Travel Trends with Dan Christian
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Travel Trends with Dan Christian
How to Succeed with a Membership Model in Travel with Joan Roca
At the crossroads of cutting-edge technology and deeply personalized service lies Essentialist, a membership-based travel company reshaping the definition of luxury travel. In this insightful conversation, CEO & founder Joan Roca reveals how his $2,600 annual membership service crafts extraordinary travel experiences by truly understanding each member's unique passions, preferences, and aspirations.
Unlike traditional luxury travel agencies or impersonal online booking platforms, Essentialist thrives on building intimate relationships with its members. "Travel combines everything in your lifestyle," Roca explains. "From how you like to eat and your cultural interests to whether you prefer early-morning adventures or lazy beach days - we need to know our members deeply to deliver on our promise." This relationship-driven approach results in meticulously curated itineraries, averaging 28 components, each tailored to individual tastes.
What sets Essentialist apart is its blend of editorial expertise and technology. Collaborating with tastemakers worldwide, the company uncovers authentic, off-the-beaten-path experiences, while technology streamlines operations to focus on creativity.
The membership model taps into a growing demand among affluent travelers for more meaningful, personalized journeys. By seamlessly merging digital convenience with human understanding, Essentialist not only connects travelers more deeply to their destinations but also rekindles the magic of exploration - one unforgettable journey at a time.
👉 Listen to How to Succeed with a Membership Model in Travel Now
🔥 Season 5 Title Sponsors: TravelAI, Stay22, Propellic, Flight Centre, Collette, Flywire, Traveltek and Protect Group
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. Season 5 In Progress.
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and I think it's part of what we were discussing about how meaningful travel can be. You know like we all struggle to spend quality time kids with our loved ones, so I think travel is that opportunity for many people hello everyone and welcome back to travel trends.
Speaker 2:This is your host, dan christian, and today we're going to look at a membership model for success in travel, featuring Joanne Rocha, who runs the Essentialist, which is essentialistcom. But before we get into our conversation with Joanne, I wanted to highlight the experience we had last week at the Focusrite conference in Barcelona, which was truly extraordinary. We had 25 interviews of people that were lining up to participate in our Travel Trends event, spotlight from Focusrite. We had a number of listeners that actually came to the event because they'd heard about it on our podcast and that special preview episode I had done with Florence and Pete Como, and I just wanted to acknowledge people like Andy Heddington from Adido, as well as Pauline from Flytographer, alex Reagan, who runs Zoftify and Torsetta, to name a few. But we were so blown away by the response from our listeners and I just wanted to say a big thank you to those of you that actually waited patiently to speak to me. Between interviews I usually had two or three people that were waiting to have a conversation and I just wanted to say it means the absolute world to me. I love doing this podcast, I love the travel industry and I'm committed to showcasing as many of these incredible stories of people that work in this industry, that are really leading the future, and for me, it was incredibly reassuring that we're on the right path with travel trends, and I just wanted to extend my sincere thank you to everyone that came up and said hello, and a number of you that actually won't even be in the episode but just wanted to come up and say how much you love the show and gave me some really valuable feedback and guidance as we prepare for season six, and I just wanted to extend that to all of our listeners that I'm very keen to know who you want us to feature, the topics you want us to focus on going into season six and our AI summit, so feel free to reach out to me anytime. Dan, at Travel Trends Podcast, I'm genuinely delighted to hear from you, so feel free to reach out. And thank you again to Pete and the entire Focusrite team for making us such a key part of the event and really integrating us onto the showroom floor. That was really special, and I just also wanted to highlight that, going into the event in San Diego, we're going to actually bring out additional team members. Both Melanie will be there and Catherine, so we'll actually have a wider team that will help support more production and be able to turn some of those interviews around that much more quickly. That spotlight will be out in the next couple of weeks, and we also have just released our spotlight episode from the Aviation Festival and we have the Adventure Travel and Trade Association coming up. And we also have just released our spotlight episode from the Aviation Festival and we have the Adventure Travel and Trade Association coming up. So look out for those event spotlights, as well as the Focusrite one coming up shortly. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 2:And now back to the show. Finally, I wanted to acknowledge a few of the new sponsors that have come on board for travel trends going into season six and our plans for the next year, which includes pay compass as well as hollow fly and continue commitment from companies like propellic. I just wanted to acknowledge that it makes all the difference to us to be able to have that support and commitment from the industry as we continue to expand travel trends, introduce our events and additional initiatives. So it's terrific to see the interest in our partnerships and we're certainly committed to growing those in the most beneficial way for our partners. So a big thanks again to PayCompass and Holofly and to each of our new partners that have come on board, especially for our AI Summit. We had an incredible response. We've just issued the press release that you can see all of the amazing partners, including TourRadar that is co-sponsoring the event with us, and you'll see all of the partnerships listed there when you check out TravelTrendscom. Under our events and our AI Summit, we still have our early bird pricing available, so make sure you take advantage of that to plan to join us at the end of October.
Speaker 2:Now speaking of events, I actually met today's guest at the Virtuoso conference last year in Las Vegas. As many of you know, they run an extraordinary global gathering that brings together more than 5,000 people across the globe to the Bellagio in August, and they've done so for the last 20 years. My good friend Gilad runs a tech day right before the conference kicks off that brings together some of the most amazing startups and tech innovators. I've had the privilege to go for the last two years and I highly encourage any of you considering that to definitely get involved with Virtuoso. You can listen to a few of those highlight videos and also you can actually check out the episode with Matthew Upchurch, the founder of Virtuoso, to get the whole incredible backstory on the organization and it still remains one of our most popular podcast episodes. So definitely a huge fan of Virtuoso and the team and the event that they put on.
Speaker 2:And part of the reason I mentioned that is that I'm unfortunately not able to go this year, given that we actually have our kids heading off to university. They're twins and we've made some prior family travel commitments. And it relates to Joanne Rocha, who, when I met with him last year in Las Vegas before we recorded the episode you're going to hear today, he was telling me about his pilgrimage walk with his son before he went to university last year. And I said to Joanne I'm like I love this idea and I mentioned it to my son and he said absolutely no way, I'm not doing a walking tour. So I tried, joanne, just so you know. But we do have other amazing plans to be in Europe that I'm still looking forward to before they both head off and we all of a sudden become empty nesters. So it was great to connect with Joanne on a personal level, but ultimately what was most fascinating is this incredible company that he's built Essentialist.
Speaker 2:Very few companies have succeeded with a membership model in travel and he is truly an exception, and it became clear very quickly why that was the case. Their whole focus is on delivering extraordinary customer service with exceptional travel plans and itineraries. Through this membership model, he's even kept increasing the price and his business keeps growing because it's built on a solid foundation with a team and a product offering that clearly his guests love. He actually connected me with his team after we met to prove it to me and they actually prepared some trip options and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. Now let's put this in context. Membership models are one of the most important business success stories in other industries and a main driver of profit. Think Costco. Costco generates most of their profit from their membership model, or Amazon Prime, which I gladly pay for just to get that free shipping and additional benefits, but ultimately those initiatives drive loyalty, so increased spending and, importantly, a recurring revenue stream Both fantastic.
Speaker 2:However, many travel businesses have struggled to implement anything close to a membership model and I think part of this is based on the fact that there was a time when timeshares were a big thing and it left a bad taste in people's mouths. There are a few companies that have succeeded, and one other example to reference is Inspirato, which costs about $30,000 a year to become a member. They offer luxury accommodation options, but there are very few success stories in this space. But when you hear essentialist you'll understand why. And to make my point, I also was thinking about doing a panel discussion for membership in travel and the reality is there wouldn't be a lot of people sitting around the table.
