Being fluent in 10 languages isn’t essential when working for Hilton Hotels, but it certainly helps! Meet Philippe Garnier, a French national, Philippe joined Hilton Worldwide in 2003 and has been instrumental in developing its brands, including Conrad and Waldorf Astoria, throughout Asia Pacific and the rest of world.

Prior to joining Hilton Worldwide, Philippe held a number of senior consulting roles with companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG Consulting. Currently VP Global Luxury Sales based in the US, Philippe is married with three children. Here’s what Philippe had to say about the current luxury travel landscape when we caught up with him…

“As recently as 2007 there was only one Waldorf Astoria in the world, in New York, and now we have more than 28, and more than 29 Conrad Hotels, so we really cover the globe from Europe to the Middle East to Americas to Asia Pacific.

10% of world GDP is travel. Among the wealthiest citizens of the world, there has been a huge shift over the last few years from buying ‘stuff’ towards experiencing and creating memories with families and loved ones – and this is where travel has an amazing part to play.

Ignorance breeds conflict and, by contrast, travelling to a certain part of the world gives you a better understanding of what’s going on. Having a more personal connection at our hotels with the people who work there will give you a bit of an insight as to what is going on in a particular country. You will soon make your own judgement about that country’s politics, but you will have a connection at a human level and that is going to make you a world citizen.

The next big thing in travel is about personalisation. It’s not about gimmicks or Apps, it’s really about getting to the core of the reason the guest is staying at the luxury hotel and what they want to get out of it. The more the hotel knows about the guest and the reason for their stay, the more they are able to tailor the guests experience in a way that is really unobtrusive.

The travel sector is one of the largest employers and we do a lot to generate these vocations. We have a very successful programme in the US to hire veterans from the army. Maybe hospitality is not what they wanted as a profession, but, once someone starts, it is very compelling. The typical tenure that you have at one of our properties shows that there is something about this industry that is very attractive.

Travellers are extremely resilient. In my home country of France, despite recent terror attacks, 2017 has been a record year for tourism. There is a tremendous appetite for creating memories and experiences and for enriching ones culture by having encounters with people from different cultures and different backgrounds. In actual fact, back in the 1960’s one of our Founder’s underlying ideas was to open Hilton Hotels in all of the world capitals for precisely that reason.”

What a way to keep the world moving by truly loving and respecting the luxury travel industry.

Kurtz-Ahlers & Associates offer some of the most amazing experiences on earth. Working behind the scenes, their job is to connect select, often very boutique hotels and resorts – many in extremely remote corners of the world – with the very top private travel agents representing billionaires, A List celebrities, politicians and beyond.

JoAnn established the company in 2002, after two decades of experience at Ritz-Carlton. Here’s what JoAnn had to say about life as a leader in luxury travel when we caught up with her this week…

“I worked my way up through the ranks at Ritz-Carlton to become the first woman to ever reach the title of vice president of sales for the company. I oversaw business development worldwide, including new and existing properties in Dubai, Spain, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Once you have had a taste of working in such mystifying and enigmatic places it is hard to do anything else.

The best business decision I ever made was to open my own business. I really had no evidence that it would work out so I had to have that leap of faith. I loved my years working for companies but deciding to leave all the comfort and security of having a job and start my own business has been the best decision.

Travel is really the thing that opens everybody up. You can hear about an incident somewhere in the world and that whole place becomes that problem in your mind, yet when you go there; all of a sudden the beauty of the place, the people of the place, the culture, the history, the food – everything becomes one big tapestry and that one little incident dissolves.

The travel industry has a huge role to play in supporting local communities. We have an 8 bedroom villa in Boccas del Toros in Panama that supports 55 families. It’s the housekeepers, it’s the growing and getting of the food from the local community, it’s teaching the staff English, it’s teaching them about sustainability and what to do with plastic and garbage and it has had such an impact on that area. The impact on the whole community is bigger than almost anything.

