Sanjar Imam shares how for today’s travellers, experience trumps over material and they can spend (big) on the former. He highlights that for the current traveller, experiential travel is luxury of a different nature. That is, of being the explorer and taking that adventure in pursuit of gaining knowledge to live a richer life, qualitatively. Read on to more.

‘Send me someplace nobody goes and give me an experience that is non-googleable’, was one of my latest challenge as a travel advisor. The request came from a HNI client who I have serviced for the past 15 years, designing his personal trips around the world as I saw his business and him grow over the years into a global multi-million dollar enterprise. A first generation dollar millionaire.

I am quite used to my clients, most of who are repeats or referrals, calling me with a destination they desire to visit, their travel dates and saying, ‘fix it’. They know that I know their past travel history, their travel preferences and (pertinently) the curve in life they are going through, both economic as well as social. I fix it. It is quite like ChatGPT. But more on that later.

I have witnessed their transformation; upgrading from economy to business to first and then to private jet travel; climbing up to top-tier room categories; seeking the latest and finest when it comes to food and beverages. That is where they are presently and unless something else revolutionary comes up, that is where they will be, since for most, it is a one way stairway.

The significant shift over the past few years has been in them wanting more authentic and immersive experiences at the destinations. In doing so, if they need to sacrifice luxury, they have now become willing. It has now become about not just becoming a genuine explorer or adventurer to explore but about authenticity and doing it on own.

For a moment, let’s go back in time now and the history of mankind as far as travellers are concerned. A Greek Explore called Pytheas ventured to the Arctic Circle as early as the 4th Century BC and recorded his observations of landscape, sea ice, polar bears and Northern Lights. Marco Polo, a venetian merchant and trader, in the thirteenth century, adventured along the silk route to China and spent twenty years there. He returned and created maps (Europeans did not know routes to Asia before that!) and went on about life, which also involved leading a Venetian Galley to a battle with rival city of Genoa. He was captured and jailed. In prison a travelogue was penned. Not by him but a romance-writer to who Polo narrated.

A couple of centuries down, ‘The Age of Exploration’, which began in the 15th century, saw the emergence of a new breed of travellers; the adventurer and explorer. These daring men and women set out on long and dangerous voyages in search of new lands, resources, and trade routes. Famous explorers of this period include Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan, who made some of the most significant discoveries in human history.

Travel as a trend caught on and we then hear about the ‘Grand Tours’ where Europeans took to travelling by design, to self-educate by experiencing distant lands, its culture, traditions and people, personally.

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar and world explorer. His quest for knowledge lead him to various parts of the world. Two of his most famous quote sum it all up about travelling first, ‘I have indeed – praise be to God – attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and I have attained in this respect what no other person has attained to my knowledge’. Another of his famous ones that is more relatable today; ‘Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller’. Social media today, as we know, is all about storytelling in text and imagery.

Let’s snap back to the present. It is quite apparent that the quest for adventure, knowledge and exploring it all yourself have been prevalent for a long time. Experiencing it yourself or ‘experiential travel’, if you please. The Baby Boomers had the financial means to travel and the industrial revolution was making it all possible for them to get them to travel. The hospitality industry sprung up and hasn’t stopped spoiling them to date.

Then came the future generations and along with technology.

Zoomers and the Millennials, when travelling, already care less about where they stay and concern and consume themselves more with experiencing the local and the authentic. Experience trumps over material and they can spend (big) on the former. For them it’s luxury of a different nature. That of being the explorer and taking that adventure in pursuit of gaining knowledge to live a richer life, qualitatively.

Today, we are at a cusp. The ‘information’ is all out there. I feel we are leaving the ‘information age’ and transitioning to the ‘intelligence age’. The ‘artificial’ in Artificial Intelligence (AI), may not be as artificial as we think. Think that ChatGPT, Bling and Bard were not known to us until a few months ago and today there are an acknowledged disruptor; here to stay! Plugins to these apps were not known to us until last month! Everything is getting hooked up and connected to the (not-so-artificial) intelligence. We are breathing life into the beast.

Transient we are with technology and I cannot hazard a guess where we will end up. For now I am still groping with ‘send me some place nobody goes and give me an experience that is non-googleable’… for one thing is for sure, the explorer and adventurer in us, will never die. Experiential travel is the way forward.

The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel to over 80 countries around the world.

This is the last part of series of articles describing how there has been a shift in the way people travel today wherein we are leaving the ‘information age’ and transitioning to the ‘intelligence age’.

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Revenge Travel was anticipated once Covid concerns curbed, and the past few months have certainly seen people wanting to travel with a vengeance. However, the industry was ill-prepared to optimise the demand efficiently as capacities had been curtailed during the pandemic and ramping them up is a long-drawn process. Continuing on with his series of article on ‘Evolution of Travel’ Sanjar Imam in this article elaborates on how the travel industry is assessing and catering to some new norms and demands.

Borne out of void and vulnerability, the former imposed and the latter witnessed up-close, travel today is more purpose-propelled than ever before. It is about making the most of the sliver of time and life left.

Dilshad decided to celebrate a life event, his wife’s 39th birthday, by buying out a boutique hotel at an exotic destination for 3 nights and inviting their closest friends for an experience that included fine food, best of beverages, picnic lunches and themed evenings with performers flown in. 39th is not a landmark birthday. He summed up his rationale of celebrating it nonetheless in four words; ‘kal ho na ho’ (tomorrow may happen or not). Covid has left him (and indeed many of us) jolted and brought a renewed sense of appreciation and awareness about the fragility of life and relationships. ‘When 40th happens, we will outdo this trip’, he had quipped. Value and the gratification of the ‘now’ has clearly eclipsed unpredictability of tomorrow.

Projections into future today at max is five years; hence, not fifty. Even five seems a few too many and so the wants shorten to ‘the next’ or even ‘now’. We want to live and experience life today and we want to do so with people who matter in our lives. We want to create memories, accumulate them so that we feel a sense of accomplishment within the life we are left with and the life span that we eventually end up with.

Monetary wealth creates opportunities to spend. When spent travelling, it can buy you that first class cabin on a flight, chauffeur on standby, an apartment-like suite in a hotel, the gourmet meal at a Michelin Restaurant and the likes. When all this was new it was about the bragging rights of having done it first … now it’s about doing it for self and importantly, discreetly.

Indians have gate-crashed the global rich list. Imagine that just 30 years ago there were no Indian billionaires! The economic reforms in 1990s made Indians step out of the socialistic-leftist mould, entering the red-hot crucible of capitalism and joining the elite list of global billionaires. In 1996 three Indian (dollar) billionaires emerged. Today there are over 120. Dollar millionaires in India today? Over 800,000. This is expected to double by 2026. So (and the point being) it’s not as much about trying to compete anymore (since it’s near impossible to do so unless you are in the top 10) as much as it’s about satisfying one’s own desires and ambitions.