Speaker 2:So I decided to focus our conversation with Joanne today and look at essentialists. But one other exception I would highlight to our listeners is the AI first travel planning service called Layla. They actually acquired a friend of mine, shai Gabai, his business you know coolest name ever, but his business was called Roam Around. They acquired that business last year and, as they've been scaling, they have implemented a membership model and are seeing incredible success. So it can and does work. So, on that note, let me introduce you to one of the most forward-thinking leaders in the travel industry, joanne Rocha. Joanne, welcome to Travel Trends. It's so great to have you with us.
Speaker 1:Thank you, dan. I'm so much looking forward Again, like as we connected during Vegas, you know I was looking forward to this conversation too and really, really admire what you're doing with your podcast. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I really appreciate that, and I know we'd noted at the time that we have some commonalities in our background with digital marketing and travel, and you've gone on to create this incredible company that I didn't know anything about and I'm sure many of our listeners are going to learn about now for the first time. So I would love if we could start, if you wouldn't mind, giving everyone a bit of an overview of the Essentialist.
Speaker 1:The Essentialist is a membership service that basically tries to solve every need for travel from our members. Our members are very passionate travelers, curious culturally, they love to discover the places they visit, and so then, travel is such an important part of their lifestyle and, I would say, a meaningful part of their family lives and personal goals so we basically put up this company that gets 100% of their needs. We combine a digital approach so we're kind of a digital business and have app-centric. We also have this personal touch, where customers will get an assigned account manager that will take care of all their travel needs and can onboard them to the service. And, on the other hand, we have this editorial approach that we will probably touch on more as we discuss that. We are very much focused on sourcing the best, the latest, the more insightful recommendations and destinations through journalists and tastemakers on the ground.
Speaker 2:Well, I think one of the things that stood out to me is that, when we were chatting through the membership-based model, the growth that you've seen, especially within the luxury vertical, all these fascinating trends that clearly you can speak to in our conversation today, but I guess also just starting where it all began, you were a little ahead of your time. It was 2016 that you actually got this business off the ground and you're based in Mallorca, one of the most beautiful places in the world you could possibly be based. I know you've got offices in New York and Mexico City, but, yeah, tell us how you actually what inspired you to create Essentialist back in 2016.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we share a background of more like corporate business.
Speaker 1:In my case, it was a lot around online travel and even big corporations and more in this transition from offline to online, but more in the mass market, and I always felt that there was something missing at a personal level.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't any more about just making things bookable, which was the kind of the first travel revolution or online travel revolution. I felt that there was like a whole complexity of travel and a whole of like meaningful part of travel that had not transitioned to online. I was a lot more around inspiration, you know, destination insights, itineraries, trips that become meaningful to me because of my personal preferences, so the whole personalization and intimacy that I believe it's connected to travel and I wanted to explore that. So that was my. My goal was always to connect this this world of inspiration and editorial, if you want, discovery of destinations, cultural, focused with actually the ability to book and have like a five star service or or a six-star service connected to it. So from day one, my goal was to create the kind of travel, modern, luxury travel service that I would love to use.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about exactly that, how it works and how a customer uses the platform, because I've always been intrigued by the idea of membership-based travel and there's been a few companies that have entered the space, but none that I've seen that are quite like yours, especially given that is like a, a concierge type service that um essentially connects you to kind of the most knowledgeable experts in the world that will give you um the most personalized advice and recommendations. And I know you are kindly keen for me to be able to experience the platform after our chat, which I'm still very keen to do. But, yeah, just walk us through, if you wouldn't mind, how the membership-based model works and sort of the value it provides to all the members.
Speaker 1:I think, being a membership service, it comes from our approach to travel. For us, travel is such a personal element of your lifestyle. It probably combines everything many of our listeners will appreciate because they come from the industry. That's probably everything, and everything that you have on your lifestyle is connected to travel how you like to eat, your cultural preferences, if you want to wake up early and have a full day of adventure. So you want to, you know, just relax and lay on the beach, or and what are? What is your actual motivation for travel? So what we found out is that in order for us to deliver our promise, we needed to know the members, the people, very well. So it wasn't a superficial booking. It was an in-depth understanding of you know, Dan, who you are, what you're looking for when you're traveling, what are your passions. So that led to membership. We didn't feel that we could add enough value with one booking. It was actually a longstanding relationship and also the reaching with the member changes. It's not like our goal is the end goal, it's like a loyalty. You know that we continue building trips for these amazing members for a long time and actually this idea of discovering their passions, of finding the right recipe. You know like you're always changing the recipe a little bit to make it perfect for those members. So that was the beginning, and everything that we've built up towards has been around this idea of how we can better do it for those members that consider travel as a significant part of their lifestyle and probably one of the things that makes their life whole. You know, like the work-life and you know, travel-life balance. We basically have this as a process.
Speaker 1:When people sign up, they are assigned to a membership experience manager, which is basically your go-to person. They tend to know you onboard you, so there's a conversation where we learn everything about the members. Who is on that family, what's their travel calendar, what are they passionate about, how they like to travel, so we can really build a personal travel experience for them. And then the interaction after that becomes very much. Whatever channel you prefer, you know people only engage with the app and chat. Some people will like video calls, some people like email, so we basically are like agnostic in terms of the channel that they want to reach out to us.
Speaker 1:But while we were very clear from day one and I think that's part of the experience is that every one of our members is digital, but I think everybody is digital these days. I think that there's no longer anything like an offline person good or bad but that's how people engage these days. So the APNs are digital. They have the access to their trips, to their confirmation. Everything is there, like the access to their trips, to their confirmation, Everything is. We have this, you know, an app that shows you all the information and confirmations and the IT is in a beautiful format and I think it's kind of how you experience it.
Speaker 1:And the last bit that we connected is we are talking about a crowd which is very well-traveled. So we have a community of members that they travel very often, they know the places very well, and so we have a community of members that they travel very often, they know the places very well and they reach out to us because they travel. It's a very important part of their lifestyle and they want to unlock even more value. How do we add value to a customer who has been to Hong Kong a couple of times? So this is how and why.
Speaker 1:You know, connected to the reason to creating this company is we have a huge respect to, you know, the editorial element and we, for us, for me the inspiration came many times from these journalists. And you know tastemakers as well. You know, you know the chef who's recommending the her favorite restaurant in hong kong, but then the editor of Vogue or Condé Nast, or you know Travel and Leisure or New York Times, at least in location, and they basically are you know, they understand the location, they're curious, they have all the contacts and they they are the best ones to to tell us the story of the location with with their point of view. So that's kind of you, the story of the location with their point of view. So that's kind of, you know, like a long explanation of how this works. But we basically try to make it very seamless for the members that they can engage with us. We know them very well, we plan and inspire them throughout the year.
Speaker 2:Well, what interests me about your business model and especially the timeliness of our conversation in 2025, is it's the confluence of two major trends. One is the high touch customer service, especially with luxury clientele, where there has been a renaissance. As you know, in season four we actually had a deep dive into travel advisors because of the renaissance of travel advisors, and Flight Center sponsored that series and now they've come on as a title sponsor of our season five, and I think that that overwhelming trend is clear that more and more people are turning to travel advisors because of the complexity of booking travel direct. They're searching more sites, it's more time consuming and it's more of a hassle factor. So you've got the personal touch. But then the other confluence, of course, is technology, and everyone's talking about AI and we'll obviously touch on that a bit today, but in terms of automating parts of the user journey.
Speaker 2:So I guess the one thing I would like to ask you in terms of building out this member-based community is how do you see those two coming together? So you know, you've built this business really over the last decade. I mean, it's 2016, it's incredible, and then here we are in 2025. So how, I guess, have you combined those two elements. So from a member perspective you know you mentioned they have the app, so I guess. So from a member perspective, you mentioned the app. So I guess, how do you combine technology and then the personal touch?