Politics follows the money. When you look at certain destinations in the United States, let’s say Las Vegas; they have a $250m budget so they’ve taken it upon themselves, nobody waits for the government to come in and step in to fund and support, the destinations are aggressive and they see the value and they are promoting travel in their own way. I can see this happening more and more because everybody is travelling no matter what level of travel it is, people are travelling more than ever, so it can’t be ignored.

We will see space travel in our lifetime and I think that people are going to go more and more remote and continue to want to claim very unique experiences. I just got back from Mongolia and, though it’s not a new destination, a lot of people haven’t been there and it’s a beautiful country that’s wide open for tourism. You see people living as they have been living for thousands and thousands of years and the purity of the culture shakes you out of your own world reality. It gives you the space to get clarity and I think that is what people are seeking.

I travel about 75% of the time so I’m always moving. People say sometimes I’m going somewhere and my last night I’m just going to stay in the airport because I only have x amount of time, and I’m like why – you can sleep on the plane – don’t miss anything, just keep seeing whatever you can see and go whenever you can go. By being an example, I think people have taken trips they wouldn’t have taken because they were waiting for the perfect circumstance.”

How do you keep the world moving?

Philip Ho, Leading Hotels of the World’s Senior Vice President of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, has been a monumental force in shaping the standards of what is arguably the world’s leading collection of independent hotels.   

A Singapore native, Philip is particularly expert at understanding the rapidly changing demands of consumers across the Asia pacific region. Here’s what Philip had to say when we caught up with him this week…

“Travel helps people broaden their horizons by discovering new aspects of the world and different cultures. I value the opportunity to be a part of a traveller’s journey to deliver remarkable uncommon experiences, both at our properties and the destinations which they are found. Our collection of independent luxury hotels is rooted in their locales, offering guests the opportunity to be true travellers rather than just tourists. Being a part of a traveller’s journey is a privilege that The Leading Hotels of the World has enjoyed for nearly 90 years.

The demand for collecting experiences rather than material goods is an ongoing desire. Curious travellers want to take part in activities deeply rooted in a destination and experiences that they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. It can be as simple as experiencing a very local neighbourhood in a city where a traveller has historically stuck to the touristy path. At Leading Hotels, we recently developed a series of Destination Experience guides that uncover uncommon ways for guests to immerse themselves in well-known locations through our hoteliers’ deep, personal connections to their destinations.

From a jogging tour through the streets of Barcelona arranged by the Majestic Hotel & Spa Barcelona, to a private tour to meet with local artists at Dublin’s Design Tower curated by The Marker hotel, these guides offer a variety of experiential travel activities crafted by our knowledgeable hoteliers and recommendations from local artisans.

Sustainability is also fast becoming a critical component of all travel and there is certainly an opportunity to bring experiential and sustainable travel elements together. Many travellers appreciate knowing that they won’t be the last to see an untouched piece of nature, a relatively secluded town or remote island. At Leading Hotels, many of our properties combine both elements seamlessly, such as Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort in Costa Rica, Thanda Island in Tanzania, CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa in Anguilla, Hotel La Perla in Italy and Sonnenalp Hotel in Colorado.

What’s more, back in 2015, Leading Hotels welcomed Nihiwatu Resort to its collection. Located on the island of Sumba in Eastern Indonesia, Nihiwatu was developed with the intent to protect and preserve the unique culture of the island and to enable local residents to support themselves and their families. Through The Sumba Foundation, all profits from the resort are fed into various community-based projects, including access to clean water, four malaria clinics and malnutrition and school lunch programmes. The resort also employs ninety percent of its staff from the nearby villages.

I personally keep the world moving by doing what I love: discovering remarkably uncommon experiences at each of 375 Leading Hotels so that we can share them with our curious travellers and travel partners.

My top tip for a successful ILTM is listening. Listen to the needs of the travel advisors’ customers and then craft a remarkably uncommon travel experience that meets those needs.”

Find out why Leading Hotels of the World are joining us at ILTM Asia Pacific next year.

Lucy’s family roots in Asia go way back to 1876 when her great, great grandfather helped finance the expansion of colonial Hong Kong during his tenure as the Chairman of HSBC. Fast forward over 140 years and Lucy is a co-founder and director of Lightfoot Travel, one of Asia and the Middle East’s best loved tour operators. 

