonistic lark but a force for good that could bind the world
closer together. Was Lonely Planet a passport to the greatest
experiences of our lives? A hippy-dippy utopian boomer cult?
Or a very tart fable about the creative and destructive forces
unleashed by globalisation?