From the hippie trail to making the world a better place
THE man who brought backpacking to the masses is now banking on business to make the world a better place.
Together with his wife Maureen, Tony Wheeler, founder of the iconic Lonely Planet travel guide, has set aside £10 million (R177m) to educate a new generation of leaders to lend their business skills to development issues.
“If you’re pushing entrepreneurship, it’s the developing world where we would particularly like to see it happening,” he said of his financial support for the Wheeler Institute of Business and Development at the London Business School.
It’s worlds away from the hippie trail that made Wheeler’s name but it is driven by the same passion for far-flung places.
Since he first hit the road in 1972, Wheeler has visited at least 170 countries – Nepal is his most visited, Iraq is where he felt most uneasy – and has seen myriad changes down the decades.
“People are most aware of inequalities now.
“What’s it all about in the end?
“It’s about business and jobs and work and if we can do that in a good way it’s a good thing,” Wheeler said.
The Wheeler Institute wants students to use their nascent boardroom skills in poorer countries, with an eye on creating jobs and growing businesses with a positive social impact.
Guest speakers from government and development agencies explained the concrete difference which students can make.
They can go out in the field and apply their new skills on real businesses.
Conscience
Aside from backing business with a conscience, Wheeler said he wanted to give back to his alma mater where he studied for free, in contrast to the steep debt run up by today’s students.
After graduating in 1972, he headed overland to Melbourne in Australia, which resulted in a first intriguing travel book, Across Asia on the Cheap.
Lonely Planet was born, offering advice on budget travel, and grew into the world’s biggest guide book publisher.
Touted by travellers across the globe, Lonely Planet has printed more than 100 million books in nine languages, mapping out tourist trails from Austria to Antarctica.
In 2007, the Wheelers sold Lonely Planet to the BBC and by his own reckoning, his net worth is now “over $100m”.
Wheeler said he planned to fund the institute for three years and assess its impact before committing further. – Reuters