With offices in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, Lightfoot Travel are an inspiration to all of us. Acknowledged with numerous accolades, including most recently; Best Bespoke Travel Concierge Company as voted by Singapore Tatler, the business is known for its ultra personal approach and highly original itineraries.

When we first met Lucy at ILTM Asia, there was no doubt that she should be added to our Leaders with Substance interview series. Her viewpoint is representative of the kind of ultra modern luxury that is so central to the growth of the market in Hong Kong and we we were fascinated by what she had to say about the role of luxury travel today…

Moving to Asia 8 years ago to set up a tailor-made travel company was the best business decision I’ve ever made. There was no one designing tailor-made holidays with the global scope of product that Lightfoot Travel do today. To keep the world moving, we focus on looking forward, to new products to inspire our guests and increase travel possibilities from our regions.

Absolutely, luxury travel has a part to play in issues of sustainability and environmental impacts. The current climate has deepened the definition of luxury travel, making it much more multi-layered. It has pushed consumers and our discerning guests in particular away from conspicuous consumption, and this means expanding our partnerships with companies who promote sustainable travel, and making increasing inclusions of experiences that involve environmental awareness and social responsibility within our travel itineraries. For example, when arranging a trip we’ll include excursions where guests help within the local community (Nihiwatu in Sumba, Indonesia) or contribute towards animal protection (monitoring rhinos in South Africa).

Travel is important because it enlightens, educates, and transforms us. It has the power to expose us to new cultures, traditions, histories, and ways of life that we may never have contemplated before. Fuelling our curiosity in a way that nothing else can, it shows us love, humility, perspective, patience and acceptance. Ultimately, travel provides an existence that is ‘bigger than ourselves’.

Travel can challenge us in ways that we have never expected, and it can show us sides of ourselves that we didn’t know existed. It can provide opportunities for us to slow down and take a break from mental and physical habits, and it can push us further, showing us the importance of persistence and faith. It can change a person forever, and it can provide stories and memories – both good and bad – that remain with you for the rest of your life. How does it feel to be part of that? Incredible!

Despite global uncertainties people are travelling more. Certainly, due to the likes of Brexit and Trump, there is an element of people travelling while they can as they don’t know what is going to happen. It’s a very YOLO mind-set, which is of course driven by the millennial generation who have used this as a mantra to live life fearlessly. Indeed, we are seeing a growing number of affluent millennials who are now coming to an age where luxury travel is a viable option for them – and of course – they are taking it.

To meet Asia’s best tour operators, join us at ILTM Asia Pacific, in Singapore in May 2018.

For the past 35 years, while we all looked on in awe, our beautiful friend Valeriano Antonioli has been building a truly remarkable career in luxury.

Following in the footsteps of Ferragamo’s famous founder, Salvatore Ferragamo, the Lungarno Collection CEO returned to live and work in Florence following a stint in the US, where he was previously Managing Director of InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa‎, and General Manager of W Los Angeles-Westwood. He has put his multi-lingual skills to good use in managerial positions in Italy, Germany, Russia, and England with leading hotel groups including the Sheraton Diana Majestic and the Dorchester Collection’s Principe di Savoia in Milan, and Belmond’s Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg.

Created in 1995 by Leonardo Ferragamo, the son of Salvatore, Valeriano now presides over Italy’s prestigious Lungarno Collection, including; Hotel Lungarno, Gallery Hotel Art, and Continentale in Florence; Villa Le Rose in Tuscany; Portrait Roma in Rome; Resort Baia Scarlino Yacht Club & Residences and Nautor’s Swan Yacht in Tuscany; three restaurants in Florence – Borgo San Jacopo, Fusion Bar & Restaurant and Caffè dell’Oro; and the newest member of the Lungarno family, Portrait Firenze, which sits on the most romantic stretch of the River Arno in Florence and was launched at ILTM in Cannes in 2014.

