Britain's independent travel magazine celebrates 10 years

How annoying: your long-haul flight has taken off, but you discover that the cut-price airline you have chosen offers no inflight entertainment. Do you get unsuitably drunk, try fitfully to sleep – or dream up a new travel magazine?

That was the choice facing Lyn Hughes and Paul Morrison when they found themselves in a fun-free zone aboard a flight to South America. The couple were taking a career break from their jobs in consultancy. "We were earning lots of money," says Ms Hughes, "so we could take time out whenever we wanted. We decided to take the winter off."

They read the inflight magazine from cover to cover, and were unimpressed. "We got talking about why weren't there any travel magazines, and what would make a good one." On the back of a sick bag, they sketched out the sort of magazine they would like to read. "By the time we got off the flight we had come up with the name for it: Wanderlust." Ten years on, the magazine has become established as essential reading for the independent traveller.

In South America, they invested in an exercise book. "Whenever we had a free moment we'd sit around over a beer, plotting and planning. The magazine we have today, 10 years later, is the same magazine we planned on that plane."

The senior staff are identical, too. Ms Hughes, with no journalistic experience, was designated editor. The commercial challenge of getting from a school exercise book to a glossy magazine fell to Paul Morrison, who became the publisher.

"We bought an Apple Mac and put it in the spare bedroom. We didn't really know anything about publishing, so we picked other people's brains. The naivety with which we began the enterprise was an asset – if we'd known what we were letting ourselves in for, we probably wouldn't have done it."

Almost every magazine depends heavily on advertising; Mr Morrison was faced with the problem of persuading travel firms to buy space in a magazine that was an unknown quantity. "There were a lot of people who were themselves working in spare bedrooms, selling specialist trips to the Galapagos Islands or India. They didn't have a high-street presence, and they wanted to find the kind of traveller that we ourselves were, and so we presented them with an opportunity."

Meanwhile, Lyn Hughes had an easier job finding writers. "To my astonishment, as soon as we got back to the UK and started to tell one or two people that we were gonna start up a travel magazine called Wanderlust, writers tracked us down. We were getting inundated with people who wanted to write for us, even though we couldn't afford to pay a lot. To this day we get flooded with articles."

The first edition set the tone for the magazine: a mix of sharp writing about adventurous and familiar destinations, supported by dazzling images and mixed with news, reviews and advice for independent travellers.

Finding a printer was a matter of bluff. "They thought we knew what we were talking about," says Mr Morrison, "so they gave us a good rate. We printed 5,000 copies."

They sold out; the print run for the second edition, two months later, was 6,000. The next rose to 7,000. "We had no real business plan beyond getting the first issue out, we just hoped there would be a market. It has just kept growing ever since." If that sounds easy, the stresses that lay behind it were not. "During the first few issues of the magazine, to hit the press deadlines I worked through the night," says Mr Morrison.

When Wanderlust began, it had the travel magazine market more or less to itself. Soon Condé Nast Traveller appeared, and it has now been joined by other glossies such as 360 magazine and Travelspirit. But Ms Hughes welcomes the competition. "We've been surprised that it's taken so long for other travel magazines to come along. It's a bit like men's magazines: 10 or 15 years ago, people used to say there was no market for them."

Several travel magazines, specialising in anything from islands to discount travel, have failed quickly. How has Wanderlust made it to 60 issues? "With any magazine, you have got to be very clear about what kind of travel you are talking about," says Mr Morrison. "And know your consumer."

Three out of five Wanderlust readers are female, and the magazine has more readers over 65 than under 25. These days, says Mr Morrison, "People are not going to retire to their little villa in the Algarve or in Bournemouth. They are looking to go trekking the Himalayas."

"What Wanderlust readers have in common is that they are always planning their next trip," says Lyn Hughes. "Travel is the big love of their life."

'Wanderlust' magazine appears six times each year. It is available from WH Smith, travel bookshops or on subscription from PO Box 1832, Windsor, Berks SL4 6YP (01753 620426, www.wanderlust.co.uk)