Lonely Planet helps search for readers in Asia

SYDNEY - After years of helping readers lose themselves in remote and far-flung parts of the world, travel publisher Lonely Planet is now trying to find them amid the tens of thousands dead or missing in tsunami-hit countries.

Tapping into its cyber-savvy clientele, many of whom keep computerised diaries of their travels, Lonely Planet established an electronic lost-and-found message board on its Thorn Tree website link within hours of the disaster.

"It became pretty clear to us on the first day that the biggest need was for information on missing persons," Lonely Planet chief executive Judy Slater said from the company's Melbourne headquarters.

"We've had over 500 missing persons' postings describing those that are missing," Slater said.

The British-based publishers of the Rough Guide series of guide books, which followed in the wake of Lonely Planet, said they too planned to use their website to help.

"From tomorrow, there'll be information for people still planning to travel to the area as well as consular addresses," a spokeswoman for the publishers said.

"People are also welcome to use the talk boards on the site to contact one another."

About 150,000 people have died and millions have been left homeless or displaced by the December 26 tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9 quake off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Word of about 185 people who had been found also are posted on the Lonely Planet message board, the first place legions of readers flocked to in the hours and days after the disaster.

"We've had double the normal traffic, it has just taken off," Slater said.

The Rough Guide team produces books on most of the countries affected including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Lonely Planet sells 5.5 million copies of its books each year in English alone, many of the titles detailing out-of-the-way spots in some of the most devastated areas across South Asia.

"We feel a very great connection with the people and the communities impacted and with the travellers that go there," Slater said.

The messages see-saw with simple clarity from pleas for any kernel of information on the fate of a son or daughter to relief at discovering a loved one had survived.

"Please let us know if you have heard of our Canadian firend (sic), Tracy her husband, and baby who were working in a Thailand resort area. She has not answered emails since the tsunami. She attended school with my daughter, Lara," one note said.

Another, which told of finding two Irish friends safe, simply said, "Our prayers worked."

"For us it was a natural thing to use the Thorn Tree to post information on the Tsunami," Slater said.

"The people we communicate with seem to find a way to get on-line in amazing circumstances. It's like the internet is their lifeblood," Slater said.

Mirrored in some part by the characters in Alex Garland's novel, The Beach, and later the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, where legions of young men and women from Europe and North America traipse around Asia incommunicado seeking alternatives to well-worn tourist spots, Lonely Planet has fostered a loyal following over three decades by appealing to the intrepid, mostly youthful, traveller.

Lonely Planet's army of authors -- there are about three hundred -- can be gone for months writing and updating the 600-plus guide books, which readers are simply encouraged to use "any way you want."

"We'll be updating the books and what it means to travel in the affected regions now," Slater says.

"We are going to have authors and staff crying out to do it."

- REUTERS