Speaker 1:Well, it's the secret. Nick, I absolutely get what you're saying and I think that you touch on some of these topics in Season 4. So I think, for me, the key is that we're kind of over the technology for the sake of technology. So I think you have to use technology for the ultimate goal of making our customers' experience better. I think the travel advisors play that role in a way that there's some things that you just don't want to automate, while some things you want to automate to make the last mile delivery even better. I put the example of the editors made to make the last mile delivery even better. I put the example of the editors Okay, we, we. I don't believe that you can solve the content that we have, you know, by algorithms or like mashing Google places and TripAdvisor and something else. I just don't believe that we ever replaced a point of view of somebody that you trust and that has, you know this, this personal connection to the place, somebody that you trust and that has this personal connection to the place. So I think that that is one way that we're protecting this human touch, but that's a huge differentiation to us.
Speaker 1:The second thing would be travel is a complex combination. Our itineraries have an average of 28 items on them, so it means that people are doing many things, many reservations. Everything needs to be tied together, like how long does it take you to get from A to B? What are the passions that they have? So maybe they want to visit this museum, but they are so passionate about it that they want to meet with a creator and spend some extra time. I think there's a lot of delicate balances there, that, if you want to get it right, it's a complex logistics and a complex knowledge environment. So I think that the travel advisors definitely have built this knowledge over the years and I think that for us, the ultimate goal is to be able to use technology to go beyond. So beyond would be, in our case, would be hyper-personalization. So building trips are uniquely different for every one of our members to everywhere they go, and that two members are not aligned, therefore, the ideas are not going to be aligned.
Speaker 1:So the other day, the technology team was telling me that we can make a million combinations of trips to Paris. So a million different trips to Paris. This is the beauty of technology Paris, so a million different trips to Paris. This is the beauty of technology. You know, like, I don't imagine even the best travel advisor that could put so many options into work, and also they're probably seeing a lot of them. Also, for me, travel advisors playing that role of complexity and simplification Awesome, and I think that the best service is usually provided by a human that connects with you and can engage with you.
Speaker 1:But, you know, the technology for us is like is basically automating things that under the you know that you don't see in the surface but actually makes humans lose time to do things that could be automated.
Speaker 1:So that's how we are approaching technology and in you know, like, let's say, two I don't know if this one is this one like automating things that don't touch the customer experience but let our people be more efficient. The second part would be things that touch the customer, which is actually the digital interaction. Speed of delivering of the app are like that. They can, you know, just navigate the itinerary a lot better, see confirmations, and we have so much room to explore in that sense that people can just experience the destination better because we have the technology to support them while traveling. Like chat we have a Chinese-style server you can call me, you can email, but chat, for when people are traveling. We found that it's the desired way to communicate with us, so we have that enabled through technology and many other interactive features that you wouldn't be able to do or you wouldn't want to have the usual delay of connecting to a travel agent back and forth.
Speaker 2:For those people who are multitasking right now, and many of our listeners are they may be on your website, so essentialistcom for those of you who haven't found it yet They'll see. The membership fee is $2,600. And this is one of the things I mean. You highlighted a number of interesting examples there, especially around technology and the customer service element. From a technology point of view, clearly, customers just want to know that it works and they want to have certain tools that they have access to. But really, when it comes to the customer service and how your team, the editors and the uh, the team that put these itineraries together, I'd love to understand and to clarify the, the value add for, you know, for members like that, and maybe the best way to to to approach that would be to understand.
Speaker 2:You know who your members are, um, so, uh, what does a? Um, a typical essentialist member look like and where are they? I know the US is one of your biggest markets and North America, but you're, of course, based in Europe and so, yeah, tell us a little bit more about what I guess a typical customer profile looks like for the essentialist. Likely an affluent or high net worth individual is my assumption, but you tell us and also you know when someone's thinking about that $2, 2600, which you know for, uh, for affluent travelers, isn't a significant expense but, um, it does provide a. You know there's a barrier to entry to make sure that you are going to, you know, to benefit from this. So, yeah, tell us a bit about more who the customer is for essentialist, and then what the value they're getting for that annual membership fee yes, now, definitely.
Speaker 1:Let's say we are targeting an Australian traveler. Like you know that it's luxury travel not maybe doesn't need to be the top 0.1%, but we do. Why we do this is because we are actually creating the warmth of them. So the initial motivation for choosing something cannot be only the price. That's what we found. We're targeting people who can choose. It's like a luxury that not everybody has. But for the value of our proposition, we need to operate with customers that have the ability to choose based on a beautiful hotel In Amsterdam. It doesn't need to be the top hotel, it doesn't need to be like the luxurious suite. If they're looking for a boutique hotel, we're basically rooted on editorial recommendations and they will highlight different things for different profiles. But we know there's a minimum entry price and if anybody who has traveled recently knows that things are becoming pretty expensive out there, so we try to set the expectations right. We work with boutique four-star, five-star hotels, but mostly five-star hotels is our core or villas. So that's one thing, the other thing in terms of the profile.
Speaker 1:It's funny because the other thing that defines our audience beyond a certain level of being well-off is culture. So the couriers, they travel for a reason that is discovery, connection, local connection, history, fashion, gastronomy. There's a lot built into those trips that they want to maximize. So then, travel is a way to connect to their passions and to their family and their passions. So that's something that we, you know here, it's like our mantra, you know, like it's a connection, an opportunity to themselves, you know, to the thing that they really love doing and they cannot really experience that throughout the year and to their loved ones. So for them, traveling becomes that discovery opportunity, that connection opportunity, and they place a high value into those days that they're traveling and it kind of gets them the energy to go through the rest of the year. And they love the planning process, they love the discovery, the post. When they come back from the trip they're singing about the things they've done and the things they've learned. So that's another defining element of our members and I would say that then, beyond that, it's a lot more variety that you would think. Beyond that, it's a lot more variety than you would think. I think we have people who could be in their 70s, 60s, 70s. Kids have flown the nest, have you know aim and want to catch up with all of those trips, and sometimes they will get the family together traveling, sometimes they will travel by themselves. But we also have, like, even younger generations that come from the technology industry and they, of course, there's different motivations for the profiles, but I think that they are all meeting themselves with this idea of travel and discovery as something very valuable for them. And in reality, this is not that you if they place value and they see the value.
Speaker 1:Going back to the point of the old values, like we have a broader of the networks for capturing the right, you know, building the right from all the sources of information that we have. So they value creation a lot. So creation is an overused word, but in our case it's truly about creation. So that's the source of everything. We have access to places and to people that are not usually available through the tourism channel, so it's a very authentic, very local creation of the destination. We have experiences and unique access to many things that are happening locally, like meeting a local chef or a local fashion designer or an artist. This level of connections would be my second point of value that people love when we can make those things happen. And again going back to the human element, if you can connect with a human on the destination that shares your passions. That's usually the best possible experience for our members.
Speaker 1:And then there's something which I would call more the logistical part. We take care of the logistics. We give them 24-7. It's one booking, full confirmation. They don't have to worry about anything and everything's taken care of, everything's, you know, flawless.
Speaker 1:And I would say the last thing comes from more, even like the dream. Last step, it's not even executing their trips or planning the right itinerary, and then being 24 hours of them, it's about okay, you, we are enriching. Their next trick because that's sometimes the most difficult thing for our members it's like, oh, I've been there, I've been there. Yeah, I went to Italy. The last three summers, I went to the south of Italy. So what's next?
Speaker 1:So we have the editors as huge inspiration resources and maybe we will see wine harvesting in Mareira, or going to a secluded place in Montenegro, or discovering this beautiful town in Mexico that has something super unique for history and culture that you're going to love, or going to the Teatro Nacional of Buenos Aires, because one of the ballerinas there who's heading the teatro? She will be able to welcome you. And I know that you're passionate about money. No. So I think it is having that dream aspect and planning and execution. I think in too many of our members they said that we brought back joy to planning the trip, being in a stressful part of it. Something very important has always been, you know and there's many other ways to plan your trips, or by yourself or through the help of a travel advisor but I think that we combine. Something quite unique is that the ultimate itinerary is going to be different, the ultimate access that we have is different and, on the other hand, the process of getting there and enjoying it is quite unique.
