Four massages a day if you wish ...

In last week’s Part 1 of the 2024 Consumer Travel Editors Roundtable, journalists from Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic, Afar, the New York Times, Robb Report, Town & Country and web-based Wonderlust engaged in conversation with guests Aziz Abu Sarah and Scott Cooper of Mejdi Tours about their unique business model.

The tour operators, one Palestinian and one Jewish, co-founded Mejdi with the hopes of providing a path to greater political awareness and insight for travelers going to countries with strong internal divisions. Abu Sarah and Cooper became friends when they were co-directors of George Mason University’s Center for Reconciliation. They subsequently came to believe that travel offered untapped opportunities to promote peace and understanding by offering exposure to multiple political narratives during carefully curated tours.

In Part 2, the group looks at other trends in travel, including how all-inclusives, cruising and sustainability trends have been evolving as well as the pros and cons of traveling in a luxury bubble. 

The roundtable was moderated by Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann and was hosted by Acadia restaurant in Manhattan, where chef Ari Bokovza, who is half-Tunisian and half-Israeli, serves “a taste of the Levant.”

The original transcript has been edited for length, and the chronology has been altered to keep dialogue about specific topics together, though the topic might have recurred at intervals during the course of the conversation.

Arnie Weissmann, editor in chief, Travel Weekly: I would think that many readers of the publications represented at this table might find Mejdi Tours interesting but would want a five-star version. Aziz, do you do that?

Aziz Abu Sarah, co-founder, Mejdi Tours: Our tours are typically four-star. We try to price them so that a three-star traveler can afford it, but those who want five stars will also enjoy the properties. But we customize upon request and do a lot of five-star stuff. For instance, we’ve partnered to run the land operation for private jet trips with a very high level of luxury.

Weissmann: While we’re on the subject of luxury, what trends are catching people’s attention?

Mark Ellwood, editor at large, Robb Report: I just did a big story about the reimagining of all-inclusive luxury. Airelles, for example, is deliberately bumping up its average daily rates and saying, “Look, we are going to be the most expensive all-inclusive in market because we are going to bundle generosity into that rate.” They have a staff member explicitly to wrangle turndown gifts — that’s someone’s job, to come up with innovative turndown service. It’s easy to wince a bit when thinking of all-inclusive, but there are lots of ways to manifest that in your culture. We want to feel generosity when we travel.

Jesse Ashlock, U.S. editor, Conde Nast Traveler: I’ve heard of turnaround specialists, but imagine saying your job is to be a turndown specialist.

Ellwood: I had stayed at Cheetah Plains [in Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, South Africa] a few years ago, and it is very, very expensive. But what’s included with many villas are a full-time sommelier, a full-time chef, a full-time butler and a full-time spa therapist. So, whenever you want a massage, it’s included in your rate. You can have four massages a day if you wish.

And I think cruise ships are increasingly being very generous that way. If you go to the top tiers, you get whatever you want onboard. And, honestly, I will go back to this point: If you’re on vacation, isn’t it lovely to not think twice about saying, “Yes, I will have another massage.” It’s the way I like to travel.

Klara Glowczewska, executive travel editor, Town & Country: I loved sort of swanning around on a recent cruise. I was in this cocoon, and I could go out in my bathrobe in the hallway and go to the spa. I knew that there’d be endless choices for my meals, and that I could listen to the expedition leader talk about what we all did today and what we’re doing tomorrow, depending on the weather — which is going to be dramatic, or not dramatic — as you’re sipping your martini. You know, it’s all great. It’s fun in a way that I hadn’t expected.

Ashlock: I’m not really a big fan of traveling in a bubble and have often said that if you like traveling in a bubble, you’re doing it wrong. However, with the world being the way it is today, sometimes you want a bubble.

Abu Sarah: We ran a trip for National Geographic in the United Arab Emirates. The first few days were heavy — we did a lot of the reconciliation practices we talked about, and then we went to Al Maha, in Dubai, a desert resort. It’s an all-inclusive, very expensive, and you spend two or three days there and give people time to relax, get up and have breakfast in front of their pool. And then, get a massage and go on a camel ride where you’ll have wine waiting for you in the middle of the dunes. There is a way to mix these things together, a mix of education, relaxation and fun.

Ashlock: When talking about all-inclusives, it’s much like cruises; they can be so different, so disparate, and we need different words for the different experiences.

Ellwood: That would help us hear the term “all-inclusive” with a more open mind.

And you’d need three or four different words for the different kinds of experiences in the cruise industry. It reminds me of when Explora came out and said, “We’re not a cruise ship.” And they used some weird word salad to try and describe themselves.

Weissmann: And to your point, their name, Explora Journeys, doesn’t end in “cruises” or “cruise line.”

Abu Sarah: We’re talking with a cruise line about an all-inclusive trip — all you can eat and drink, all excursions included — and we would provide 100% of the content, all the guides, all the experts. It would be co-branded between us and the cruise line.

Weissmann: How did they find you?

Abu Sarah: I had known people there for years — we had worked together when they were at different companies, so they knew our product. I think it’s amazing that even all-inclusive experiences are figuring out you can have this luxury and a bit of a bubble around you but still do things differently.