The urge and almost the need to travel is not just the propriety of the ones who have arrived in life. The millennials today want to explore the world; party at that festival; do that adventure; dine at that restaurant; stay at that funky hotel and then Insta share it with all or who they choose to with. For them working to make a professional career is one part of life and living life itself, to the fullest, is quite another. They are fortunate of having arrived at a connected world and hence have the know-how and ability to draw distinct work-life balance. Travelling to experience life and the world at large, is as integral to them, as is making money.

Revenge Travel was anticipated once Covid concerns curbed, and the past few months have certainly seen people wanting to travel with a vengeance. However, the industry was ill-prepared to optimise the demand efficiently as capacities had been curtailed during the pandemic and ramping them up is a long-drawn process. As a result, we are witnessing a flux between demand and supply as the travel industry tries to grapple and grope with opportunities emerging. The equilibrium will be found in time, of course, and it is then upon the sector thought leaders to perceive & project and curate & create demand for new age travel going forward.

It is apparent that post pandemic our priorities and social values have adjusted and changed. The travel industry is assessing, trying to understand and cater to some new norms that have prevailed such as need for flexibility in changing schedules with no or minimum financial loss, the advent of artificial intelligence on our mobile phones off late, the seeking of customisation and personalisation by travellers and expecting speedier turnaround time since the booking windows are now shorter, to mention a few.

By this time next year, we will likely see a nuanced travel trend emerging. Going by the resurgent demand it appears that meaningful, responsible and customised travel are tenets on which tourism will thrive.

The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel to over 80 countries around the world.

This is the fifth part of a series of articles describing how revenge travel has evolved in the travel industry. This series of articles is aimed to give readers a glimpse of the history of travel- its evolution through the ages, showcase the current scenario in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry and discuss the future of travel.

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Today, getting a room in a hotel can be achieved within a matter of minutes using laptops or smartphones with the help of applications that directly connect us with the brands or travel agents that help in the process. But was it always a case like this? Sanjar Imam, through his piece, elaborates on how hotels came into existence, and highlights the wide distance that the industry has covered to stand where it is today. Read on to know more.

Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is an inn of four-star standards with 35 rooms in Yamanashi prefecture of Japan. It is located at the foot of the South Japanese Alps and has all of its hot water directly sourced from hot springs. You could stay here for GBP 350 a night.

This trivia may sound ordinary. What is remarkable and distinguished though is that it opened its doors in AD 707 and is the oldest operational hotel in the world, run by the same family for forty-seven generations now! A fact certified by Guinness Book of World Records.

I earlier wrote about ‘A brief history of travel’ and ‘The evolution of tourism’. The history (just like the future) of hotels and their industry is just as intriguing. The precursor to modern-day hotels were inns that came about around the fifteenth century. These inns would provide the traveller with some place to sleep, meals as well as stabling and fodder for horses.

In time inn owners brought in professionalism such as timetable, set food menus to edge over the competition and that is when we start seeing likeness to the hotel industry. The term ‘hotel’ came up in England in about 1760. It is quite amazing that from the times the modern hotels started coming up the industry has been on steroids but for two significant depressions; the World Wars and the recent Covid Pandemic when for the first time in history we saw countries close their borders.

Les Trois Rois, at the very heart of the city of Basel, founded in 1681 as ‘an inn for gentlemen’, still operates as a hotel and may well be one of the oldest modern hotels in Europe.

However, there are several claimants to that title. In England, The Royal Clarence in Exeter in 1768 was the first to open and 1792 saw the first publicly held hotel, called City Hotel, open in New York City. The idea though really caught on with the opening of Mivart’s Hotel that opened in London in 1812, which later became Claridges.

Tremont House in Boston, USA opened a few years later in 1829 and it holds the record for many industry firsts; indoor plumbing with toilets and baths, free soap and a proper reception desk. The Savoy Hotel swung its doors open in August 1889 with Cesar Ritz being the General Manager.

Cesar Ritz had a modest beginning as a floor waiter at The Splendide in Paris, a lavish European Hotel but he was swift in rising ranks working at hotels in France and Switzerland, gaining valuable experience as he did.As a hotel manager Ritz was the first to mandate, ‘the customer is always right’. In 1888 he teamed up with Chef Auguste Escoffier to open Conservation Haus Restaurant in Baden-Baden. It was a year later that the duo was invited to London to become the General Manager and the chef of the Savoy. The outstanding success of the hotel then was the mastermind of these two.

The subtlety and delicacy of French haute cuisine were introduced to the English by Escoffier and the aristocratic women, hitherto unaccustomed to dining in public became a common sight in full regalia at Savoy dining and supper rooms. Escoffier went on to become an institution by himself bringing in discipline and a brigade system of hierarchy in the kitchen, which is still followed to date.

Ritz on the other hand was dismissed from the Savoy over alleged embezzlement. Disgruntled he went on to create his own, Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1898. He then went on to open the famous The Ritz Hotel in London in 1905 and followed it up with The Ritz Hotel Madrid in 1906. He enjoyed his partnership with Escoffier through this phase.

Around that time in USA, Ellsworth Milton Statler, built his first ‘permanent’ 300-room hotel in Buffalo, New York in 1907. The first-to-have room with ensuite bathrooms. Earlier he had experimented twice with temporary accommodation, one that was a failure and another that was a huge success. In 1901 for Pan American Exposition he had constructed a 2,048-room wooden structure that could accommodate 5,000 guests.

This failed for various reasons. However, in 1904, for Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, he put up another wooden structure of 2,257 rooms that was the largest hotel in the world then. He made handsome profits of USD 361,000 with this venture and that was invested into the making of his first permanent hotel in Buffalo, Statler’s Hotel. It’s success led to a chain of hotels in several other American Cities. The Statler in St. Louis was the first in the country to have air conditioning. The Dallas Statler was the first to have elevator music. Statler died in 1928 and eventually in 1954 his widow sold the Statler chain of hotels to Conrad Hilton’s Hilton Hotels for USD 111 million, the largest real estate transaction of those times.

The next largest and grandest hotel to open was The Stevens Hotel (later became Hilton) in Chicago in 1927 with 3,000 rooms on 28 stories and it retained the title of the world’s largest until the late 1960s. Presently the record for the largest hotel with 7351 rooms lies with First World Hotel in Pahang, Malaysia.

Having started as a root beer outlet in 1927, John Willard Marriott, in 1957, made a historic shift into the hotel business by launching a motel. Rest, they say, is history. Today Marriott has grown to become the largest hotel chain in the world with a staggering 8,100 hotels worldwide offering over 1.5 million rooms and revenue of USD 19.29 billion. Just the last year has seen an increase of 66.59 per cent year-over-year!

The hotel industry itself today is worth USD 525 billion with 18 million hotel rooms, employing 4.5 million people and is projected to grow at 4.7 per cent over the decade ahead.

How did the hotel industry end up with a bull run like no other? And there seems to be no stopping! Read on.

I feel in the era of the modern hotel industry there have been four distinct revolutions that have spurred supernormal growth. The real estate boom at the turn of the twentieth century through to the 1950s was the first. You have read through a couple of stories above of how hotels turned into chains through smart strategies, mergers & acquisitions and financing, creating vast wealth in the process.