Speaker 2:I would say yeah well, you nailed on a real valuable point right there, which is that the frustration factor and having a trusted friend that's going to handle your booking. We'll be right back. Our longtime listeners will be very familiar with TravelAIcom, one of our sponsors, from the very beginning. They've sponsored the last two seasons and also our AI Summit. You might actually remember they were recently featured in season four. The two co-founders, john Liotier and Chris Jensen, live from Focusrite, where they shared how their innovative use of AI is reshaping the travel industry. If you missed it, we highly recommend going back to hear their inspiring story of building one of the fastest growing, profitable AI companies in travel.
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Speaker 2:That's P-R-O-P-E-L-L-I-Ccom no-transcript. Now back to the show. One of the things you also had highlighted to me when we had a chance to meet in person was the fact that you've been gradually increasing the price, like the membership benefits, one of them being this annual travel consultation, which I love the idea of, because I do a call with our financial planner at the beginning of the year. I'd like to do one with my travel financial planner no-transcript. So a lot of these things stood out to me.
Speaker 2:I guess the part I'd like to know is when you mentioned hotels of course, that's, I imagine, a good part of your business and then what you do with the whole experience about connecting them to some of these local guides and having these really unique experiences. I mean, what are the types of experiences that you're seeing? Essentialist members book on the platform Because I was keen to know if you did flights and clearly you do so you have a private flight desk. But, yeah, what are some of the experiences that you're seeing? Is it mostly that you are putting together kind of a packaged holiday where you're putting together the flight and the hotel and the experiences? Are you also selling safaris? Like, what are you seeing in 2025 as the main driver for what people are booking through your service?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we do it. Also, it looks a lot more like if you had all the time in the world and all the connections in the world and you put your own little itinerary together, because we're kind of quite friendly towards the. You know very much on the side of the member if you want and that's part of the membership fee that they get and you can feel that value of them saying like, okay, pay a membership fee, but this, they work for me, they care about me and you know we're putting together this idea and they're putting it for me based on my preferences. Sometimes we will recommend you that hey, explore the neighborhood by yourself. It's a couple of places that our editor from some book is recommending you go and do your shopping there because it's an amazing fashion house. But it's a self-explore, let's say, something that you explore by yourself. We believe a lot of the authenticity as part of the travel experience. So I think there's something about the alignment that we provide to our members that they do feel that, okay, these people are working for me, as you said about your financial advice. So that's kind of the position we are with the members. We're really, really looking at the long term here. So our relationship spans through a number of years. They just get better and there's a lot of confidence built in the process In terms of the experiences.
Speaker 1:I think that a lot of it is based around like passions, let's say so. A lot of gastronomy is driving, you know, like a lot of passion, wine, things that are connected to the local culture. So sometimes we say it's 30% about what you like to do, 70% about what you have to discover there, and we want to make that mix, get that mix right. You have to try things that you wouldn't do in your hometown. That's the whole fun of traveling and expanding your horizons. So we're seeing a lot of local, local fashion, local artists, local culture, local food. You know understanding of the local society as well, or what you know like what is it that's happening there that I need to be aware, so that, yeah, I'm expanding my horizons and I'm becoming like a better world citizen.
Speaker 1:If you want, maybe you go, come to the mediterranean and you don't know that we have this Posidonia, which is like this little seaweed that is keeping the whole Mediterranean allies. You know sort of like places that are protected and you know, you, you have to that that is the single thing that is keeping our beautiful Mediterranean allies, you know. So we have experiences that you know. We have a beautiful experience in Mallorca that you jump on this sailboat from this NGO and basically you go with them to a beautiful island in Mallorca that is actually a preservation space for the Mediterranean diversity. Things that we're selling are like, so connected to the passions and to the destination that it would be even impossible to to to, to create like a standard experience. Beyond, to say that that is the perfect mix is like your passions, the local culture, the discovery, and even, let's say more, on a bigger, bigger, bigger strokes. We're finding places that have that culture within them. We're seeing a lot of Japan, past Korea, people discovering countries that have a lot of artisans, like even Morocco. That is something that is coming very much in the strong art center that people love, those countries that have a particular craft and beauty.
Speaker 1:Next attached to it, and maybe another term would be cultural events. Something that is happening could be a system. Why have a scene season? They could be a field festival. It could be a fashion week. It could be a as you know from your Taylor Swift crazy net, like it'd be a concert? I'm not.
Speaker 1:I think, in this day and age, it's where and when you know if you can combine both and people love it, it's like, okay, so I'm going to Mexico City, mexico, because there there's a new restaurant that it's opening and a couple of you know, art exhibitions that are happening at the same time.
Speaker 1:And it's like, okay, perfect, that's the time to go. And we're looking for a lot of those opportunities not that make you experience the, the destination, in a very special time of the year and and maybe a feel like you're like part of the, of the, of the crowd. They're not like imagining going to sevilla in the city or you know, there's so many places in the world that that you can have a beautiful tradition, so beautiful traditions and perfect times of the year that something particular is happening. And this is something that we feel quite it's coming up is people wanting almost to align to an event's calendar, so they become very inspired, like, okay, yeah, I do want to be there when that's happening. So we're finding a lot more of this than maybe three, four years ago or six, seven years ago, that basically it was more the destination only, and now it's like the destination and the time and people clear their calendars to experience that unique thing in their unique location.
Speaker 2:No, you mentioned a number of really fascinating trends there and I'm really keen to dive into that a bit further. But the one thing I also wanted to I to dive into that a bit further, but the one thing I also wanted to, I guess, step back and highlight is the trend itself as to membership based travel, because some of the trends you're getting into about destinations, I'm really keen to understand, I'm really keen to learn more from you and your experience what you're seeing for luxury travelers and what they're they're booking today. But when we think about just a membership based model specifically, I know there are companies that have tried to enter a membership-based model concept where you pay like a fixed fee and you get access to, almost like you know, the most classic model is like a timeshare base, which none of us like that necessarily that model or style of selling, that's for sure, but the idea that you pay a certain amount that's accessible and then you get the opportunity to go somewhere every year. So some of these companies that have come along that have created membership-based models have created this concept that you can take different trips each year but you pay sort of a set fee.
Speaker 2:I guess the first question I'd like to ask is what are you seeing in terms of trend of membership-based model? Are you seeing growth? I'm assuming the answer is likely going to be yes, but like what, what? What are you seeing in terms of your business with the growth around membership-based models? And I guess the second question, uh, joanne, is whether you have considered offering like another tier beyond what you have today. That is kind of like a fixed amount for your travel spend for the year and then you get you know you can, you can choose where you go.
Speaker 2:But yeah, uh, tell us about the membership model. Yes, where?
Speaker 1:you're seeing that, going in 2025, the membership model, I think, is it's very much where the society is moving and I would say, if you think about social class though, like that is a very good talent for us there's something about the feeling of being at home or dealing with a known partner that knows you and cares about you. I think it's a lot about the complexity of the lifestyle preferences. So this is membership in reality, because we're not doing like the other models that you were mentioning, which is more of a pre-purchase of the travel stand. What we do is simply as a service in our service, what we're guaranteeing is that, instead of you being moving around and you know, downloading your family lifestyle to every new provider, is that we're taking care of it? No, so I think we see, we know, we think people understand that it's not that, not that travel is such a complex part of your lifestyle, but it's such an important part that you would be willing to have a service to do it for you. As you said about financial planning, I think that probably travel is the single biggest spend of our members on entertainment beyond the house and everything else, but then, when you talk about leisure, travel is the biggest spend and they want somebody to handle it and they don't want to be moving around. That's what we found Like. It's a preferences storage, if you want, like the cookies of you know the, like the the model cookies would be in our case. Like that, technologies are humans, is that? And you want to call and you want me to recognize who you are. You know that, that you have a dog and you know like this, this and that and how they travel and so on, and and that's the beauty of the human connection for something that, for you, is very close to your heart. And you want somebody who is going to fight for your side, your corner, who knows you well enough that we're even able to surprise our members to say you didn't think about this then, but you're going to do this because you're going to love it. And that's the moment where you break, you know, like an invisible line where you're now actually and we're taking over.
