Travel Journalists Pivot to Custom Luxury Travel Planning
Photo Credit: Essentialist is a digital venture enhanced by high-touch human contact, which launched on June 20, 2017. Essentialist
Skift Take
Another high-end, membership-based travel consultancy opens up shop. We wonder how these businesses will distinguish themselves as competition grows in the realm of "curating bespoke experiential localized" travel.
Another new high-end travel consultancy is open for business. But this one has a unique twist: Headed up by Nancy Novogrod, Essentialist will use both traditional travel advisors and lifestyle experts and journalists who have written for publications like Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Add the latest digital tools to the mix and you have a new entrant in the world of bespoke travel planning.
If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Novogrod spend 21 years as editor in chief of Travel + Leisure. Novogrod left T + L in 2014. The following year, Joan Roca, a Spaniard with considerable experience in online travel, approached her with an idea. "After years of working for online travel companies, I wanted to move away from treating travel as a commodity and instead put technology in the service of the true essence of travel—providing unforgettable experiences that trans
