In the fall of 2017 in a coffee house just outside the Grand Central Terminal in New York - a group of friends and colleagues who had worked together and known each other for almost 10 years met for what was a casual catch up. This group had worked with some of the leading experiential travel DMCs in the Indian Ocean Region, luxury travel bloggers based in Singapore and Dubai and travel journalists from round the world.
As the conversations turned into the state of travel in the “i-world” and the role of emerging tourist markets - such as the region we specialised in and the problems we faced there in - we started throwing ideas together on how we can work together. So we broke it down…..
The Problems;
The Indian Ocean region - although it is the new hot region for travel, suffers from an aging tourism mechanism, with companies concentrating on packaged holidays and tourist traps. Experiential travel does exist but it was scattered - not many people knew about what to do other than take coach tours through the sites and enjoy the beach. A large part of the aura of the destination was lost - the people.
We also noticed most of the travel professionals had only a basic ground knowledge within destinations such as Sri Lanka, The Maldives, The Seychelles. They were too small in comparison to warrant an in house expert - hence the recommendations were more general and not specific to the traveller.
The Concept;
Our collective concept in travel has been the beauty of travel is always in the locals you meet (I mean real locals not the ones in the tourism trade) - the more you experience the destination and meet the locals the more you enjoy your holiday. A vacation becomes a once in a lifetime experience. This is what we set out to create.
Our Solution;
There has to be a better way? Right! We said no to becoming our own DMC or Tour Operator for the Indian Ocean Region. The experiences were too scattered, the destination too vast and our speciality was not in the operations.
So we decided to form our own collective - Jewels of The Indian Ocean, so we can harness our destination expertise and our strong relations with the DMCs specific for each experience to be a go-between.
So How Does This Work?
Its pretty simple - we are travel curators and consultants; we work with the travel agent on their specific inquiries and curate for them with the best possible holiday option for their specific need. We then identify the best possible DMC/Hotel/Experience Company and provide you with the option specific for that curated holiday.
This must cost a lot?
Well, No! - it actually would be cheaper. Since you are dealing direct with the suppliers - there is no need for a “middle man”. And since we have long established relationships, production and contracts with these suppliers the offers would be further discounted. And most of all - you don’t pay us for our services, we are paid a marginal commission by the suppliers.
In other words you’d have an in-house travel specialist for the Indian Ocean region - absolutely free!!!!
Are these suppliers trust worthy?
YOU have the power to chose. We have a very strict vetting process - all our suppliers are well established companies in the destinations with accreditation from local regulators and global travel associations - such as IATA, PATA, Virtuoso on Site.
How has it worked so far?
We got down to work in the winter of 2017 - and concentrated only on agents whom we had worked with over the past 10 years. To proof our concept - with the success within that season we are now open to receive more agents since November 2018. Since November 2018 onward we are fulfilling over 200 requests a week, you can check out our numbers below;
- Jewels Team
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