Speaker 1:So I think, from that point of view, people are getting super used to personalization. Even Netflix is a membership service to a certain degree. You know, like I get my. I don't want to see your movies, I want to see my movies and I went. I don't want to see your movies, I want to see my movies and I don't want to see a movie that I've seen twice. So I think a lot of that knowledge about people's preferences, it's coming as an expectation. So I think that membership is only going to grow because it just delivers a better customer experience. It's a continuous line of experience as opposed to a fragmented line of oh hey, dan, where do you? You went to Kenya, like Japan two years ago. Were there any good like, give me a phone. But then I need to start from scratch. It's like oh, my name is Johan, I'm married, I have three kids, but oh, I didn't, I forgot to tell you that my own son, blah, blah, blah. And I think that this is where we see that helping hand, that personal aspect of the travel planning.
Speaker 1:People are placing a big value on this. I would say that even post-COVID that has boomed. Before people knew it. After they know it, they really know it and they place a value to this. And somebody was telling me something funny about the Gen Z set. It's kind of the generation and I think it applies to everybody who has been digitalized, which is all of us.
Speaker 1:So it's not that I cannot do it, it's that I don't want to do it myself. It's like, yeah, I know I can book a hotel, I know I can book a flight. This is not the value that people are looking for. But first, first you do it better, I do, and then, beyond that, okay, that's a commodity. But what about that restaurant? That how to organize my day? You know I like. You know I like a certain experience. So you're going to put it together, you're going to tell me how many days I should be in every place and you're going to unlock this connection to you know, this musician in a certain location. I'm really going to enjoy and expand my horizon. So I think that there's many elements to it, that I believe that membership is here to stay, not in travel, but in everything else like personalization. Not only in travel, but in everything else like personalization. People don't have time to waste or to spend. That's the core asset of people. That is scarcity. So I don't want to catch up with you. I want you to be ahead of me and I know that you know me, so it's a lot faster, easier. I don't want to give my you know my profile to somebody else and they start from scratch. That's a huge part of the deal In terms of this, you know.
Speaker 1:Moving back to the, you know I think there's some services, like you know, private flights or similar, where it makes sense not to you know, you buy your hours of flight, the flight, so then you can fly whatever you want. We think with travel it doesn't work quite the same way unless it becomes somewhat like a purchasing game more than a sales game. If I purchase and then I need to sell this across my members, I will end up at some point having a conflict, and we don't want to have that conflict. I want to start from scratch and say, dan, you know, like OK, time for yearly travel planning connection. So what do you want to do? And we start from scratch. We build something for you. We don't pre-buy or pre-purchase anything, so we have like the whole world is our canvas and we can have a conversation. We have the editor, so it becomes something very fluid.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of a little scared about that model where you have to deliver value at a set price, because it's not how it really works, unless you're squishing the margins somehow. Right now it works very well. People feel it's very transparent, very flexible, very open, very honest. It's fine because we break down all the prices. We're on your side, you can change whatever you want and we come together with this perfect idea that we make happen.
Speaker 1:But I think that part of this membership model comes with a lot of trust and a lot of transparency, so that they know that, okay, I'm here, I'm working for you, everything's transparent and, intimately, that they know that you're picking exactly that. Okay, I'm here, I'm working for you editing stuff by end. We are intimately that they know that you're picking exactly what's best for them and you're recommending what's best for them. But we've always been in that mindset of like never incentivizing our agent, you know, based on and or based on sending something in particular, like that, out of our scope, completely like it's. We're editorial driven and we're, you know, like relationship driven. So, whatever the member, whatever we think it's the best idea in the long run it's always going to be the best decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fascinating. I think you raise a number of really interesting points there, and one of them certainly is that you know travelers are very savvy and so they actually they can see value, and value is a term that um, a lot of travel brands want to use. We don't like to use the word value, but people inherently, um, they, they can work out for themselves if there's good value, so like based on that $2,600 fee, if they're getting great value for money based on the service, the offers, the um. So I take your point about not having a, a fixed amount that gives them an experience, because that's very difficult to navigate. Um. So is it fair to assume that, as it stands right now, with your membership model, um, you're not anticipating introducing tiers? If anything, you're gradually increasing the price based on the exclusivity of people being able to, uh, to become a sensualist member. Is that? Would that be a fair assessment?
Speaker 1:Well, definitely not. The tiered service is something that I always feel that it's a tricky thing to balance, because I kind of want to make it more universal in a way, Like I want to expand the service because we become more efficient, because we have the automation, we have the technology behind the scenes, we have better creation all over the world, so it becomes so much for us like we are better equipped to serve more people. So it's more of a capacity management at this point than it is a price management. So my goal is to be able to serve more people and not necessarily to increase the price point. We had some customers who said, like I just don't get it. How do you deliver this value for the money? I have a person there for me. How can you make it work?
Speaker 1:And for us the reason is technology. So behind the scenes, we are a technology company that everything is technology driven automation. At us. Here's a database of recommended places from our editors matching. We have a lot of technology behind the scenes that our goal is to continue upgrading the service by being smarter as to how we can deliver better value from technology. So we're scalable in a strange way, for being a very, the last mile is very high touch and very high tech, but high touch, but behind the scenes we operate like a completely startup, like a digital company. We're a technology company, but one that wants to deliver a premium service, not one to deliver that luxury human touch that comes from individual care.
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Speaker 2:And now back to the show, one of the things I'm keen to understand, given that obviously, you've built a luxury, membership-based travel business which is really rather unique and also, you know, very timely for the market today, that you know, given these factors we've been talking about.
Speaker 2:But I'm keen to know how you see it evolving Um, cause you've talked to, obviously, about a number of reasons why someone would sign up for essentialists, why people join um, the, the membership today, and I I this is where, like I find membership based concepts quite fascinating.
Speaker 2:I mean, most people are familiar with Costco in North America. Um, costco, of course, sells everything literally at um, uh their cost. They make their money off interest and and um, and their membership based model is actually their. Their profit line is what they generate for memberships, and obviously you've seen it with Amazon prime, and I'm a prime customer, and the interesting thing about prime is more so that it builds repeat, and so once you have a prime membership and you get everything delivered for free, all of a sudden you just start switching over your spend um more and more to Amazon. So I'll be very keen to know, um, I guess, your vision for membership uh in the travel space and how you think it will evolve, both your model and if you think there are other examples out there in the industry that you think will start to um to take off. So yeah, so I guess my question to you uh is is really, how do you foresee the concept of membership in travel evolving in 2025 and beyond.
