On June 19, 2014, brite spokes was featured in David Cogswell’s article: “Swiss Giant Kuoni Making Major Play For U.S. Market With Brite Spokes” on TravelPulse.com:
Kuoni, the Zurich, Switzerland-based travel giant, introduced a new packaged travel brand to the U.S. market called brite spokes, offering “experiential travel” and “thematic vacation packages.”
The brite spokes brand and product line was soft launched in 2013, while the company developed its selection of sample packages, and is now going public. Brite spokes was launched in response to market research conducted over the last decade showing that people today are looking for experiential travel.
The brand name plays on the old British term “bespoke,” which originally referred to individually tailored clothes, and has come into fashion in recent years as a descriptor of custom-designed travel packages.
The company presents a range of itineraries for selection by clients, but the itineraries are sample packages that can be used as templates from which to build custom designed packages to the specifications of each client. The company refers to the components built into packages as “spokes.”
The trips are offered in eight categories geared to different kinds of travel, including Adrenaline, All in the Family, Sports Enthusiast, Health and Fitness, Teen, Eat, Drink and Be Merry, For the Fun of It and Knowledge.
Different kinds of travelers are targeted within these categories, with specific focuses on adventure lovers, sports enthusiasts, fitness fanatics, culinary and culture connoisseurs, knowledge seekers and corporate team builders.
The travel programs are initially being operated in the U.S. only, but if the concept takes off they will no doubt be expanded to other regions.
Backed by a Travel Giant
The packages are being created and operated by Kuoni’s U.S.-based tour operator infrastructure through its Allied TPro unit based in New York. Allied Tours was founded as an inbound U.S. operator in 1955. It was purchased by Kuoni in 2000 and merged with TPro, a former competitor of Allied in the inbound tours business. The combined company now operates under Kuoni Destination Management, a division that focuses on travel within the U.S.
The new company has the advantage of being backed by Kuoni, one of the largest travel companies in the world. Founded in 1906, as a travel agency, Kuoni launched its first overseas tour to Egypt in 1907 and began a path of expansion that continues today.
Kuoni now has 13,000 employees in 100 countries on five continents and a gross revenue in the billions.
Mark Morello, CEO of brite spokes, describes Kuoni as a European version of American Express. Kuoni’s business is divided into three major divisions: global travel services, which is primarily B2B; outbound and specialists, which deals with tour operations and destination management; and VFS services, which deals with visa processing and related businesses.
Kuoni’s source markets have so far been primarily in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Northern and Central Europe. But it has had its eyes on North America for decades and has been sizing up ways to make inroads into the market in recent years.
One of its major moves in its quest to penetrate the North American market was its purchase in 2011 of Gulliver’s Travel Associates (GTA), one of the largest wholesale networks in the world. GTA, along with Allied TPro, is part of the operational infrastructure that supports brite spokes.
An Eclectic Selection
The company’s initial product line includes a wide range of unusual combinations of components, designed with eye-catching titles and themes and odd twists.
•The program titled Bringing Tuscany to Sonoma is hosted by Doubletree by Hilton Sonoma Wine Country and brings chefs from Tuscany to provide lessons in Italian cooking, with dishes combined with California wines.
•The Southwest Road Trip is a fitness trip sponsored by Crunch Fitness. It includes such novel touches as yoga at the bottom of the Grand Canyon after being transported there by helicopter, African dance, a choice of pole dancing or boxing in Las Vegas and a healty-eating gourmet cooking class.
•On a completely different note, brite spokes offers College Tours in the east or west coasts for high school students who are checking out their college prospects.
•Get the Drift is a program based on the car racing craze of drift driving, with tutoring by some of the top drift drivers and tours of race car shops.
•Green in the New Black is a program based in San Francisco and focusing on environmentally responsible initiatives and projects in the city. It includes meetings with environmental trend setting thinkers and organic food and wine tastings.
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