Starlight Williams, travel editor, National Geographic:
Especially since the pandemic, all-inclusives have become attractive. We were fatigued — we didn’t want to have to think about what to do. You could have everything bundled together. At an all-inclusive, I could have a Spanish class, I could make tacos down the street with someone’s grandmother, and it was all part of the program — I didn’t have to pay anything extra.

And I’m in my robe, in my safe bubble.

Ellwood: You are so right — it’s decision fatigue. When I’m on vacation, take away my need to think about anything, because I’m exhausted.

Williams: Americans don’t vacation correctly. We’re still working while on vacations, making all these decisions. But with all-inclusives, everything’s paid for, so have fun. It makes sense that luxury is going to that direction.

Amy Virshup, travel editor, New York Times: I don’t travel in the bubble quite as much. It would be lovely, I’m sure, but I think it would feel claustrophobic. And I think getting out of the bubble is one of the reasons I do travel: to experience other places, not to experience a hotel.

Glowczewska: I totally agree. I was not being a proponent of travel in a bubble. I’m just saying it’s got its place. And I like to do it the other way, absolutely.

Williams: It’s the difference between a vacationer and a traveler. When I’m on vacation, keep me in my bubble. But I am concerned that things are going in two directions: They’re more luxurious, and yet people have less money than they used to. What do you do with people who have no money to travel?

Virshup: I’m astounded that the luxury market, in general, just seems to be on rocket fuel. I was at an event in a luxury hotel yesterday, talking about how many luxury hotels have opened, or are opening, in London. How many people are there with that kind of money? It just seems to be that, if artificial intelligence is growing exponentially, the super wealthy are as well.

Ellwood: But I don’t think that that’s the challenge. If you had talked to travel agents last summer, if you had talked to hoteliers, they would have said, gleefully, there is no ceiling [on rate]. But every travel agent I talk to this summer, in the peak destinations — Cote D’Azur, Italy, all of the premium places — they’re really, really soft. And they don’t want to admit it. But they have hit the inflection point on their rates. If you want a room at a five-star hotel in Capri this summer: 2,500 euros [per night].

And, actually, there aren’t that many rich people.

Billie Cohen, executive editor, Afar: I think the bubble is shifting. We say the words all-inclusive and we think about where we went as a kid with our parents, but we’re seeing these very beautiful all-inclusives: Shinta Mani Mustang [in Nepal], Southern Ocean Lodge [Australia], Fogo Island Inn [Canada]. They are technically all-inclusives, but they’re making an effort to be connected to their communities and share that connection with guests. Yeah, it’s in a bubble, but it’s a different kind of bubble. There are quite a few hotels trying to figure out how to do that.

It’s a really exciting time in the hotel world right now. Yes, there are a lot of luxury hotels, but they’re thinking differently about things like design, service and community connections. We just did our “best hotels” list and those were criteria that we were really looking at to see who’s going above and beyond and being really thoughtful about the way that they’re presenting the hotel experience by making it an actual experience, not just a place to stay. That’s working well in some places and not in others.

Ellwood: I’m curious, was there anything that stayed with you from having just compiled the list, sort of being knee-deep in that? Was there a superb example of luxury doing something really different?

Cohen: The rethinking about offerings and community connections really stood out, as well as the number of heritage buildings that are being repurposed as hotels. For instance, the Peninsula in Istanbul was a post office that was not being used. Some of these hotels are in buildings that were simply abandoned.

Everyone wants to do something with sustainability now. It has become cool, and that’s wonderful to see. You should watch out for greenwashing, of course, but the impulse toward sustainability is impressive. The industry as a whole seems to have an interest in doing better. I don’t want to sound naive or Pollyannaish, but it’s interesting to see that trend.

Ellwood: I think it’s OK to say the travel industry is doing some good things.

Ashlock: But it’s also because travelers and guests are asking better questions. I don’t think that the hotel companies are going to be doing these things if people are …

Williams: … bullied and guilted into doing it.

Weissmann: Let me shift gears for a moment. Has anyone seen any really good examples of artificial intelligence being used to benefit tourism?

Abu Sarah: I played with ChatGPT to see what kind of itineraries it would produce. It can be a tool to help you understand what’s possible.

Ashlock: There’s like a cottage industry of, “I asked ChatGPT to do this for me, and it failed!” But it’s going to succeed. It will, it will. In two years, ChatGPT will be able to effectively plan a trip for you. It’s just going to get better and better.

Bob Guccione Jr., editor in chief, Wonderlust: Exponentially.

Williams: It’s good for preplanning right now. If you have a group and you need to figure out budgeting and location and aligning everything together, it’s good for that.

Weissmann: When the web became available to the general public in the mid-1990s and the OTAs emerged, many people were ready to write off travel advisors, saying it would be impossible for them to compete. I think it’s likely true that there’s now a larger percentage of do-it-yourself travelers than there was before the web, but advisors showed quite a bit of resiliency and have not only survived, but in many cases, thrived. As people get more accustomed to using AI, will advisors lose another chunk of travelers to DIY?