Here’s what Valeriano had to say about the current preoccupations of a leader in luxury travel when we caught up with him this week…

“The best decision I ever made was to follow my dreams and became an hotelier. Travel unifies. Travel enables people to understand cultures a bit better, and I feel extremely fortunate to welcome wayfaring strangers to our city with open arms, creating an undeniably fantastic experience that they will hold with them forever.

As one of the world’s largest economic sectors, the Travel & Tourism industry drives exports, generates prosperity across the world, and creates 1 out of every 11 jobs, generating a much higher turnover than – for example – the automotive industry and other industries that are better represented and lobbied on a political level. Our industry is still very segmented and often players in the same city see each other as competitors instead of an allies. If they only think about their individual properties, it becomes difficult to collaborate and promote their common destination. In Florence, we think that dialogue between hotels is extremely important. That’s why we are part of “Firenze, yes Please”, an exclusive partnership between eleven 5-star hotels working together to promote the city to international travellers in a unique way.

It is important that the travel industry works to play a part in issues of sustainability and the environment, when their geographical location permits them to. Currently, all our properties are located in the historical centres of Rome and Florence where, unfortunately, the legislation understandably prefers to protect the historical and artistic values of the buildings rather than – for example – implement solar panels as the new way to produce energy at a low impact. Through our restaurants we can embrace local sustainability.  Local food support and responsible land development will only enhance our environment. By purchasing local, we enrich our social community – we create a more intimate relationship with our neighbourhood suppliers – and permit to always offer fresh and high quality ingredients to our guests.

Globally, the challenge is to keep up with the high level of technology which is reshaping the travel industry. The opportunity for us is the development of the Portrait Brand which represents a very high level of personalisation. We believe that future means “human”; human personalization, human connection, human authenticity.

I keep the world moving by sharing personal experiences on my social networks. I have a lot of fun doing it and, somehow, I feel closer to my friends on the other side of the ocean. We live in uncertain times but the only thing we know for sure is that we will all die one day, meanwhile we should enjoy our life to the fullest and take advantages of all possibilities to travel, experience and share the good moments with others. My tips for a successful ILTM are to maintain a positive attitude and genuinely be happy to meet old friends and make new ones along the way. Always travel with good and funny stories to share. This, I believe, will somehow extend our life.”

As any travel professional will tell you, life is richer when you meet new people and see the world through their eyes. ILTM have been bringing the world’s top travel brands to China, each year, for over 10 years. Giving travel pros a platform to build relationships in the region and strengthening the connection between Asia Pacific’s huge and diverse markets of HNW travellers and the industry that serves them.

But travel pros have never been the type to just sit and watch. So, as the world changes around us, so do ILTM’s collection of events.

This summer, ILTM announced the launch of a new show, ILTM China, dedicated to the Chinese market, plus the relocation of ILTM Asia Pacific to Singapore. We caught up with the force behind ILTM’s growth, our trusty captain, counsellor and shepherd-in-chief, Alison Gilmore, to find out more…

Alison, what was behind the decision to split ILTM Asia?

Our client research highlighted that the Asian luxury outbound market is growing so fast that many companies are now separating their current and future business plans and marketing strategies to focus on China and Asia as two independent opportunities. As a result we will now deliver two dynamic events dedicated to their own audiences: ILTM Asia Pacific in Singapore, 21 – 24 May and ILTM China in Shanghai, 31 October – 2 November 2018.

You mention that the new event, ILTM Asia Pacific (taking place 21 – 24 May, 2018 at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel), will be more like the Cannes event – how so?

ILTM Asia Pacific will be re-positioned to represent the whole of Asia, bringing more international buyers, similar in context to ILTM in Cannes. We will create the show to be as international as Cannes with over 35% of luxury travel suppliers representing Asia Pacific and 65% the rest of the world. 85% of buyers will be from Asia Pacific and 15% from outside the region. No luxury buyer will be attending any other ILTM event in 2018. Last year, Asia Pacific surpassed North America for the first time as the region with the largest amount of high net worth wealth, according to the World Wealth Report. ILTM Asia Pacific will focus on this growth, collectively bringing together international and regional luxury travel suppliers to boost and build their businesses from this dynamic region.