The second was a period when the Baby Boomers and Generation X flourished. With a plenitude of disposable income, the focus panned to higher levels of service expectations and delivery. Businesses and brands such as Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and St. Regis emerged, taking service levels to pampering levels. It was all about luxury and superlative service.

The inventive and ingenious innovators could not be left behind and amongst the crowd they created a niche for themselves, coming up with boutique hotels, some of which, in their own orbit went on to become chains.

These hoteliers targetted a distinct segment of guests and attracted them with offerings to their appeal. In the early days Holiday Inn of IHG Group targeted families, offering kids-stay-free and free ice cream. Off late, founded in 1988, the ultra-luxury Aman hotels are known for having hotels at breathtaking locations, locally inspired architecture, abundant space and ultimate privacy.

Over the years they have managed to create loyalists who are known as Aman Junkies. There are several such hotels and hotel chains that have made successes (space here does not permit mentioning them). Be it overwater villas, lodges in the wilderness, igloo accommodations or tree-top rooms to sleeping pods, all imaginable and doable have been created and are there for the offing.

The latest revolution has been brought about by technology in travel at the turn of the new millennium. I traced its history in my article ‘The Tech in Travel’. The onset of the internet, its explosion and e-commerce have transformed and propelled the hotel industry to unbelievable realities and opportunities.

The room inventories managed by Booking Holdings and Expedia Group is mind-boggling. A unique business model saw the launch of Airbnb, the creator of who thrives and profits from room inventories that are not owned by them. They turned over USD 2.1 billion in revenue, which was a 58 per cent growth year-on-year!

The world wide web today also makes customer reviews of hotels accessible through sites like TripAdvisor. The guests can rate their stay and either warn other travellers or persuade them to go to a certain location. It is now easy for them to find the hotel they like, in the perfect location, and even make the booking on their smartphone on the go.

Mobile applications have made the user experience flickable and clickable. Contactless check-ins are a reality already. The day is not far when the functions in your hotel room will be personalised to be operating through your paired phone or even by your voice command.

Data will be the main driver in the decade ahead. If you are an avid traveller, there is information about you and your preferences available and it will be increasingly so. Be prepared to be sought after by hotels rather than you searching for them.

The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel around the world.

This is the fourth part of a series of articles describing how hotels came into being. These articles will give a glimpse of the history of travel- its evolution through the ages, showcase the current scenario in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry and discuss the future of travel.

The post The becoming of hotels appeared first on Panache World.

It is difficult to imagine a journey without the involvement of technology today. However, there existed a time when manual work used to dominate the travel scene. Highlighting the change in that travel industry has witnessed over past, Sanjar Imam talks about difference between a technology deprived past and a technology dependent present in his series of articles on history of travel. Read on to know more.

Millennials do not know any other way to issue flight tickets other than whipping out their smartphones, opening a tool, doing a search, selecting a flight, feeding in personal data and paying for the ticket online. All seamlessly in a matter of minutes. How were you booking your flight tickets a couple of decades ago?

Perhaps reaching out to a travel agent on a call or personally visiting an airline office and letting the agent on the other side, of a now seemingly archaic computer monitor box, do all the ‘tech’ work.

Quite like how an in-person visa application processing happens today. Imagine this for a moment – You could not see the selection of flights or airfares available on a certain date and instead had to rely on what an agent was telling you!

Let us go back a little in recent history, a mere 75 years ago, say, when India became independent. What was the process then of booking a flight ticket world over?

An airline would have a brick-and-mortar booking office in a certain city. The sales agent would need to make a phone call to that booking office and request information on a specific flight. The airline booking agent would get up from the desk, walk over to a filing cabinet (no mobile phones then!), retrieve a flight card, and return to the phone on the desk to inform the sales agent if there was availability.

Once asked to book, the airline booking agent would check off a box with a pen and return the flight card to the filing cabinet. The ticket then issued would be a hand-written paper ticket booklet with one coupon per flight sector. Finally, there was the whole accounting and payment process to be taken care of. All of this would take hours together.

Reservation problems erupted when requested flights would get full. This meant back and forth between the customer, the sales agent and the airline booking agent and of course, the fact that the airline agent could only attend to one call at a time.

Pause a moment here to absorb that in 1845, Thomas Cook arranged travel for 165,000 travellers, managing all the customers and booking data using just a paper ledger and a fountain pen (ballpoint had not yet been invented!). It is bewildering to think it was all managed without the use of technology. However, the advent of technology was inevitable.

Enter computers. Funded and powered by large airlines, galactic names such as Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus emerged, offering, initially mechanical and eventually computerised reservations system solutions. In 1952, American Airlines installed Reservisor, an electromechanical system of vacuum tubes and a magnetic storage drum that allowed the airline to store seat availability on a centralised platform that could hold data for 2,000 flights 31 days into the future.

American Airlines had to reorganise their booking offices that employed hundreds of telephone operators to cater to consumers at large, travel agents and large corporate accounts and also coordinators between various other cities. It did result in more bookings and Boeing orders but the system was hugely dependent on manual inputs and prone to errors; almost 8 per cent of all bookings contained errors.

Besides each booking was still taking upwards of 90-minutes to process. That is when American Airlines partnered with IBM and launched Sabre in 1960s, a computerised reservation system (CRS) being used to this day. The honour of the first CRS though does not go to American or Sabre but instead to Air Canada who preceded them by a couple of years but couldn’t compete geographically to become large enough as Sabre.

Other allied travel services that were inventory intensive could not be left far behind. The MARS-1 produced by Hitachi in 1958 was the first seat reservation system for trains. Fidelio launched its first property management and hotel reservation system in 1987.

Supply was created, and it was time for distribution. The goal was to get that availability in the hands of those who controlled access to customers. Enter the travel agents.

As airline routes and booking processes became complicated for customers, they started relying on travel agents to book their airline tickets. In 1976 Apollo, CRS of United Airlines allowed access to travel agencies. Others followed suit. Based on volume, incentives were provided to travel agents by the airlines to boost sales.

The travel agents would receive these as overrides on commissions and they started doling out deals to customers to gain customer loyalty. Travel agents turned into decision influencers and the airlines started losing grip of their inventory and effectively sales.

Enter Internet … and the resultant direct-to-consumer approach. We all know how that has played out. It was Sabre in partnership with the growing computer network services business, CompuServe, that provided the first known instance of online bookings for both airlines and hotels via EAASY Sabre. In 1995, Viator Systems launched its travel technology business with a focus on providing tours and excursion bookings via the world wide web.

A year later, a small division of Microsoft called Expedia launched its website offering online bookings for air, hotels, and car rentals. Another year down the line Travelocity, owned by Sabre, launched its own site to help customers who preferred their own customisation.

The internet blazed through the world like fire, connecting people all over. The traveller was bombarded with information, oftentimes an overload of it. There was space for a platform to offer in-depth recommendations and experience reviews by travellers. In 2004, TripAdvisor launched and filled that gap.