Speaker 1:So I think the, the membership ends up being a community, particularly in our case, and we, we source and we deliver. So for me, something that affects the essentialist, we're keen on growing the membership because we're growing the pool of experiences that are unique to our members. That is growing the members. For us, the sourcing of amazing experiences locally, coming from connections that the editor has locally, or being able to access that closed door, like this amazing palace in Lima that nobody can access, and take a pistol shower the way Hemingway won't like to take it when he visits the owner of the house that is, for us, the ultimate asset. We want to build a differentiated content base. Us the ultimate asset. Like, we want to build a differentiated content base and we're doing it because we have a big, a growing community of members that are like-minded, that are a pleasure to host for our partners and insiders in the estimation. So that's a big thing. So we want this community to grow and for us it is these deals, differentiations, and the travel market is extremely fragmented. You're going to have, like, destination companies, like local tour operators, local agencies and so on, but very rare for somebody to take the full share of wallet of a customer. That's what we're aiming for and that's what we do For us. We are trying to get this 100% share of the member and that they really trust us for anything. And it usually works like this Now they buy the membership for a trip to, you know, a long distance trip, but then say, hey, but you do the US as well. You know, for US customers, like, you can do domestic, yeah, of course. Ah, you can LA, yeah, throw it out, yes, okay, even road trips, yes, whatever you want. And then can I put you in touch with my PA for work, because I'm staying at this horrible hotel that they're picking and I want to have, like, nice dinners with clients and you just have so much recommendations that my PA can ever source. So that's the beauty for the business, is that? That's why we're a long-term membership service. That's similar to Costco. Our mind is on the region with the member, like, okay, as long as we deliver value. This is an endless relationship. It becomes better with time because I know you better, and then on the other side of the equation we have the sourcing becomes even better. And then on the other side of the equation, we have the sourcing becomes even better, like the experience that you take while you're visiting a destination, the access that we can provide you, the amazing itinerary, and then it becomes like a self-fulfilled, you know, virtuous circle. So I think it's a big part for us what our goal is to keep growing, a big part for us what our goal is to keep growing.
Speaker 1:In terms of other membership models, I think in travel, as I said, I believe that there's going to be certain transportation Obviously. Loyalty is so big and people are so loyal to airlines, and even for private flights, I think it's a similar thing. And while all this models of transportation ground transportation from Uber to cars, sharing your car is something, I believe it's partially because of the benefit of the service, partially it's just because something they intimate to you Like you're changing cars all the time, but you're an Uber customer, you're an Uber customer and you become loyal to this because it works every single time. The only thing that the one thing that I believe it's quite unique about essentially, is that we're kind of at the top of the pyramid, that you are, I have the customer's contact and I want share of wallet from you, because that's what makes me give you the best service, so I don't need you know, like in our model you don't need anything else. Uh, we uh your gateway of access and I think there's many people that can take that position with a member at the same time. You know, because then, yeah, you may be a, you know, like a Hilton loyal member, but then you want to choose among the whole the global selection.
Speaker 1:So people who like to have like the biggest scope, they may have a slight preference on some loyalty airline, but if they have to fly somewhere where that airline is not a good option, they will fly another airline. In our case, we want to make sure that you never need to leave your space within, essentially, to go somewhere. So we will travel with you, like in a way like hey, have you been to, you know, namibia? Well, we actually had, but if we hadn't, we would say, okay, just let me give us, I will come back to you. We're connecting with an editor that has just went to Namibia putting together the content for you. We will plan it. So that's how we grew to where we are today, that we we have like 1,200 destinations all over the world. But I think it's part of this model that is expanding with the members and I think that's dealing with community local communities and tablet community is something that we see very strongly about as a huge benefit from our model.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really fascinating. And this is where I guess I'm bullish on the membership-based concept, because if you see membership organizations that have entered travel Costco, obviously we just talked about Costco is getting travel in a meaningful way because they can negotiate great pricing for their members and they'll book through their Costco travel Not the Costco, it's one of those things. What business do they have in travel? They sell tires, they sell everything from home appliances and um, and now um, you know, all of a sudden they're in travel. But then the more I guess closer examples I would think of um is like American express. You know any of the credit car companies. I mean I pay my $500 annual fee for my American express platinuminum card because I know I get all the travel benefits. I get a, I get a secondary fare each year for someone to fly with me, I get a great car insurance and I get all sorts of benefits to buy tickets to concerts and like, for me it's absolutely worth it.
Speaker 2:Um, and so that's where I would see that. You know, I guess the closest comparison for an essentialist is those credit card companies that are essentially membership based models. And so do you see them as competitors, or do you? And yeah, and I guess I'm also keen to get your some of your hot takes on some of the trends you're seeing this year. But yeah, I guess how do you look at American Express as an example? Is that someone is complimentary? Clearly they don't offer what you do I mean by any stretch. But yeah, is there anyone else you'd point out that you see growing in this space?
Speaker 1:I think definitely the American space has been for a long time. I don't know if it's been better than space, but they almost did. This was a very stressed community with benefits that at least happened at that space. They almost see it. This was a stress-tablet community with benefits that really happened at that scale and they're still very, very important.
Speaker 1:I think what differentiates us from the credit card models is two things. I think it's about the complexity of our planning, so we don't focus just on flight hotels. We're not a marketplace of items, which I think the Costco, the Costco's of the world, are going to put some things there, but it's very different from buying your tire than to fix your whole car. You know like you need to fix your car. Okay, you may be, unless you're super clever, you better give it to a professional. I think in this case it's something similar. Hey, I just I don't want the hotel on the side. I want you to tell me you know, you know us like. We've been to New Zealand once in our lifetime. We want to have an amazing experience and you know my kids, you know my wife. You know me, I love sports mostly. You know my wife loves fashion. My kids are vegan, like, okay, that's a cocktail you're playing with and they don't want to go and buy its piece themselves and see what happens. So I think that there's something about the complexity of what we're planning that is a little bit, you know, slightly or very different, I would say. The other thing is the intimacy. Like I think this is the only thing that a Costco membership wouldn't give you is like I don't need Costco to know my intimate passions, or like how we behave as a company, like if I like ballet or if I love theater, or like contemporary art, or my kids are into manga and Japanese. That's something that they don't need to know, but we do. So I think that that level of connection that is needed to plan travel is something that I don't think the credit cards can definitely give us.
Speaker 1:So we have a lot of creation, mega powers, a lot of personalization coming from the knowledge of the member that it's truly what I think, that that's what the members would love. It's another level from the credit card like, okay, I get benefits because I pay my fee. Okay, here's a complete difference. Here's the table's turn. I don't do anything.
Speaker 1:It's not that I'm here like checking for ourselves that they are telling, helping me to do the amazing trip to South Africa that I've always dreamed, and they surprised me with places that I would never visit, meeting people that I would never have the opportunity to meet and, in a way, it feels like we do have benefits. You know, like we have all the expected hotel perks that you would get from you know from you know VIP tours, but also like perks. So that's very important that we get like upgrades, late checkouts, early check-ins. You know, like credit on research credit. But I wouldn't say that that is our positioning.
Speaker 1:Our positioning is like the complexity of it and discovering and unlocking things that are intimately linked to what you really really love to explore, and that's kind of that matching is very uniquely ours. But, yeah, I think that the creative space, which is becoming very heated these days, I think they're running more into this idea of benefits, which, for us, is like it's perfectly fine, but that's a fraction of what we do. In fact, it's not where we place our value. I didn't even mention benefits when you asked before, because we take it for granted. Okay, yeah, benefits, you can access benefits several ways, but I'm going to tell you which is a hotel that you need to go according to our editor for you and your partner and your family. So we're getting to that point about us recommending you based on you and your individual preferences, and that's kind of this one-to-one recommendation engine that we've become on a very complex tablet plan that involves everything and everything.
Speaker 2:Well, just to underline your point about personalization and exactly what you had shared with me when we were together in person because it's one thing to say, you know, personalized recommendation for travel with family I just want to actually share the very personalized recommendation you made with me, because we were talking about business and life and family and having a great catch up in person and I was talking about our kids who are on the cusp of going university and you told me about your son, um, and the journey you took and uh, it's uh, so, um, I would love our listeners to hear that example because ever since you mentioned about going on a um on an incredible walking trip, like a making more of a pilgrimage, um, I've been fixated on this concept because it was such a nice transition between high school and university to take your son or daughter and have that one-on-one time, and so tell everyone, if you wouldn't mind, with a suggestion you made for me, which I was, I didn't even realize that was.
