Episode 001: Why You're Doing Travel All Wrong, with Black Tomato's Tom Marchant
The first episode of Suite Success is now LIVE!
Reading time: About 3 minutes
Lights, Camera, Action!
It’s showtime everyone, and I couldn’t be more excited to tell you that the first episode of Suite Success: Masters of Hospitality is now LIVE. This week, I’m speaking to the incredible Tom Marchant, Co-Founder of Black Tomato, a leading luxury tour operator creating tailor made, remarkable experiences that spur true wanderlust.
Why should you listen?
If you’re not already familiar with Tom, get ready to be inspired. He and his co-founders started Black Tomato nearly 20 years ago, building it into the preeminent luxury travel brand that it is today, while navigating major shifts in the industry and evolving traveler expectations. He shares so much knowledge about crafting meaningful, bespoke travel experiences and the future of luxury tourism. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways:
The Power of Having No Playbook: How often do we hold ourselves back from doing something simply because we think we don’t have the ‘right’ experience or credentials yet? When Tom and his co-founders started Black Tomato, they were seasoned travelers but didn’t “come from travel”. Hear Tom explain why breaking away from industry norms can actually give your business a competitive edge.
The Definition of True Luxury: Before talking to Tom, the phrase ‘luxury travel’ brought to mind private jets and stacks of Louis Vuitton luggage. But after working with countless ultra high net worth individuals, Tom has a different perspective on this.
Travel as a Source for Good: Overtourism and carbon emissions can often give travel a bad rap for contributing to global warming (though the industry as a whole only accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions*). Listen to Tom share firsthand examples of how positive and powerful travel can be for the world.
New York vs. London: As many of you know, I’m a native New Yorker who lived in London for 6 years. Personally, I find the British capital wayyy superior - sorry, Big Apple. Alternatively, Tom is a Brit who calls London home, but he spent 6 years living in New York. So, which city does he rank higher? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Links to the episode below, and as always, I would sincerely appreciate it if you listen, like, subscribe, review - all the podcast things!
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xx Katie
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