2008 marked a major milestone when Apple, after the very successful launch of its first iPhone the previous year, made the iOS SDK available for third-party developers. Airbnb was the first of many ‘peer-to-peer’ marketplaces launched that year providing homeowners with a place to list and rent out their spare rooms to strangers.

With so many websites on the world wide web, choices became many and consumers are obsessed with screen shopping across multiple websites to find the best deals. Kayak, whose co-founders had previously worked at Expedia, allowed customers to find airline pricing results across multiple websites within one web portal.

The model, which has remained relatively unchanged to date, is known as the metasearch model and is one of the fastest-growing search models for airfare, hotels, rental cars and now also experiences and guides. Like any other business, the tussle for market share amongst metasearch is ongoing with Google dominating and HotelsCombined, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Trivago, Kayak, Skyscanner and several others jostling around.

From creating supply to its management through CRS and from creating distribution to enabling smart technology, bringing the world to your palm, travel technology has evolved and come a long way indeed. One would wonder how much more efficient can it get.

Those invested in technological research claim another wave of transformation in travel is getting set to unleash. I am not a techie but I am intrigued and fascinated by the next big potential change. Having said that, after spending 35 years in the travel business I do know and can predict that the industry focus has zoomed in on people and by people I mean individuals. To you.

The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel around the world.

This is the third part of a seven-part series of articles centered on the way travel has evolved. These articles will give a glimpse of the history of travel- its evolution through the ages, showcase the current scenario in the travel industry, and discuss the future of travel

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Tourism industry has evolved as a result of witnessing decades of ups and downs. From dealing with leisure to propagating education to promotion of businesses, tourism has been an integral part of various historical developments. Sanjar Imam highlights how the tourism industry reached where it is today in this second of a series of articles.

We have become digital nomads. The becoming has been driven by a whole new generation that by the convenience of being digitally connected is growing up with evolving social values, delayed life stages and different objectives in life than the previous generations. They value experiences over possessions and more than ever are turning to travel to enrich their lives. It is not just about travelling to amazing or ‘cool’ destinations but there is also a penchant to prove one’s presence by sending instant electronic evidence; Insta post over a stamped postcard. Travel itself has existed since mankind, which I wrote about in my earlier article, ‘A brief history of travel’ (click here to read) but the evolution of tourism has an equally intriguing history.

I entered the tourism industry when ‘The Grand Tour’ was still romanticised and was an inspiration for journeys. The elite would plan months in advance and undertake these trips with much research and preparation. For the travel company I worked for, these were the British, visiting an independent and evolving India in the 80s and 90s. They would have custom-built itineraries and their quest, borne out of curiosity, was part reliving the nostalgia of The Raj, part adventure and part educating themselves over a vacation. The trips would averagely last over eight to twelve weeks during the winter months in India and the stories and anecdotes be retold back home with friends and family during English Summers.

The Grand Tours in itself were ventured by the British nobles between the 17th and 18th Century and they cultivated the first journeys for education and pleasure. Of pursuit was the idea of broadening one’s horizon by acquiring knowledge and honing social graces. Such noblemen, aristocrats and the affluent would travel around Europe for two to four years with an entourage of tutors, mentors, protégés, domestic servants, coachmen and other staff. The journeys of these young ‘milordi’ (literally meaning ‘my lords’) would commence from British Isles and take them to Paris, on to Switzerland and crossing over the Alps to Italy. The itinerary involved spending months together in three or four larger cities such as Paris, Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples and weeks at lesser known places enroute. The activities involved learning about arts, architecture, culture, traditions, skills and as much, if not more, times were indulged in parties, balls and debauchery.

In time something similar to a modern-day package tour emerged. A ‘vetturino’ (‘voiturin’ in French) akin to a tour guide would transport luggage and the entourage on a predetermined route with scheduled stops. There were options to include boarding and lodging as well as paying for tolls, taxes and gratuities. This would take care of two potential problems: the risk of theft by highway rogues and the transportation of carriages over the Alps. Often times a sedan chair powered by four to six chair carriers would physically transport the grand tourist over the arduous Alps. Once on the other side of Alps, a separate carriage with horses would be arranged and waiting to continue the rest of the journey. An arrangement, quite similar to one-way car rentals today.The English may be credited for instituting the educational travel phenomenon but in all fairness, the Grand Tours were not exclusive to the British; it was a practice of most of Europe’s privileged. The Grand Tour as a concept went off custom and fashion with the advent of railways and its growing network, opening up destinations all over the world. The explosion in travelling made the world shrink and it was not long before a carpenter-turned-entrepreneur, Thomas Cook, widely acknowledged as the first travel agent, pioneered group tourism. In 1841, he would arrange for a special train to take over 570 people from Leicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting. For 1 shilling, passengers got round-trip train travel, band entertainment, afternoon tea and food. Cook crafted a passengers’ handbook, now widely considered a precursor to the popular travel guidebook. A lesser known historical fact though is that before Thomas Cook planned that famous day trip on train, a Portuguese gentleman called Bernardo Abreu founded Abreu Agency in 1840. The fifth generation still runs the family-owned tourism business.

Yet another company of British origin claimed to be the longest established travel company in the world by virtue of having a history dating back to 1758. Richard Cox was appointed as a military agent to look after affairs, supplies, baking services and passage of British troops to the Indian Subcontinent. The business flourished over the eighteenth century and at the turn of the nineteenth Cox & Co came into being. They went on to absorb the business of Henry S King & Co, a small bank with Indian interests, with which the name ‘Cox & Kings’ came into existence. In 1923 their banking business was taken over by Lloyds Bank Limited and by 1960 Lloyds sold this acquired business to National and Grindlays Bank Ltd.

A couple of decades later Grindlays sold its nonbanking that included travel services to an Indian Setup as the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, sought to ‘Indianise’ colonial institutions by forcing them into local ownership. Cox & Kings India with the new promoters grew strength to strength, not just within Indian and UK but globally for almost four-decade until it all came crashing down a couple of years ago; a mind-boggling story still getting unravelled.

Incidentally, a debt-ridden Thomas Cook collapsed as well at about the same time in 2019. Indeed, GBP 1.2 billion was paid in interest alone from 2011 onwards. And by the end, it had racked up debts of GBP 1.7 billion, meaning that it needed to sell three million holidays a year just to cover its interest payments.

The other reasons cited for the collapse had a more poignant perspective: with the changing world of online bookings, customised & personalised travel and millennial travellers as a reckoning customer base, was Thomas Cook not able to adapt and shift their business model in time?

The year that was to follow had not just the tourism industry but the world at large in awe and shock. Countries were forced to shut down their boundaries to foreigners for the first time in mankind. Travelling became a far cry as each of us were confined for weeks together to a few square meters of our own domain called home. The experience was so humbling that it set a mobility scare for months to come. As far as economics goes, the tourism industry, which contributes about a tenth of the world’s GDP, was the first to shut down and the last to recover.