Ashlock: Everyone is trying to figure out how to harness these tools in advantageous ways. But I do think that the kind of relationships, the networks with vendors and the people that they know on the ground, give travel advisors a leg up on AI no matter how good it gets.

Ellwood: AI can’t call in favors.

Guccione: Great line.

Ashlock: Also, AI can’t help you out if something goes wrong. If you’re in a crisis and you need to get home, AI is not getting you home. A travel advisor is.

Ellwood: AI cannot walk into a hotel, walk around it and feel the vibe. I think we fundamentally misunderstand AI’s role in things like travel. A high-end travel advisor can say, “No one can get into that museum, but I have a friend — let me just call them.” AI will never be able to call in favors like that because it won’t have just had dinner with the curator last week. AI will make that level of service seem even more precious.

Guccione: I disagree. I think we cannot possibly imagine where AI is going. AI is growing to the point where it’s going to be way beyond our ability to even imagine what it can calculate. And it will start to operate with other systems. So, it’ll say to that museum’s system, “I have people who I’ve evaluated by analyzing a billion pieces of data and determined that they are actually very important and we should let this person in.”

Maybe the system that replaces the human isn’t here yet, but I just think we are all underestimating its potential. None of us can possibly imagine where this is going to wind up. It is the first technology we’ve ever created that can think for itself.

Abu Sarah: On Oct. 7, our staff had to make a number of decisions. And I don’t think AI could have helped us make those decisions. For instance, our staff, right away, decided no one should go into the West Bank. People who did go got stuck there for three or four days. And the airport [in Tel Aviv] was closed, and most people hadn’t yet figured out to go through Jordan. Having very experienced people who were aware of everything going on was very, very important.

Scott Cooper, co-founder, Mejdi Tours: For people interested in our type of travel, they are engaging in diplomacy as part of what they do on their vacation, and AI hasn’t taken over diplomacy. It could generate a list of things to do, but it can’t figure out how to help somebody put their higher values into practice. I’m hard-pressed to see how that’s going to work.

Ellwood: It will be like walking into a bank. There will be tiered customer service. If you’re not a particularly rewarding customer from the bank’s perspective, customer service will be the AI chatbot. You don’t get to speak to a person. But if you’re a premium customer, they will tout the fact that you’ll be working with a person, because a person can talk to you, make you feel better, calm you down. At the premium level, AI will make the human touch even more monetizable.

Guccione: Yeah, that’s fabulous, but in maybe two years, AI becomes overwhelming and has worked out how to replace that human touch. The genie is climbing out of the bottle. But it’s not quite out yet.

Weissmann: Before we close: What are your travel plans? Where are you going this year?

Abu Sarah: I was telling Scott yesterday where I’m traveling until July, and he got tired. I’m flying from here to South Africa, and from there to Vancouver — I’m speaking at TED. From there, three or four days in Ireland, Northern Ireland. Then Jerusalem, then North Carolina and Aspen, to speak at the Aspen Festival. I’m going into West Africa, because I really want us to develop some tours there — Ghana, Ivory Coast, all that area. And I’m going to Portugal to speak at the Explorers Club’s Global Exploration Summit. That’s it until July.

Virshup: I’m going to Steamboat Springs, [Colo.], this weekend to get a last ski in, and then of course I want to go to the eclipse [the conversation occurred before the solar eclipse]. After that, I’m not sure. Maybe to Norway.

Ellwood: I’ve got lots of travel, but the two things I’m most excited about are an actual vacation on a Viking river cruise down the Nile. And I cannot wait — I can always step into that bubble.

And the one I’m really intrigued about is for work, to the north of Morocco. Not to Tangier, but there are a lot of really interesting private villas around there. And, in particular, to look at the Mediterranean side of Morocco. There are lots of really interesting people I’ve lined up to meet.

Ashlock: I’ve traveled quite a bit this year already. I’ve been to three African countries, Mexico, the U.K. and the [San Francisco] Bay area. I’m going to Portugal and London in June; I’m likely going to Blackberry Farm [in Tennessee] this year and to Cambodia in the fall.

Glowczewska: I’m going to Dubai for two days or three days, Anguilla for vacation, Morocco in September for Pure and to see the new Royal Mansour [in Casablanca]. And then I’m going to Warsaw and, I hope, to Saudi Arabia.

Cohen: I’m going to Argentina. And lest you think I never stop traveling in luxury, I’m going to Disney World — my best friend’s daughter is in a cheer competition there.

Guccione: I’ll be going to Nile Rodgers’ Amanyara, in the Turks and Caicos.

Cooper: I’m going into the Great Smoky Mountains with my family; everything revolves around my 5-year-old and 8-year-old. My wife grew up in a small town in rural Japan, so we’ll spend a good six weeks there. And then I might also go to Denmark where I have some family.

Williams: I’m wedding planning, so going back and forth to Jamaica. And I think a friend is taking me somewhere into the woods in Tennessee to just be very quiet. No internet, just somewhere I can sit and look at stars and fireflies and be in silence for a while, as a break from the wedding planning. The wedding isn’t until next May, but the way everyone’s acting, it’s tomorrow.