The original Lonely Planet guidebooks need neither introduction nor review. For any small-scale tour or out-of-the-way ecolodge, a mention in the relevant regional or country volume is a guarantee of business, the earthly equivalent of a listing in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This, however, is not a guide-book. Its editors hope that it will be ‘the start of something big, new and different’ (p. 7). Whether in travel or publishing, they do not say. Does Lonely Planet have sufficient market influence to affect global travel fashions? It’s not impossible. Or is it just a way to recycle text into a more rapidly-obsolescing format?