As we find ourselves at the nascency of a new norm that is emerging, there is one thing that we do know now whilst calamities by nature have the power to impede human advances, they do not as yet to wipe out human intelligence. We, humans, will eventually prevail. Our perceptions, our priorities and perhaps our principles may have transitioned but it would hold us in good stead if we embrace them going forward. Tourism itself will witness significant transformation in the decade ahead but the essence will remain eternal: we will wander.

The author is the Founder & Director of Panache World, a travel company specialising in customised travel around the world.

This is the second part of a seven-part series of articles centred on the way travel has evolved. These articles will give a glimpse of the history of travel- its evolution through the ages, showcase the current scenario in the travel industry, and discuss the future of travel.

The post The evolution of tourism appeared first on Panache World.

A friend referred a couple to me. She called: ‘We’ve never used a travel company … we book everything ourselves but you came highly recommended. Can you book our Brazil-Colombia trip?’

Her husband had done all the research. Could she send me a document to review?  

I received a 17-page file on WhatsApp. Colour-coded. Cross-referenced. Weeks of ChatGPT queries distilled into meticulous detail. They wanted me to ‘just book it.’  

On her next call, I asked one question: ‘What do you want to feel?’  

Silence.

The document had everything; flight times, hotel ratings, restaurant suggestions, hidden gems. Thorough, algorithmic, soulless. AI answers every question except the one that matters: why are you really going? For me, that is the opening line on which any meaningful trip is built.

What AI misses, humans still understand

I use AI myself. As a matter of fact, 40% of travellers do. Research is faster, comparison easier, booking seamless. But information paralyses. When TripAdvisor shows 1,146 hotels in Cappadocia, how do you choose? The algorithm shows popularity. It does not know you. It knows your data shadow.  

AI optimises for data, not delight. It finds the highest-rated restaurant but misses the Cappadocian kitchen where the grandmother still prepares slow-cooked testi kebab in sealed clay pots, smashed tableside before serving. Reviews reflect reviewers, not places. That ‘disappointing’ Marrakech riad? The guest wanted a pool in the medina. They missed the point entirely.  

Travellers spend six months planning two weeks. They arrive exhausted, overprepared, underwhelmed.  

Timing is everything. AI suggests Tanzania in July. Peak season. Wrong for those seeking the Migration without crowds. I move clients nine days either side, late June or early August. They witness river crossings with a tenth of the tourists. Nine days make the difference between trip and transformation.

Sequencing creates rhythm. AI books Cusco, then Sacred Valley, then Machu Picchu. Efficient. Altitude sickness guaranteed. I reverse it. Valley first. Acclimatize gently. Machu Picchu on day four. Cusco to celebrate after. The algorithm sees destinations. I see heartbeats, oxygen levels, bodies adjusting.

The power of access. In Rajasthan, AI books palace hotels. I send clients to havelis I have known thirty years. The owner joins them at dinner, slow-cooked, served under stars. They talk about royal lineage, about times when their forefathers were kings.  

Crisis invisibility. A client’s Kanha safari permit was revoked because of last-minute government VIP visit. Tiger sighting chances gone sour. AI would offer refunds. I had them driven to Bandhavgarh; better reserve, maharaja’s hunting lodge, the finest naturalist guiding their safaris. The tiger they photographed made their magazine cover. Disaster became story.

ChatGPT sent a couple to ‘the best pasta in Rome.’ Thirty-minute walk in August heat. Closed two years. They do not know what they do not know. When Stockholm-Kiruna trains cancelled mid-winter, my clients called. Private transfer within the hour, routed through an ice hotel, lunch with reindeer herders. Disaster became highlight.

The human behind the itinerary

A new client shared their Japan plans with partial bookings done during cherry blossom season. They asked for my views. AI-recommended, typically,  Tokyo-Kyoto hotels. Five stars. Stunning photos. I saw what they could not. Modern. No soul. Besides, the world descends on those cities during those dates. You see more mobile phones than cherry blossoms.

‘Cancel it. Trust me.’  

I moved them a week earlier and booked the Kumano Trail, walked by pilgrims for a millennium. They had the cherry blossoms almost entirely to themselves, a few locals and barely any tourists.  

‘How did you know?’  

I did not explain that at an industry event, I had spent an evening with a Japanese ground operator who shared such secrets over indulgent drinks. That conversation, years ago, became my clients’ experience.

That client has been booking all her trips with me for over a decade now.  

I use AI. I use it for what it does well; data mining. But I am pro-humanity.  

AI processes data. I interpret dreams.

AI finds options. I make choices.  

AI provides information. I create transformation.  

Surveys show 71% of travellers value human support when plans collapse. Half prefer blended AI and human guidance. Only 4% want AI alone. The paradox? More information means travellers need someone to make sense of it. AI has not made me obsolete. It has made me essential.

Why experience still creates transformation

I did use that 17-page document, by the way … to understand what the couple thought they wanted. Then I asked what mattered. Twentieth anniversary. How do you feel? Depleted. Exhausted. Empty nesters navigating new territory. What do you remember from your honeymoon? Tuscany. Trattorias. Just each other.  

I discarded their document.

Changed their destination entirely. Sacred Valley hacienda in Peru. No agenda. Three nights. Then Inkaterra at Machu Picchu with hummingbirds hovering at breakfast. Cusco afterward, ambling cobbled streets, pausing when tired for pisco and ceviche. Then Atacama Desert lodge in Chile — no WiFi, no news, no distractions. Sunsets over salt flats and star-gazing under the clearest skies on earth.  

They returned transformed. Not because they saw more, but because they felt more.  

She wrote: ‘Our research and document would have given us a trip. You gave us ourselves back.’ 

AI tourism will reach $1.5 trillion by 2032. The future is algorithmic, automated, instant.  

But AI will never know that marriages need saving more than sightseeing. It will never understand that ‘cultural immersion’ is often hunger for meaning, not monuments. It will never recognize that the best gift is not another site but discovering that making something with your hands restores something in your heart.  

These are human recognitions, human readings, human wisdom.

They require decades of watching people; not processing data, but seeing souls.  

AI can plan a trip.

Experience plans a memory.

Expertise creates transformation.

After nearly forty years of doing it, I know which one lasts.  

The algorithm tells you where to go.  

I tell you why it matters.  

And in the end, that is everything.

Do you share this belief — that travel should move you, not just take you places? Let Panache World craft a journey built on understanding, intuition, and meaning. Book your next transformative trip with us.

The post How AI made travel planning efficient — and soulless appeared first on Panache World.

When the photo steals the moment

Somewhere between my thousandth sunset photograph and my inability to remember most of them, I realized the camera was stealing more than it was preserving.

Several years ago I was at the Taj Mahal. The legend, the scale, the beauty and the perfection of the Taj was not new to me. I had seen the Taj in all possible hues a dozen times before.

That particular day, I was not there for the Taj.

It was to be a rendezvous of sorts. She was to be there. I had to be there.

My impatient eyes found her, perched on a marble bench halfway between the Taj and me, her back to the monument. For me, the Taj blurred into white insignificance.

