2022: A year in review, from Savile Row Travel's CEO Richard Lewis

It's now just over a year since Richard Lewis and Kevin Pietersen bought into Savile Row Travel. Here, Richard, the company's CEO, reviews the past year and the many successes it has brought. Richard said:

During the course of the year, what attracted us to Savile Row Travel in the first instance has been very much confirmed. From Giles Hoff , the Founder, and Matthew Callaway , the other Director, to Travel Curators Anne Lancaster and Louise Lupton , the dedication to serve and personalise holidays is above and beyond to ensure our clients receive the most informed information when making the choice of where to travel for those most precious of times.

The start of 2022 saw travel still heavily impacted by various Covid restrictions around the world and our team did a tremendous job helping to inform clients and make the huge amount of changes to bookings as a result of airline schedule disruptions.

I am a true believer in being able to best serve our customers year-round and, while we are experts at creating tailor-made trips to the likes of Australia and India, designing the most magical Safari experience or Maldivian island retreat, or putting together the ultimate US road trip, we were missing a few components. As a collective, we spent the back end of 2021 searching for a ski expert and were lucky enough to find Lowri Williams .

Savile Row Travel are now able to pull together some outstanding winter/ski product, not just through the Alps but within the US too. Lowri has some unrivalled experience and immense knowledge of all things ski. Her product offering sets SRT apart by literally hand-holding clients through from start to finish and helping to ensure every ask is taken care of, right from mountain dining to ski school lessons.

Ross Ritchie came onboard to leverage our golf proposition and provide access to some of the finest courses and resorts around the world. Alison Dunn joined us in January with all-round travel expertise and a fantastic understanding of the cruise market. Victoria Cross and Jessica Woods joined us to help shape our marketing and social media channels and, as we move into 2023, will be looking to put on more client events and engagements. I can't not mention Georgie Du Plooy our financial controller too, who has made a big impact.

While reflecting across the year, the big trends we have seen are more multi-generational family trips. We saw a big spike in experiential travel and families wanting to create wonderful memories, taking in once in a lifetime safaris or visits to Lapland. The more adventurous travellers were keen to visit Antarctica or trek the Rocky mountains and explore national parks in the US.

Our team have continued to stay on top of knowledge this year by visiting over 30 countries, attending many training sessions with tourist boards and suppliers, and in recognition of our growth, Savile Row Travel sit within the top tour operators for Shangri-La Group , Jumeirah , 文华东方酒店集团 and 丽思卡尔顿 , to name a few.

I'd like to personally thank each of our highly valued clients for their support throughout 2022, and if there's anything either myself or any of the team can do to assist you please do not hesitate to get in touch.

From all at Savile Row Travel, we wish you a very happy New Year.