At the same time, Singapore is a beautiful green city, modern and efficient with a multicultural diversity that lends itself to some great venues for networking events, so we expect to deliver a similar ambiance as ILTM Cannes in Singapore reflecting the very best of mixing business with pleasure!

What were the other cities in the running to host the event?

We have had RFP’s from several Asian countries, all of which were keen to collaborate with ILTM, however Singapore delivered not only the best proposal but its significance as the gateway city with one of the world’s award winning airports, that serves more than 100 airlines flying to some 380 cities in about 90 countries worldwide, was a really important part of our decision.

ILTM China will still take place in Shanghai (31 October – 2 November) but will be a more bespoke event with one-to-one pre-scheduled appointments, similar to other ILTM events in Africa and Arabia.

ILTM China will indeed remain in Shanghai and be re-positioned specifically to bring Chinese luxury travel planners and buyers to meet with international exhibitors of luxury products and services. Every year we see a big increase in the number of Chinese luxury travel planners wanting to attend ILTM and with this new style of event we can focus on this market solely. There will be no overlap of Chinese buyers with any other ILTM event so every exhibitor can rely on 100% assurance that their participation will deliver on their business objectives and return on investment.

The appointment system of mutual matching between exhibitor and buyer will remain the same ensuring that every appointment in their diary has been selected as relevant between both parties – a great way to deliver real tangible business opportunities.

Given the incredible growth in the country, is there a chance we may see more than one China event?

For now Shanghai is the venue, but the buyer community will come from every part of China; we have a team dedicated to sourcing those who are relevant and who have clients of the highest net worth. Never say never, China is indeed a huge outbound market, and ILTM China will grow to reflect this.

For further information see www.iltm.com/asiapacific or email Alison at alison.gilmore@reedexpo.co.uk

50% of The Leading Hotels of the World’s Latin American business comes from one country – Brazil. 

At Travelweek Sao Paulo by ILTM 2017, we asked our community why Brazil is such an important player for their business.

João Annibale, CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World in Brazil, shares his love for the Latin American market as well as his excitement for the new ILTM Latin America format.

If you’re looking for some great advice on how to understand and get the most out of this market, start with Annibale!

For more advice on how to make it in the Latin American travel world, please email us at: travel@reedexpo.com.br

You can accomplish a lot in 4 years, right? Since 2013, I’ve moved jobs once, moved house twice and had two kids. Not bad? Edie Rodriguez, CEO of Crystal Cruises, has taken the brand from a 2 ship operation, owned by the world’s largest operator of container ships, and turned it into a fleet of gold standard service (bought by Genting Hong Kong for US$550m), encompassing – astonishingly – river cruises, its own aircraft, yacht cruises, and 144 multi-million dollar on-board residences… thankfully, I was the one asking her the questions…   

“I don’t know if I’m the hardest working but I am a workaholic and i love it. With modern technology connecting us all over the world, you really have to be ready, willing and able to work 24/7, 365 or you will fall behind. But I love what I do.  I was told as a young child: find your passion, get a great education and follow it. This industry has always been my passion, and I followed that advice. I’ve been blessed with a 35-year career and not one day does it ever feel like work.

I really didn’t always want to be a CEO, that wasn’t my goal or the end game. What I did always want was to travel the world, and I wanted to do it in the most luxurious way possible. So that’s really how I said, OK I’m going start out as travel consultant. As of today, I’ve only been to 100 countries and, at the last count, there are 195 countries in the world, so I still have a long way to go.

I am perpetually setting new goals for myself; I have several “mini mantras” that keep me motivated. One of them is, “I wanna grow until I go”. I am fortunate to have accomplished many of my goals, but I will always have 10 more waiting in the wings.

If you don’t love what you are doing get out and do something else, life is too short. I learned that at a young age and it has stuck with me. It’s better to dare to fail than fail to dare. Have I made mistakes and wished I’d done some things differently? Yes. But everything was a blessing in disguise because it led to something else.