Minutes later, she stood and walked toward me. As she approached me, I saw the signature tilt of her fine face, the upward glance, her eyes locking into mine, then the smile — partial at first, then plentiful.
No words were exchanged. She looked down, crafted her next step, walked past me and away.

In those minutes, I fell in love with her, hopelessly and forever.

No camera caught that moment. But I carry it still, more vividly than any photograph might have.

The photograph captures what is there. Writing captures why it mattered.

The difference between looking and seeing

Years later, I met another girl, Bhanu, eleven years old, in a Bishnoi village in Rajasthan. She appeared at a window of unfinished brick, wrapped in a pilled woollen shawl, her face solemn, sometimes stern.
I photographed her. That photograph shows you: a poor girl in rural India.

But when I walked over and showed her the image on my camera screen, her joy kindled blushes she could not suppress. Her shy smile, then beaming, brought out the cheer that is natural, naïve, nice in a child. Priceless for me in that moment.

I tried coaxing her into smiling again for the camera. The images did not do justice.
The photograph documents. The spontaneity of the moment illuminates.

I watched a young woman on Gion Street in Kyoto take hundreds of selfies for the perfect shot. She wanted just herself and the empty street so she could capture the traditional Machiya houses without people ruining the frame.
She tried endlessly. Focused. Determined.
Behind her, two geishas walked past — white-painted faces, elaborate kimono, the distinctive shuffle of geta sandals on stone. The exact thing every visitor to Gion hopes to glimpse. Rare, fleeting, authentic.
She never turned around. Never noticed. She was too busy with her mobile screen, waiting for the street to be empty of life so she could photograph it perfectly lifeless.
She may have got her shot eventually. Empty street. Houses. No people.
She missed the geishas entirely.

The photograph becomes the experience. The experience becomes secondary.
I have been guilty of this. I have stood before extraordinary things and experienced them through a lens, composing the shot, checking exposure, missing the actual moment in pursuit of its replica.
The camera taught me to look. But it forgot to teach me to see.

About twelve years ago, I realized something uncomfortable: I remembered trips by photographs, not by experience. If I lost the photo, I lost the memory. The image had become the memory. That felt like a betrayal of the place, of the moment, of myself.

So I changed. I started writing instead of photographing. Not immediately, that would be as intrusive as the camera. But later. That evening. The next morning. On the flight home.
I would sit with what I had seen, felt, noticed. Let it settle. Then I would try to capture it; not the image, but the experience of it.
The discipline of writing forces you to articulate what mattered. Why did that moment stop you? What exactly did you feel?
A photograph does not ask these questions.
Writing makes you choose: Which detail matters most? The color on the door or the sound it made closing? The woman’s face or the way she held her child’s hand?
Photography captures everything in the frame. Writing captures only what haunts you.

Choosing memory over image

I am not a fundamentalist.

I carry my phone but use the camera within selectively.
I photograph faces, with permission, because expressions are fleeting. I photograph details too intricate for memory alone: a door knocker in Marrakech, tile patterns in Lisbon that took someone’s lifetime to lay.

I photograph moments with family and friends. Not necessarily for Instagram. For them. For later.

What I do not photograph anymore: monuments captured definitively by others, sunsets I will see again, ‘proof I was here’ shots I do not need.

The rule I try to follow: I photograph what is irreplaceable and unavailable elsewhere.

Everything else of essence, I try to write about.

Words convey what cameras cannot see, the before and after, the internal landscape, the why beneath the what. When I write about a place, I am not showing you what I saw. I am inviting you to see it your own way. Your riad in Marrakech will smell different from mine. Your autumn reds will differ. The olive grower’s voice you imagine will be different from what I heard.

That is not a failure of writing.

That is its purpose.

The photograph insists: It looked like this.

The narrative suggests: It felt like this. What might it mean to you?

One closes a door. The other opens it.

Forty years ago, I travelled with film cameras that were expensive and limited to thirty-six exposures per roll. You chose carefully. Today, people take two hundred photographs in an afternoon and remember nothing. I take two photographs in a week and remember everything.

The difference is not the camera. The difference is attention.

Photography taught me to look, to notice light, composition, geometry.
Writing taught me to see, to understand why it mattered, what it meant, how it changed me.

One is documentation. The other is memory.

I choose memory.

And perhaps, in reading this, you might choose it too.

Do you find yourself aligning with this way of seeing the world — to travel for meaning, not just memories? Let us craft a journey that feels as vivid as it looks. Book your next trip with Panache World.

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The reduction of TCS to 2% in the Indian Budget 2026 offers significant advantages for luxury travellers. Panache World’s founders, Sanjar and Loveleen, explain how this enhances financial flexibility, broadens destination options, and strengthens the value proposition.

The Union Budget 2026 has generated considerable discussion regarding reforms to TCS and TDS. For discerning luxury travellers, however, the focus lies in the tangible benefits to international travel planning. Panache World’s founders, Sanjar and Loveleen, have analysed these changes and explain how for a traveller it expands and restores control over travel expenditures.

Enhanced financial flexibility for trip budgets

Consider planning a bespoke trip that costs ₹20 lacs. Under the existing tax laws, travellers are required to budget upwards of ₹25 lacs upfront, comprising 5% GST on the package value and a steep 20% TCS on overseas tour spending (exceeding ₹10 lacs annually). Sanjar described this as a liquidity constraint, with approximately ₹4 lacs of TCS effectively collected towards income tax.

Effective 1 April 2026, TCS is reduced from 20% to a uniform 2% for all overseas tour packages. The same ₹20 lakh journey will now require only ₹40,000 (instead of ₹4 lacs) to be collected upfront. This adjustment, as Sanjar notes, eliminates the necessity for overbudgeting, thereby expanding the scope of affordable travel arrangements. 

Expanded destination viability

In recent years, travellers have adjusted their aspirations to accommodate the steep 20% tax collected at source, frequently selecting less expensive destinations such as Bali in lieu of an European journey. The diminished TCS burden restores viability to these premium long-haul pursuits. This is no silver bullet, but we project sustained demand growth within 3-6 months. Industry analyses corroborate this outlook, anticipating increased investment in experiential elements among HNI, which is encouraging for companies like Panache World, which go beyond ticketing and booking just accommodation.

But wait. What is TCS?

TCS (‘Tax Collected at Source’) operates as an advance collection of income tax at the point of transaction, quite similar to TDS (‘Tax Deducted at Source’) on salaries. Loveleen illustrates: “For a ₹10 lakh booking, where the government previously claimed 20%, increasing the immediate outlay to ₹12 lakhs plus GST, with funds potentially unavailable for up to a year pending reconciliation. This mechanism previously influenced payment decisions and relationships with planners”. The new 2% rate aligns TCS with that applied to luxury vehicles or property, establishing a more equitable framework.

Why this brings Indian travel designers to the fore

The previous high TCS rates adversely affected Indian travel designers, prompting clients to make direct payments to overseas hotels or operators, thereby avoiding the levy. This resulted in substantial turnover losses for Indian travel designers, including instances where we ourselves recommended our clients to pay for hotels directly. Loveleen underscored the rationale: “It is unfeasible to expect a client to keep their funds immobilized for 6-12 months, depending on when they travelled”. At 2%, Indian travel companies regain competitiveness, offering expertise in tailored experiences without disproportionate tax implications. The Budget’s intent explicitly supports repatriating business to authorised Indian operators.

