Travel & Tourism Awards 2021

www.lux-review.com Page 37 LUX 2021 Travel & Tourism Awards The world’s only ‘private travel’ firm, Global Artichoke is a unique company with an unmatched approach to luxury leisure and tourism. Global Artichoke Ltd Best International Private Travel Company - UK Dec20481 The first ‘Private Travel’ company & market leader, Global Artichoke was founded as a high-end travel provider in 2000 and developed a service over the years which, in 2007, they coined ‘Private Travel’. The combination of face-to-face client meetings with first-hand hotel and villa visits, allow Global Artichoke to give the best personal advice to clients and to put together the perfect holiday for them. This is business done the old-fashioned way, expert and meticulous with clients on five continents, travelling to all seven (oh and space!). This business’s development over 20 years of travel has brought it into contact with every aspect of its industry, the culmination of twenty years travel and enlightened conversation with doormen, hoteliers, villa owners and barmen. If a hitherto unseen destination is under consideration, someone from Global Artichoke jumps on a plane to check it out. They look at every detail of the area, property and services from the point of view of the client and either recommend it, or somewhere else, as a result. Client-facing staff are all of director level with professional experience from several different industries so that clients’ needs can be understood and recommendations made from a position of maturity. Tim remembers a recent client meeting in Australia: “Jeff called for a meeting about a particularly busy travel year coming up – birthdays and anniversaries – and to fix up a lunch to talk it all through. I was in London at the time and Jeff lives in Melbourne so we fixed on day-after-tomorrow and I jumped on a plane. It’s always great to get out to Melbourne and we met in one of the city’s great restaurants for a long lunch and canter through the wine list. I love that Australian cuisine which is a fusion of French-style and Asian and Jeff is a connoisseur of wine, although we usually have the French / Australian wine debate at some point – I guess we should be grateful there were no Californians present. Great chat, great fun. We’ll deal with the travel when you’re back in the office, says Jeff. What did we talk about? The cricket.” The Members’ Club is a unique concept in its industry. No money is made from bookings, only by way of annual subscription, replacing sales-based income and allowing members to buy travel at cost price. This allows the Private Travel Members Club to offer unlimited travel service to its clients, giving research service, advice, booking and operation on any size or value of trip. The Members Club makes no money from booking – a factor that makes them truly stand out in its sector. The benefit of not operating on commission is fully paid forward in the client’s benefit. The client can rest assured that all advice is entirely impartial and that it has no temptation to up-sell, instead they know that the job is done entirely for their benefit. Or as Tim says, “our time has already been paid for”. Global Artichoke opened a new office in Marrakech during covid because “it’s a nice place to be”. It will use its on-the-spot presence to launch the ‘RiadRiad’ product and provide a definitive guide for villa and hotel accommodation in Marrakech and wider Morocco. The UK and US clientele are already very keen on Morocco as a destination and the Global Artichoke team are very happy to work from this office. “The Private Travel market becomes more niche every year and there are fewer companies prepared to do the intense work it requires. Clients’ needs become more and more specific but this is what we find interesting. Why simply look at a place when we can make it possible to really get involved in exploration, geology, bio-diversity mapping and charitable foundations? Of course, if you’d simply like a wonderful villa to take your family and friends, we can certainly help there – with recommendations of where to go for lunch…” Company: Global Artichoke Ltd Contact: Tim Leggott Email: [email protected] Website: www.globalartichoke.com