I won’t walk through my door until about midnight tonight, and pretty much every day is like that, whether I’m travelling around the world or not. But I always tell my team, just because I send an email at 4 a.m. doesn’t mean I expect a response at 4 a.m. I realise I am not the norm – and I absolutely understand and support the work-life balance of my team. But, for me, at this stage in my career, now that my son is grown and on his own, and mostly because I love my work so much, I am often happiest when I’m working. If I still had a young child at home, my priorities would be different. In fact, I made choices early on… I declined some opportunities because my first priority was my child. I always said, when he goes away to University, if the right opportunity comes along, it will be different then. I don’t regret that I didn’t become President or CEO 10 or 15 years earlier because I raised my son and that was what I wanted to do.

One of my biggest professional challenges is the current global geo-political situation, sadly, with ongoing terrorist activities. We (Crystal) are fortunate to have movable assets, whether it’s our vessels or our aircraft, we can re-assess and recreate itineraries fairly quickly to ensure our guests’ safety for myriad reasons – a natural disaster, a political situation, a terrorist situation. We are not going there, we will not put our guests in any situation of even questionable security.”

Edie Rodriguez is a regular attendee of ILTM, Cannes.

London’s most eagerly awaited opening is here. Standing opposite the Bank of England in London’s financial heartland is The Ned, an alliance between Nick Jones, owner of Soho House, the Sydell Group (NoMad, The Line and Freehand) and Ron Burkle, the billionaire investor who introduced the two.  A genre-defying hybrid of businesses, The Ned is luxury’s latest high-concept hang out. If it didn’t pop-up in your Instagram feed during the soft-opening in April, where were you? The Ned opened for bookings this week and Managing Director, Gareth Banner, is excited. We asked him how he got to lead such a dream project and what he has learnt along the way.

My previous role to this was GM at St Pancras Renaissance, which is a very good example of a large hotel group, but I’ve found where I am most comfortable and that’s in the independent sector. I get a lot of opportunity and freedom to deploy my own creativity, and the success or the failure of what we do is down to the people in my team, rather than the big brand sitting behind us pushing us along. For me, The Ned will be the best example of that; if The Ned is a success or a failure, I will feel extremely proud or extremely disappointed in myself, and I know it will be down to the people I’ve been working with to deliver.

Arguably, what we are trying to achieve has never been done before, so this is a whole new ball game and it does put you in a whole new place, thinking about how you launch a hotel with 9 restaurants, or 3 floors of spa, beauty, grooming and fitness. It shouldn’t be viewed as a hotel, which is what I’m sometimes guilty of; it’s actually 4 or 5 really serious stand-alone businesses. Food and beverage revenue will be more than room revenue in this property, so it’s a completely different perspective.

The most valuable thing I’ve learnt on this project is to constantly challenge whether or not what you believe you are going to deliver is relevant, and whether or not you need to push the boundaries more. The only way The Ned is going to be successful is if it is truly relevant and appropriate for what is current today. So for example, 5 years ago when the project was conceived, one of the restaurants was essentially a sushi restaurant. Today sushi is everywhere. We made a decision in the last 6 months that, after 4.5 years of working towards opening a sushi restaurant, we needed to change our mind and re-concept that restaurant.

We understand that relationships are everything, we cannot rely purely on the likes of the OTAs to drive business through our front door, we want to have really solid relationships with both corporate and leisure agents that understand and can represent us with their clients and understand what we have created here, it’s really, really important that I can have advocates globally that have a relationship with us, that trust us, and that have an opportunity to experience us so they can go away and drive the business into the hotel that we need for it to be successful.

The biggest challenge in building our network is starting from zero. You know, 12 months ago no one had heard of The Ned, so we are establishing a brand and a business absolutely from scratch. Whilst we come from really good stock, The Ned is not a chain so the education process isn’t immediate. Story telling is a big thing that we’re doing a lot at The Ned, and it gives you identity, it gives you a reason to create loyalty, and it rewards customers for being loyal to you.