For a ₹40 lacs family European itinerary, the prior structure immobilised ₹8 lacs in TCS; the revised rate limits this to ₹80,000, liberating ₹7.2 lacs for enhancements including better accommodation, private guides, and exclusive dining. Annual multi-destination travel becomes more practicable, unencumbered by progressive tax accumulation.

TCS on foreign credit card spends gets added automatically, but credit card companies often mess it up or forget to link it to your taxes. And when you want to reach them to fix this, it can become a challenge. With Panache World as your travel designer, we track it for you, keep you updated, and fix any issues fast—so it all works smoothly with your income tax return.

How we expect luxury travel behaviour to evolve

From an insider’s lens, we anticipate a gradual but meaningful shift over the next few months, rather than an overnight spike. Global economic uncertainty, currency movements, and geopolitical factors still influence outbound travel decisions, especially at the very top end.

However, two behavioural trends are likely among Indian luxury travellers:

• Return of curated itineraries: Travellers who had temporarily moved to direct-pay or piecemeal bookings are likely to come back to full-service planners now that the “tax penalty” has largely gone.
• Bigger, bolder trips: Where budgets were previously cut to avoid heavy TCS, you are more likely to see families choosing longer stays, more varied routing (multi-country Europe, world cruises), and rare experiences they had postponed.

For discerning travellers, this Budget effectively reopens the world with fewer artificial brakes. The destination you truly want—and the way you want to experience it—is now easier to reach without feeling that a disproportionate chunk of your budget is disappearing into limbo as advance tax.

At Panache World, we’re already recalibrating itineraries to maximise these tax efficiencies—whether that’s structuring the optimal blend of packaged experiences and standalone bookings, or unlocking those bolder European odysseys and rarefied retreats you’ve deferred.

Ready to experience travel without artificial constraints? Contact your Panache World consultant today or email info@panacheworld.com to book a 30-minute no-obligation consultation. The world awaits!

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When complex travel logistics are lifted from your shoulders, you are then free to fully immerse yourself in the moment, connect with the people and the beauty around you

You’ve envisioned it. A pristine beach in the Maldives, a thrilling safari in the Serengeti, or a deep dive into the cultural heart of Japan. The dream of luxury travel is intoxicating. But for the smart Indian traveller, the true mark of an extraordinary journey isn’t just the destination itself, it’s the journey there and back. 

It’s about how every single moment, every transition, every detail, unfolds flawlessly, leaving you free to simply exist in the wonder.

This is the ‘Panache Promise’. 

We believe that the pinnacle of bespoke luxury travel is a seamless travel experience. It’s the silent ballet performed behind the scenes, ensuring that from your very first dream to your cherished memory, every step of your adventure is handled with exquisite precision and care. 

We make complex luxury travel logistics disappear, so all you feel is pure enjoyment.

The invisible art of planning

The magic of a seamless journey begins long before you pack your bags. It starts in the detailed, meticulous planning phase, where our team becomes your invisible orchestrators.

1. Meticulous itinerary construction: Our private luxury travel design goes far beyond booking flights and hotels. We meticulously craft the entire flow of your journey. This involves optimizing timings between activities, ensuring comfortable transitions, and designing a pace that truly suits your style. We consider every minute detail: from the ideal time for a sunrise safari drive to arranging a private art viewing, ensuring each element flows perfectly into the next. It’s an art form, perfected over years.
   
2. Rigorous vetting of every partner: A seamless journey relies on a network of trusted partners. We only collaborate with the best in the world. Every hotel, every guide, every chauffeur, every expedition leader is rigorously vetted by our team. We ensure they meet Panache World‘s exceptionally high standards for service, discretion, and authenticity. This deep trust in our exclusive travel network allows us to guarantee consistent excellence, no matter where your adventure takes you.
   
3. Comprehensive pre-departure briefings: We empower you with all the necessary information, without overwhelming you. Before you depart, you receive a personalized travel kit. This includes beautifully presented itineraries, crucial contact numbers, local insights, cultural etiquette tips, and sometimes even personalized packing advice tailored to your specific destinations and activities.
   
   This proactive approach ensures you feel prepared, confident, and excited for what lies ahead, turning potential questions into effortless answers.

On the ground: the orchestra of effortless execution

Once your journey begins, our Panache Promise truly shines. This is where our behind-the-scenes orchestration transforms potential stress into pure delight.

1. Private, discreet transfers: Say goodbye to waiting in lines or navigating unfamiliar transport hubs. From the moment you land, a courteous, professional chauffeur awaits with a high-end vehicle. Whether it’s a luxury sedan, a private helicopter, or even a traditional dhow boat, every transfer is private, punctual, and comfortable. This allows you to relax, absorb the scenery, and maintain the relaxed pace of your journey without any travel hassles.
   
2. Expert local guides and chauffeurs: Our guides are more than just navigators; they are living encyclopedias and cultural bridges. Handpicked for their expertise, charm, and discretion, they enhance your experience with insightful commentary, local stories, and genuine connections. They anticipate your needs, recommend hidden gems, and ensure your exploration is both informative and enjoyable. Our chauffeurs, too, are chosen for their impeccable service and knowledge of local routes, ensuring your journey is always smooth and secure.
   
3. 24/7 dedicated concierge support: This is the cornerstone of stress-free luxury travel. Our dedicated concierge team is available around the clock, no matter your time zone. Need a last-minute restaurant reservation in Paris? Done. Lost a piece of luggage? We’re already on it. Feel unwell? We’ll arrange medical assistance immediately. Our team is always a call or message away, ready to assist with any request or unexpected situation, providing ultimate peace of mind. You don’t have to worry; we do that for you.
   
4. Discreet monitoring and real-time adjustments: Even when you’re enjoying a breathtaking view, our team is subtly working in the background. We monitor flight schedules, local conditions, and weather forecasts in real time. If an unexpected change arises, we proactively adjust your itinerary and logistics, often before you even become aware of a potential issue. This foresight and adaptability are key to maintaining that seamless travel experience regardless of external factors.

Contingency planning: anticipating the unforeseen

While we strive for perfection, we also prepare for reality. Even in the world of private luxury travel design, unexpected events can occur. Our experience and meticulous planning mean we are always one step ahead.

• Proactive problem-solving: Our team anticipates potential challenges and develops alternative solutions. This could mean having backup transport options, alternative activity plans in case of weather, or simply knowing the best local resources for any need that might arise.
  
• Robust emergency protocols: For any genuine emergency, we have clear, comprehensive protocols in place. Your safety and well-being are always our top priority. Our local connections and global network allow for swift and effective responses, ensuring you are always cared for, no matter the situation.
  
• The Power of experience: Years of crafting complex, multi-faceted journeys for the most discerning travellers have honed our ability to navigate any scenario with grace and efficiency. This accumulated wisdom is invaluable in ensuring your journey remains effortless, even when the world throws a curveball.

