I’ve been using Lonely Planet for over 30 years to help me plan my travels.  In the 80’s it was the “Shoestring” guidebooks, in the 90’s their first online Thorntree was born and now into the 2000’s they have streamlined the once heavy guidebooks into downloadable pages and have a great little weekly newsletter that I subscribe to.   I am really pleased to see them address eco-tourism and how to go about it in a responsible manner.  This is something I talk about often but I have no where near the reach Lonely Planet does!

Birdwatchers and other species of traveller with a passion for watching wildlife are a breed apart. Millions of them migrate across the globe every year in the hope of a sighting, spending serious money as they go.

The thrill of seeing an animal, however fleetingly, in its natural habitat has turned wildlife tourism into a multi-billion dollar division of the travel industry.