Speaker 2:Obviously I understood those options were out there, but I'd never seriously contemplated taking that type of trip. So, yeah, if you wouldn't mind, cause you had just done this trip. So it's also, you live it, so you walk the walk as well. So, yeah, tell us what you suggested for me and what your experience was with your own son.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, definitely, and I think it's part of what we were discussing about how meaningful travel can be. We all struggle to spend quality time with kids, with our loved ones, so I think travel is that opportunity for many people, and we've seen a lot of multi-generational travel. You know people getting together to celebrate something, you know, the villa or a certain destination. Well, in my case, and I think what we were saying is that my kid went to college this year by the way, he's in the West Coast, so you know very you know, in the US. So, basically, I it was actually a recommendation from a friend and then we incorporated it as part of our recommendations to customers he came with this experience of his life. He said you know, when my kids were going to college, I gave them you know, his birthday gift was actually the one that I copied my birthday gift was to go on the El Camino, you know, like a walking trip with my son, only with my son, you know, not the other, the rest of the family, just, you know, the both of us. And so we went on this beautiful experience in. You know, in this time it was the real Camino, which is in the north of Spain, you know, walking like 20 miles a day, choosing the path, sitting by a mermaiding cliff, eating something that we just bought in the little village before and arriving to the city, visiting a few places, having dinner together, and, more than anything, it's a space in between places, you know, like the journey time which usually you throw away in the trips and sometimes you discard that as a necessary evil to get from A to B. Well, here the A to B was everything. So we were walking for 8 hours, 6 hours a day, talking, and for me, you know, really it was the most valuable time getting ready.
Speaker 1:For me, Probably it wasn't so much him getting ready to live without me as it was me getting ready to live without him on my day to day. For me, I, you know, I treasure it. For me it's like a beautiful memory. We, you know, we're tied together. We enjoy it together. Memory, we, you know, we're tied together. We, we, we enjoyed together. We suffered a little bit because, you know, it was like long distance walking. We arrived to the town, we weren't.
Speaker 1:We really felt like a new relationship was, was building and definitely it was a super emotional time for me, a recommendation that I gave you because for me it was like, extremely worth it and I think it goes to show that connection with life and travel, that if you think about travel as this safe space where the rest of your life is away and you focus on something that you love and to discovery and I think a shared discovery is something that has a lot of value going out of routine and creating that space for connection I mean anybody listening in definitely I 100% recommend it.
Speaker 1:I have two other kids that are going to go through the same experience right. Hope they enjoy it as much as I will do. But it was really for me it felt like a, a, a milestone. You know, like almost like this transition, you know this milestone when you move from one relationship with your son to the next one, and you know it's a hugely, hugely recommended to be. You know, and that's a one-on-one Like you don't know, we're always surrounded by people. This time it was like to build that personal relationship that for me matters so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was a terrific suggestion. Thank you again. And actually, we have twins, as you know, and they're obviously going to be heading off to university at the same time and so, uh, we're all of a sudden going to be empty nesters and it's, uh, it's, it's hitting us, um, and so we're planning a trip to Europe. Actually, uh, we had the kids since you and I last caught up, um, uh, our son wants to go to Germany and our daughter wants to go to Spain, and so we're planning a two week trip and I actually I need to come back to you with some suggestions, maybe, actually how I can test out the platform to have an incredible week in in Spain.
Speaker 2:Um, but I do have a couple of last questions for you, and, and, uh, one of them is, uh, from the conversation we've been having today, um, for someone who is looking to, uh, I guess, redefine how they experienced travel and has been kind of inspired from our conversation, um, uh, why should they ultimately consider joining Essentialist? I know I asked you about the type of person and where they're based, but for those people who are out there that are, we have a lot of listeners, of course, that are B2B and we have a number that are B2C, actual travelers, and so if it's either an agency that might want to work with you or a traveler that wants to connect with you directly, what would you say to them? If you could speak to them directly right now and say why they should consider joining Essentialist, what would be the main driver?
Speaker 1:Yes, well, definitely, we would love to work with anybody who's passionate about travel and the religious or values, values. For me, you know what? It's kind of an easy sell which gives us the feeling that we're in a good spot. Like I can tell you that, from the people who we schedule calls, over 70% end up being a paying member. Why? Because, in reality, many of them feel like, okay, found what I was looking for. Like, yeah, travel is very important for you. Important for you, yes, it is.
Speaker 1:You want to travel in a meaningful way and, like you know, it's very important for you to have, like the cultural connection that you would like to have. Or feel like you know you're going beneath the surface, like you know you don't need to go to the flashy, flashy restaurant all the times you may want to go to eat a paella in a little cove in. You know, in Mallorca, that you need to go walking 30 minutes to get there. But that is actually the beauty of what we put together is that we believe in high and low, like there's no such thing, no such pleasant thing, about going five days in a row to a Michelin star restaurant, you know. So I think that we are very much looking for that excellent level of connection and authenticity and then for the right people, it's clearly worth it because they place a lot of value and even investment in travel. So they know they're going to spend money there and they just want to have the best possible experience. Of course, if they come through the podcast, we'll definitely do like something special for them and, you know, like a discount and like an extra something for some and, of course, you're done.
Speaker 1:I would love to engage with this beautiful trip, but for us, we found that we have a very big magnet for the people who are looking for this and like, okay, yeah, that's, I mean people who love reading magazines and, you know, like love to be informed about where they're going and and this editorial aspect, it's also like a big hook of ours. It's like almost like having this you know you pick your favorite magazine and well, that we have that person working for us or, in a way, like recommending to you instead of recommending to anyone who's reading their articles. No, so I think we we would be super glad for them to join our community. We do consider us a community of people who loves to travel and talk, travel and discover places and we believe the world is a beautiful place full of culture and richness and diversity. So we have that view of the world that wherever you go you're going to, if you know where to go, you're going to find something that is going to enrich you forever and it's going to be transformational.
Speaker 1:So we're welcoming those travelers and people from the industry. We love to talk about, talk with them, and you can definitely email us at membersessentiarycom or you can email me at joan at thesenshicom, j-o-a-n. I'm super happy to engage and to connect and yeah, I think this is you know clearly what you were saying about community and memberships. I feel that your podcast is a community, it's a membership in a way you know, like, I think this is the, this is where we're heading is like individual connection. People, uh, people who you know you share a certain point of point of view that you're going to, to be inspired with by, and that you respect and that is meant to be informative to you are like touching in a way. I think the editors represent that for us, like we, we, we live in this environment of people that we trust, that we want to share with you, locals that we trust that have built amazing stories and we want to bring those stories to as many people as possible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't agree more Obviously, the sense of connection and community is certainly what drives me with the podcast. Clearly, it motivates you as you've built out this successful membership-based model. The one other thing and we will be sure for our listeners to make sure that we include a link so that any special incentives. So be sure to check out the website and our social channels as you're listening to this episode for more details so that you can actually consider joining Essentialist or becoming a part of their community.
Speaker 2:The one thing I'd love to finish off on is some inspiration for 2025 travels. When you think about the amazing community you've built, clearly there are certain experiences that you and your team are able to deliver on that your members and community absolutely love, and so I realize that these are all very personalized, just like the example you kindly shared with me about my son, or a son and daughter, and kind of going on a, uh, a walking trip, um, but when you look at your forward bookings for 2025, I know you mentioned, uh, japan. You mentioned South Korea. My son, of course, wants to go to South Korea for sure, cause he just watched squid games and, um, he's totally obsessed with all things Korean, he's actually been teaching himself Korean, and so who knows?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what would you say just in closing are some of the trending destinations or some of the experiences, I guess, that people are seeking in 2025? What's standing out to you as you sit with your team and look at the bookings that are coming in? Is it safaris, Is it specific destinations? Are there any sort of, I guess, things that are standing out to you that are consistent in what your members are booking for 2025?
