VOICE OF LUXURY
VOICE LUXURY
Ů Saint Barthélemy
Costa Rica
in Asia, Australasia, Africa, the US and Canada. They’re smaller destinations for us, so we’ve put a lot of work in to developing them and that’s starting to pay off. In terms of new destinations this year, we’ve launched Japan, Rwanda, Costa Rica, Kenya, Tanzania and Corfu.
Q. What initiatives do you have in place to deal with the effects of Brexit? We’re adding a lot more value to what we do so we’ve done a lot of work on tactical offers this year to stimulate the market and be more competitive. We’ve been contracting lots of value-added offers – usually a minimum of three for all of our preferred properties, so you’re getting things like room upgrades and free meals. The luxury segment is always a lot more stable because there’s money, but people aren’t silly and they want the deal and value.
Q. You bought agency Travel by Design earlier this year. What effect has this had on the business and can we expect further acquisitions in the future? It’s doing pretty well. We didn’t keep the shop, so it’s run from [Elegant’s head office in] Chester. We’ve been doing a lot of
activity with the client database and events around Alderley Edge [where the shop was based] to engage with them. We always knew we wouldn’t be able to keep all of the customers because we’re not in the village anymore, but lots of customers have booked again. It’s also given us a retail brand that existing customers can book through – if they wanted to book a Kirker holiday or an escorted tour, we can do it through Travel by Design. We don’t have a big strategy to buy more – possibly [we might] if opportunities come up – but Travel by Design was just an opportunity. Kristina and Irene [Hulme] were retiring and they wanted to put their business in good hands so it’s important we do them proud.
Q. What does the word luxury mean to you? It’s about a seamless service where customers don’t even have to think. But it’s the personalisation that makes it stand out, which is really understanding the client, what they love and any particular things they really enjoy. It’s the exclusive access, using guides that will get them to places they can’t normally get to, and adding value. They don’t want to feel part of the masses; they want to feel like it’s an exclusive experience.
96 ASPIRE SEPTEMBER 2019
aspiretravelclub.co.uk
CREDITS: SHUTTERSTOCK
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