diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b1141bc..b63b036 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ addons:
 before_install:
   - sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable -y
   - sudo apt-get -qq update
-  - sudo apt-get install -qq build-essential python3-dev python3-setuptools
-  - sudo apt-get install -y libsqlite3-mod-spatialite pandoc devscripts
+  - sudo apt-get install -qq build-essential python3-dev python3-setuptools python-all python3-all python-setuptools
+  - sudo apt-get install -y libsqlite3-mod-spatialite devscripts fakeroot debhelper
   - sudo apt-get install -y postgresql-9.6-postgis-2.4
   - sudo apt-get install -y libgdal-dev gdal-bin
 
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ install:
   - pip3 install -r requirements-provider.txt
   - python3 setup.py install
 
-
 before_script:
   - sleep 20
   - python3 tests/load_es_data.py tests/data/ne_110m_populated_places_simple.geojson
@@ -49,9 +48,7 @@ script:
   - pytest --cov=pygeoapi
   - make -C ./docs html
   - find . -type f -name "*.py" | xargs flake8
-  - python3 setup.py --long-description | rst2html5.py
-
 
 after_success:
   - python3 setup.py sdist bdist_wheel --universal
-  - debuild -b -uc -us
+  - sudo debuild -b -uc -us
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 84dec02..08f88e7 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -13,13 +13,12 @@ flake8
 # packaging/PyPI
 twine
 wheel
-docutils
-pypandoc
+
 # the packages below are used to handle HTTP/SSL
 # errors when uploading to PyPI (https://github.com/pypa/twine/issues/273)
 pyOpenSSL
 ndg-httpsclient
 pyasn1
 
-#Read the docs
+# Read the docs
 sphinx_rtd_theme
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 3588dcc..30c71fd 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -127,12 +127,7 @@ def get_package_version():
     raise RuntimeError("Unable to find version string.")
 
 
-try:
-    import pypandoc
-    LONG_DESCRIPTION = pypandoc.convert('README.md', 'rst')
-except(IOError, ImportError, OSError):
-    print('Conversion to rST failed.  Using default (will look weird on PyPI)')
-    LONG_DESCRIPTION = read('README.md')
+LONG_DESCRIPTION = read('README.md')
 
 DESCRIPTION = 'pygeoapi provides an API to geospatial data'
 
@@ -144,6 +139,7 @@ setup(
     version=get_package_version(),
     description=DESCRIPTION.strip(),
     long_description=LONG_DESCRIPTION,
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
     license='MIT',
     platforms='all',
     keywords=' '.join([