Speaker 1:I think there's certain trends that come together. I think that, even if it's like a weird disconnect from those nations like, I think, someplace the even if it's like a weird disconnect from those nations like, I think, someplace in South America, that could be Columbia, peru, yeah, um, it's. It's in a weird way connected to Japan and South Korea, meaning that these places that have a lot, a very strong culture, but they have a very unique landscape, so you can almost do everything on the same trip. You are discovering a new culture, you're experiencing incredible crafts, incredible cuisine. So we're seeing a little bit of those hybrid destinations that are not fully leisure, as you would consider, maybe a beach holiday or a place to fully relax, but they kind of combine this cultural aspect with a scenery or a landscape that is very rich and beautiful. So those could be one of the you know, colombia, peru, someplace in Mexico. I think Mexico is a very interesting. You know Mexico is a very interesting. You know, short flight from the US, that it's full of energy, full of culture, full of inspiration, that I think it's going to be, you know it's going to be even more of a center, of a cultural center over time, and this year I think we're seeing a lot of interest there.
Speaker 1:Something else is, you know, spain, france and Italy. I think that the grandmothers of two of them, in a way, those destinations. I think we always find new places and again, being from Spain, I can tell you there's still places that are like in Andalusia, that are so beautiful. Mallorca is a hidden gem. I am based here but we, we Americans, are loving it. It is becoming a destination, you know, super in demand destination from the US, but also from, uh, in many places in the world. That, uh, I think it's a destination that is going to to, to be among the. You know these beautiful locations that before where the marshy coast, so they caught the suit, I think my okay, clearly climbing to that level. And you know we do have like some completely different locations that maybe a place in Philippines, fantastic, incredibly.
Speaker 1:You know you mentioned safari. I think we're seeing even in Namibia. You know, like some places that are like unique in the world, like people are taking those wide open staves, like kind of this feeling of like being alone in a destination or feeling that connection to nature. So we're looking for different places in the world that can deliver that experience. But, as you say, like the world is really, really big.
Speaker 1:We kind of see the classics, we're reinventing the classics. So you know, like we always reinventing, you know, the Paris, the London, the Rome, the Italy, the Spain, the France, that's something that we're always reinventing. So there's always opportunities to go to the right place, to go in the right time and we always unlock beauty Portugal. You know our dear neighbors here in Spain I think it was probably one of the post COVID hits and there's like lots of places to discover there. So so we're really, and that plus combining with the calendar, not like that's what we're finding out, like we're coming in with tables for people at Noma.
Speaker 1:You know like, okay, like hey, this is the last season, piers, of a lifetime. Uh, you know, you have a fantastic weekend, have this amazing food experience. You know like, and you go back home transformed, so like we're finding those unique things that meet your passion and become like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So, you know, super excited to learn this and, as you say, it just happens that it's very personal. But well, we, we get excited with it. I just had a colleague that came from to Bhutan. Bhutan is that, you know, that beautiful country. You know close to Nepal, like a very particular way of handling tourism that you know people have to pay a relatively high fee to access but it's like untouched. You know very exciting locations to discover still in this big, beautiful world.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree it's going to be a big year for travel, clearly a big year for Essentialist, hopefully a wonderful year for you and your family as well, and I'm so glad that we finally made this happen. You kindly mentioned a number of ways that people can connect with you obviously LinkedIn. You put your email out there as well, which I appreciate, and people can obviously check out essentialist and we'll make sure that um, the link and any other incentives are included in the posts that we share this Um, and I guess I just leave us with where you're going to be traveling to in 2025. Personally, I know you're doing a lot of professional travel, but what do you have planned with your family for travel this year, johan? And then otherwise, how can we make sure that people stay in touch with you?
Speaker 1:Yes, well, in a couple of weeks I'm going to say Shams. So that would be fun, my first time there. So, looking forward to that, I I'm actually still like I'm a late planner. You know I shouldn't be, but I am with my family, you know like, they say, you know like, but I, we're hopefully trying to, you know, as you know, my son is studying in California, so we're definitely going to plan a family trip to California.
Speaker 1:Nothing that will shock listeners, but I, you know, los Angeles to San Francisco drive is one of my favorites in the world and I take the opportunity to, you know, to send you know like to our condolences, in a way, for the loss of people and nature and beauty that we've seen in Los Angeles. It's devastating for all of us that we love the city and the state of California. For me, you know wildfires, you know we were discussing this before we went on the call like it really is terrible for us that we lost. You know, nature and culture and so on. So, but you know that was one drive that we were really, really quick even doing as a family to then meet my older son. That he's, you know, in Talo Alto.
Speaker 1:So that would be one of the things that we are planning to do and all together we're kind of planning the next Skid Ridge, so we're going to do it a little bit more exotic than we used to. So that's kind of the the next thing that you know, as I'm starting to feel like okay, when your kids are, you know, slide the nest, and I think that the world has flown. Eventually, when you get together like, it becomes somewhat like okay, should we go somewhere together as a family? And what we were discussing, dealing that zone where you can I'm not like log your phones, log yourself in a beautiful home, ski and light a fire at night, and you know, because time is becoming now even more precious for me and for me, traveling is one way to make sure that you have your bandwidth and you have your space to engage. So that's kind of what's on my radar in California. And then we started to dream about the next ski for next year to somewhere a little bit more special, and everybody's chipping in with their suggestions and ideas.
Speaker 2:That sounds wonderful and magical. Even so, I'm hoping you get that ski trip in with the suggestions and an abs. Yeah, that sounds wonderful and, uh, magical. Even so, I'm uh, I'm hoping you get that ski trip in with the family, and I'll look for further inspiration from you, since your eldest is just a little bit older than mine. So your recommendations are all very relevant and appreciated and I couldn't agree any more with the sentiment, having lived in la people that are so unfortunately impacted.
Speaker 2:But the one thing you highlighted is, like, ultimately, the need to um, um, uh, to go back to these destinations when it is appropriate, which is that, uh, when people stay away from California, it will ultimately negatively impact the economy. So, when it is safe to return, um, go ahead and do that drive from San Francisco to LA and get back to um, so, uh, but yeah, no, joanna, I'm so pleased that we got a chance to do this. I certainly want to wish you and the team every success this year and I look forward to seeing you at some of the conferences, keeping in touch and bringing you back to discuss membership travel and how it's going to evolve in the future. So thank you again.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the invitation. You know, really good luck with the season five. It will or five will be. You know listening, I love listening, so really, really, I think that you do a great service to the travel industry and, I think, anybody who's into travel and passionate about travel, so we really admire some of your work from here.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for joining us on the latest episode of Travel Trends. I really hope you enjoyed this conversation about a membership model for success with Joanne Rocha from Essentialist. I definitely encourage all of our listeners to check out essentialistcom, learn more about their business. And thanks again to the Virtuoso team for connecting us in the first place. I hope many people get the chance to go this year and obviously, joanne and the team, I'm sure we'll be back at that event. So I'm wishing you guys all the best for an incredible conference in August.
Speaker 2:We have a number of event spotlights coming out over the next few weeks. As I mentioned in the beginning, we've got our aviation festival conference episode that just came out. Next week We'll have our adventure travel and trade association episode, followed by focus right Europe, and then I am taking a brief break over the summertime. We are going to be running season five, though, right until the middle of July. Our next series is going to be our deep dive into the world of in-destination experiences, sponsored by our friends over at Pernod Ricard. We're going to have some amazing guests for that series, including Joe Pine, the author of the Experience Economy, and we are going to finish season five with a conversation with Rod Cuthbert, the founder of Viator, and going right back to where the conversation started, if you want to make any suggestions.
Speaker 2:Going into season six, we're very much in the planning mode for guests and content. Feel free to reach out to me, dan, at travel trends podcastcom. And don't forget, our AI summit is now live with our early bird prices, so you can check that out on our website and sign up to join us. And, of course, we post clips and highlights from all of these episodes on our social channels, so be sure to check us out on LinkedIn, instagram and YouTube. Until next week, safe travels.
