The travel industry likes to tout itself as one of the largest industries in the world and talk up how it contributes to the world economy. Travel honchos from all over, who were in the capital recently to celebrate their industry, all pontificated on the 'needs' of the traveller. However, in the maddening crowd of hotel operators, airline bosses and cruise ship owners, you might have lost Judy Slatyer. She is the CEO of a company that produces 'The Bible' for travellers-Lonely Planet.

"I was honestly surprised at how many people came up to me at the conference and thanked Lonely Planet for producing such helpful guides," Slatyer says. With over 497 titles in 16 languages, 400 employees and 300 freelance travel writers (only around 170-180 writers work at any given point in time), Lonely Planet is the world's largest independent travel publisher, and sold over 6,500,000 guides last year in over 200 countries. "We are possibly one of the smallest global companies out there, but make no mistake, we are a global company," Slatyer proudly states.

The New York Times described Lonely Planet as "the trusted companion for a generation of independent travellers". Trusted companion yes, this writer can testify to that, because when in Italy, Lonely Planet was my companion through thick and thin. Accents, that is. But now Lonely Planet is becoming the trusted companion and guide for a second generation of travellers, as guides, also on TV and now even on the internet.

But first, a history lesson. Lonely Planet was started by accident, when founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler completed an overland journey from London through Asia and on to Australia. Their travel notes, which were distributed first among friends, were eventually published in the first ever Lonely Planet guide, Across Asia on the Cheap, way back in 1973.

But why Lonely Planet, the name? "The story goes that Tony was singing Joe Cocker's Lovely Planet when Maureen was trying to come up with a name, and from lovely they made it lonely. And that's how they got the name," Slatyer jokes, while sitting on the stairs of the Obelisk at Coronation Memorial on Delhi's outskirts.

Coronation Memorial is, literally, the back of beyond, even in Delhi. Located off Burari Chowk on National Highway 1, the site has the old statue of Emperor George V, which used to be inside the canopy at India Gate, celebrating the regent's 1911 visit to India. It is a place that even most auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers are not aware of, but for tourists who want to see the old vestiges of the Raj it is a must-see. And the Lonely Planet guide has a mention, unlike many other tourist guides of the city (but not all).

"We do not aim to be everything to everybody, and we try to be as quirky and offbeat as possible; you really do not know how effective a guide is until you use it. And the feedback we get is surprisingly positive," says Slatyer. But interestingly, her biggest challenge nowadays is to cope with the changing demographics of its readership. "That is why we are doing a concerted effort with our online publishing. Our authors have their own blogs (weblogs) that travellers can read, and we are also making our guides customisable so that people can download only the parts they need. We are also coming out with new shoestring guides and have expanded into food guides and trekking guides."

The scene moved from the remnants of the British Empire to the first major work of Mughal architecture in India-Humayun's Tomb near Delhi's posh Nizamuddin Enclave. Dating from the 16th century, it was the first Mughal monument to use red sandstone and marble in quantity. Many say it was also the template that Shah Jahan followed when he had the Taj Mahal constructed.

So what does it take to be an author for Lonely Planet? "A love of travel, I guess," says Slatyer. "But, the beauty of Lonely Planet is that we constantly update our writers; new blood means new perspectives. And doing that is the job of the commissioning editor. And new writers are helped along by more experienced hands till they get the hang of things." Writers constantly get shuffled around on new projects, and get sent off to interesting places. "We have just commissioned a book on Afghanistan," says Slatyer.

But Afghanistan, who on earth would want to go there?

Elaborates Slatyer: "Well there are a lot of aid workers there, and though most of our titles are profitable, there is cross-subsidy sometimes. In case a country guide would be too narrow, we sometimes have regional guides like for 'Central Asia', but increasingly there is a demand for more destination guides and theme guides. Possibly the only country that is not covered by a Lonely Planet guide right now is Iraq, and that is not because there is no travel potential there. I believe someone has already started package tours to Iraq, but it is too dangerous to send one of our authors there right now."

And then there is TV. Lonely Planet's quirky take on travel makes for interesting TV viewing. "Travelling is a lot more than the hotels and fancy parts of town. Which is why package tours are such a waste. You have to go out there, meet people, eat their food to soak in the culture," she points out.

But now, even Lonely Planet has been bitten by the 'Reality TV' bug. "We are currently doing a destination series based on the concept of Six Degrees, so our intrepid traveller will go to a town, meet one person and will move on from there. We recently did such a show about Mumbai and came out great. What is wonderful about this is that you get to learn about a town from the locals. And the other concept show would be to take someone from his cushy city-slicker job and plant them in some corner of the planet for a few months, which is what we are toying with."

So what is the biggest problem for Lonely Planet authors? Surprisingly, Slatyer thinks it is not stinky toilets, money-grabbing taxi drivers or secret police, but over-helpful folks. "Directions are the single biggest challenge, authors can get six different directions to the same place and that is where their knowledge and expertise come in trying to finally get to where they want to go to."

Lonely Planet was also hit by the incidents of 9/11, but now Slatyer believes that the travel industry has rebounded. And where are people travelling to nowadays? "Currently, our bestselling guides are for New Zealand and Australia. But India and China are always in the top 10. And an indicator of our success is that we hardly spend any money on marketing," Slatyer says while we head back. In fact, the last major marketing drive the company had was co-branding with movie theatres in the US for the release of the Che Guevara inspired Motorcycle Diaries.

This is the Bible for the traveller, for just about every part of the world.

Except Iraq, at least for now.