Lonely Planet caught in plagiarism scandal

Popular travel guidebook giant Lonely Planet has suffered a severe blow to its credibility, with one of its authors admitting to plagiarizing and making up huge sections of his books, an Australian newspaper reported yesterday.

Author Thomas Kohnstamm told Australian newspaper Sunday Telegraph newspaper he had worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including their titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, South America, Venezuela and Chile.

The Lonely Planet guidebooks sell more than six million copies a year.