26 Feb Demystifying Bespoke Travel
What is a cupcake? It is simply a sugar-coated color sprinkled ornamental way of presenting a muffin! So what is Bespoke Travel? It is just another extravagant way of saying that something is tailor-made: to suit any person’s own needs and choices. It is the Cupcake version of F.I.T
So what is Bespoke exactly? Is it how people believe today, to sell luxury products? To sell new exotic destinations? To serve high-end customers? Actually it is not. It is to put together a unique experience for a clientele with diverse needs. It is to cater to each need of the client; to provide them with an experience that matches their personality, their needs and especially their budget.
Going back to our example of a cupcake, a knowledgeable client knows their palate, if they like vanilla or chocolate or maybe even strawberry! They go for what they like, not what everyone is simply choosing. Similarly this applies to a person looking for a bespoke travel. He usually wants his research and logistics taken care of by a professional, someone who does all his homework and frees him to simply enjoy. These travel professional not only does his research but he has visited every hotel in the portfolio, eaten in every restaurant he suggests and seen every place he tells you to go!
Now coming to the other half of things, what is the process? Who are your clients? What is the whole justification? And why is it a dying art?
Accessorize:
Begin with a black page and a clean slate. Then add a map into the equation. Listen to what your clients are really asking for, observe them and then suggest what they would really like, what will best suitable for him. Circle Greece on the map if he wants to party or circle Seychelles if he is looking to simply lay low. Add small intimate inns over grand hotels, the finest Michelin stared restaurants over local dives, make him meet a local artist behind the scenes or take him to some off the road sites! Just remember BFC- Build for Customer!
Extreme Ends:
There are two extreme ends of the travel market spectrum. There is the client who is made for a group tour, who wishes to finish the whole of Europe or US in a month. There is nothing wrong with wanting to fill your passport with stamps or your hard disk with all the photos of landmarks.
Yet how is it that in a day or two you are getting under the skin of the country and seeing the best of what’s there. Then there is the other end, where you spend a week exploring a small country or a city. Go to Italy and not just go to Rome and Venice, go to the Amalfi Coast and cool of in the azure waters. Go to Tuscany and enjoy a glass of wine as the sun sets over the wine yards, take a cooking class or a cycle tour. I have personally been on both of the edges, I would jump of the later please!
The Compromise Factor:
This is what it all boils down to, the deciding card has been and always is the cost. Group tour is cheaper, sometimes extremely cheaper! And is it never so easy to simply say that you pay for the experience and hence it is justified. But actually, what is important to point out here is the factor of compromise. Planned itineraries, however well it is managed, there is always going to be some compromise. You have to get up on time, you have to leave on time, you cant eat where you want, you cant go off the itinerary. You are bound tight, and this is where you loose your freedom of travel. For this very reason the best tour operators offer completely customized, bespoke travel. Sometimes it might be an off the peg group itinerary but yet the customer has freedom to change anything, to alter as per his needs. Moreover, with the right tour operators nothing is off limits: a private tour of Louvre – possible, want to rent a yacht – you only had to ask!
The Unappreciated gem:
And finally today everyone wants to do Bespoke without understanding what it really means. A word which has some weightage before, it has today has simply become a fashion. But just like a summer dress in winter it is not always correct. One should always know what they are offering and to whom are offering because if you offer things which are not suitable to your clients taste then however good your work is, it is going to be pointless.
In my personal opinion a bespoke itinerary will more effectively deliver its purpose, its essence if it has been made entirely upon the they way you want, down to it very last detail. Yet, check if its your flavor before you bite into it!