As far as what makes me happiest I’m hoping that the best is yet to come. I really am extremely excited about this project and I know that this is a once in a career opportunity. I don’t know if I’d have the energy, or the opportunity to do this again, but this is something that genuinely gets me out of bed in the morning with a big smile on my face –  and a little bit of anxiety along the way, I won’t lie –  but I’ve always left a business in better shape than I found it and I’ve always made a point of saying that that is the benchmark for me to feel confident to move onto something bigger or better or different, I’ve always set myself very clear goals and that is what I attribute my success to, and those are my principles that I think I will take with me for the rest of my career.

After its debut at ILTM in Cannes in 2016, more ILTM travel advisors will be able to book appointments with The Ned at this year’s event.

There is one thing that every happy luxury travel professional knows; just be yourself you will connect with people. That is a fact that successful people understand very well, and Caroline Goux of Oetker Collection is a great example of this philosophy. As VP of Sales, Caroline is a masterful business woman and inspirational networker, she’s also one of the most genuine people in the industry. If you’re looking for some great advice on how to get to the top in this business, this is the person to give it.

For more advice on how to make it in travel, check out the other videos in this series on ILTM’s YouTube page.

Canada based tour operator Gray & Co is celebrating. And who can blame them?  They were voted no.1 tour operator in the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards 2016, capping an extraordinary year for the cycling and hiking specialists. Talking to travel manager, Sylvia Pasqualettie, it’s easy to see why their scrupulously researched trips are making waves.  I asked Sylvia what it takes to be the best.

I am from the North of Italy, near Venice? The Prosecco area.  I am 39 years old. When my daughter was very little I studied for a degree in marketing and worked at an outdoor clothing company. It was very small so I could put my hands everywhere and I loved that. After that I quit my job and got my Masters in coaching. My speciality is sports – not the physical but the mental – everything related to the performance and how to overcome emotions.

I got into guiding by chance, my best friend started working for Butterfield & Robinson and at that time I was doing my training and coaching stuff but I was too relaxed. I always wanted to travel and she was like, “why don’t you apply?” and that’s what I did, I applied. The same friend gave me the contact of Cari Gray, they were putting a trip together in Sicily, it was a last minute thing and she needed a guide and I went, that was in 2011!

Guides have a big ego. As a guide, you are in charge of everything so you want to shine and you want to show the best things about a place and make people happy, so you have to have a big ego, you can’t be shy.  It’s not about being arrogant; it’s being willing to do things for others, willing to make them happy. The best satisfaction for us is to see that everything went well and the people are extremely happy, that’s what matters.

The most challenging thing for new operators is that normally people like me are freelance so they are, sort of entrepreneurs. They do what they know. Their biggest difficulty is to scale-up and become a company. I see a lot of guides that have loads of experience and they just say hey, why don’t I start doing my own thing, that’s normal right? I have a lot of friends that have done that and they do a very limited part of what they could do, because they don’t know how to shift from an entrepreneurial mentality to managing a business. It’s very difficult for them to make that step because, as guides, we are very used to being in control. We want to make sure that everything works and so delegating and letting other people have the space to grow to do things? That’s the hardest part.

To choose our partners we focus on food, the hotels, the environment, and what you can find outside of the cycling. It’s a whole combination of different things. In Australia we find a lot of these kinds of combinations. Margaret River, from Perth down is amazing. Also 2/3 hours North West of Melbourne there is a great cycling community, good restaurants and the right accommodation. For the levels that we provide, we need great accommodation and food to support the North American standards.

The best thing about this job is being in contact with so many incredible people. You know, there is a reason why they are extremely successful and that’s a great part of the job for us, that we are in touch with these sorts of people. Recently a client asked me, do you live every day of your life to the fullest? You can do better, everybody can always do better, right? But it came from a person that I know lives their life to the fullest every day and so that it sticks in my mind most of all.

Grey & Co are regular attendees of ILTM in Cannes.

At ILTM we love connecting people and sharing their stories. In this video series, created at ILTM Asia 2016, we introduce you to some of the brightest and best in luxury travel. Here’s Jeffrey Sirota of Small Luxury Hotels of the World on the best piece of advice he’s ever been given.

For more advice on how to make it in travel, check out the other videos in this series on ILTM’s YouTube page.