Cherished memories and lasting impressions

The true measure of a seamless journey isn’t just the absence of stress. It’s the depth of the memories you create. When every logistical concern is lifted from your shoulders, you are free to fully immerse yourself in the moment. You can truly connect with the culture, the people, and the breathtaking beauty around you.

The Panache Promise is about more than just managing details; it’s about safeguarding your precious time and attention. It allows you to forge deeper connections, absorb more experiences, and return home with a heart full of treasured moments, rather than a mind full of logistical woes. 

It’s the ultimate luxury: the freedom to simply enjoy.

Ready to experience a truly effortless journey, from your first inspiration to your most cherished memory? Explore our journeys to understand how we can tailor your next adventure. If you have any questions, our FAQs under the Contact us page might have the answers, or better yet, let’s connect directly.

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In a world saturated with information, why are the most discerning travellers still turning to human expertise for their most precious journeys?

From our daily commutes to our online shopping, artificial intelligence (AI) and automated tools are reshaping how we interact with the world. The travel industry is no exception. 

With AI tools promising to generate itineraries with a few prompts, it is easy to wonder: do we still need a human touch for our travel plans? For basic trips, perhaps. But for the new-age traveller seeking a exceptional, personal, and flawless journey, the answer is a resounding yes. 

A computer program, no matter how advanced, cannot replace the nuanced understanding, the global network, the intuitive problem solving, and the genuine passion of a human travel curator.

At Panache World, we firmly believe that your dream personalised luxury travel experience begins not with an algorithm, but with a real conversation.

“AI tools help you find basic information or identify widely known options. It is tempting to think that this information is all you need to plan a trip.”

Where AI stops short

AI tools and online booking platforms are certainly impressive for their speed and access to vast amounts of data. They can instantly pull up flight schedules, compare hotel prices, and even suggest popular tourist attractions in a given city. They can help you find basic information or identify widely known options. It is tempting to think that this information is all you need to plan a trip.

However, when it comes to luxury travel, AI hits a fundamental wall. These tools are designed to process existing data. They excel at efficiency based on what has already been documented and uploaded online. What they cannot do is understand the unspoken desires, the subtle nuances, or the profound emotional connection that defines a truly exceptional journey. An algorithm knows facts, but it does not know feelings. It can offer options, but it cannot offer intuition. It cannot understand your heart’s true yearning for an exclusive travel experience.

The human edge: intuition, nuance, and unspoken desires

This is where the irreplaceable value of a human travel curator  shines. Unlike a machine, we understand that luxury is not just about price, but it’s about precision, personalization, and profound impact.

1. Reading between the lines: You might tell us you want ‘adventure’, but a human expert knows that for some, it means heli-skiing in Canada, while for others, it is a gentle wildlife photography safari in Botswana. We listen to your words, but also to your tone, your hesitations, and your aspirations that you might not fully articulate. We understand the implicit desire for tranquility, the unspoken wish for authentic cultural immersion, or the need for discreet privacy. An AI can only process what you type; a human can interpret what you mean.
   
2. Tailoring to emotions and experiences: An algorithm can suggest a Michelin-starred restaurant, but it cannot discern if you prefer a vibrant, social atmosphere over an intimate, quiet evening. It cannot know if you truly value a sunrise meditation session on a remote mountaintop over a bustling city tour. Our curators delve into the feeling you want to evoke, designing moments that resonate emotionally and create lasting memories, not just checking boxes on a list. This level of emotional intelligence is far beyond any current AI capability for a custom travel itinerary.
   
3. The power of personal chemistry: Building a truly bespoke journey is a collaborative process based on trust. You are sharing your dreams with us. The relationship with your luxury travel consultant India is built on confidence, understanding, and shared excitement. This personal chemistry ensures that your itinerary evolves into something uniquely yours, a reflection of a genuine partnership, not just a series of data points.

The global tapestry: network, access, and unveiling the unseen

Perhaps the most significant limitation of AI in luxury travel lies in its inability to forge real-world relationships. AI works with what’s publicly available. A human curator works with a living, breathing global travel network.

1. Deep-rooted relationships: Panache World has spent years cultivating direct, personal relationships with local experts, discreet concierges, private estate owners, master artisans, and exclusive service providers around the globe. These are not merely vendors; they are trusted partners who understand our standards and our clients’ desires for truly unique experiences.
   
   “An AI cannot pick up the phone and call a private vineyard owner in Burgundy to arrange a clandestine tasting not available to the public. Our team can.”
   
2. Insider access to the unseen: This network is the key to unlocking exclusive travel experiences that simply cannot be found online or generated by an algorithm. Imagine:
   • Private, after-hours tours of the Vatican or the Louvre, experiencing art without the crowds.
   • Discreet access to a historic family palazzo in Florence for a private cooking class.
   • Meeting a fourth-generation silversmith in Rajasthan in their private workshop.
   • Staying in a private conservancy in Africa for an uncrowded, profound safari.

These are experiences built on trust and personal connections, not public booking systems.

3. Beyond search results: discovering genuine hidden gems: The true gems of travel are often not advertised online. They are whispered secrets, local favourites, or unique opportunities known only through deep, on-the-ground presence. A human travel curator discovers these nuances through constant exploration, vetting, and direct experience. This is what truly differentiates a Panache World bespoke travel India itinerary.

The unforeseen: problem solving with empathy

Even the most meticulously planned luxury travel logistics can encounter unexpected turns. A sudden flight delay, an unforeseen weather event, a last-minute change of heart, or a minor emergency. This is where the stark contrast between an algorithm and a human truly becomes evident.

AI can pull up alternate flight schedules. It cannot, however, empathize with your frustration, negotiate with an airline on your behalf, arrange a private charter from a remote airstrip, or discreetly re-route your entire multi-country itinerary while you are enjoying a private dinner.

Our luxury travel consultant India team offers 24/7 travel support that is empathetic, proactive, and effective. 

We anticipate challenges and have contingency plans. When a real issue arises, you have a dedicated human who understands your specific trip, cares about your well-being, and possesses the expertise and connections to solve problems in real-time, often before you even feel the impact. This level of personalised, stress-free luxury travel simply cannot be replicated by a machine.

Your dream demands a human touch

While AI and digital tools have their place in the broader travel landscape, they remain just that: tools. For the traveller who values authentic connections, unparalleled experiences, and absolute peace of mind, the human element is irreplaceable. The intricate weave of intuition, global relationships, proactive problem solving, and genuine passion is what transforms a mere trip into the journey of a lifetime.

At Panache World, we believe your dream luxury trip deserves more than an algorithm. It demands the discerning eye, the compassionate heart, and the unwavering dedication of a human curator. We are here to listen, to design, and to ensure your most precious journeys are not just planned, but perfectly orchestrated.

Ready to experience the irreplaceable difference of human expertise? 

Meet our passionate team of travel curators. We have a few testimonials from clients who have travelled not once or twice but several times with us.

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