Simon's not a Mouthpiece

Simon Reeve is nearing the end of a marathon tour of the UK. Hosted by Kuoni and our partner travel agents, Simon has been talking about his travel experiences and taking questions from customers.

Simon’s a lovely guy but he’s definitely not a mouthpiece for Kuoni or for the travel business – he’s a journalist who reports what he sees.  If you’ve watched his TV programmes you’ll know that he’s just as happy talking about the rights of indigenous people in Australia or the challenges of rubbish disposal in the Maldives as he is highlighting the stunning views on the Great Ocean Road or taking a tour of a five star Indian Ocean resort.

He’s often asked why he doesn’t focus more on the positive stories (and he concedes that perhaps on occasions he should) but his ‘warts and all’ approach doesn’t put our customers off travelling.  If anything, they’re even keener to taste a destination – even a fly and flop beach holiday to the Caribbean – once they understand more about the challenges and lifestyles of the local population.

Understandably, the travel industry has never been shy of putting a gloss on destinations.  Holiday brochures burst with panoramic shots of hotel pools and pristine beaches but say little if anything about the people who live and work there. And yet, like Simon, the strongest memories of travel are often about the people we meet and the stories they tell.

Back in my late twenties I was lucky enough to enjoy an all-inclusive stay at one of the better known resorts in Jamaica.  I loved it – the resort was just as it had been described – but by the middle of week two I was growing weary of the endless food and water sports and decided to rent a car. We’d befriended a waiter at the hotel and as it was his day off he offered to come with us to see some of his island.

Twenty years later and the strongest memory I have of that holiday is of the people we met that day and the places we visited.  There was poverty and unemployment and people living with all of the challenges that the populations of under-developed countries encounter, but there was also positivity, a relentless sense of optimism, and a genuine friendliness from everyone we met.  As a tourist, the highlight was a visit to Bob Marley’s family home, a tiny house in a small village at the end of an unpaved road – somewhere the official tours would never visit.

Listening to customers that have met Simon Reeve over the last few months it would be easy to conclude that maybe a bit more honesty and a little less airbrushing of the places we recommend to our customers would create a stronger desire to travel… but of course it’s a balance.  We should at least be prepared to talk about the issues – the more stories we can tell, the more we can trigger that irresistible urge for customers to see a place for themselves.