In 1972, Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen were living in London, where they had just finished their studies. They decided to take a year off to travel around the world, with the intention of "getting travel out of our systems," Wheeler said. The journey that was intended to cure them of the travel bug did just the opposite. In late 1973, they launched Lonely Planet Productions, with Tony's first book, "Across Asia on the Cheap."