"We talk about the golden age of travel, but it's still got to meet the expectations of today's travellers." - Gary Franklin, Belmond

Words Harriet Hirschler

Gary Franklin, Vice President of Trains and Cruises at Belmond, shares how the luxury travel brand creates joy in the journey through exceptional service and authentic experiences. Plus, he reveal the new routes, carriage updates and boat steering Belmond’s operations forward in its mission to trailblaze slow travel in 2023 and ahead.

You have been with Belmond for 28 years. How do you feel about your journey with the brand?

It’s quite amazing, and I never really get tired of it. There’s been some amazing things that we’ve done over that time, but it’s always lovely to see the excitement of our guests as they’re standing on the platform as the Venice SimplonOrient-Express, British Pullman, or Royal Scotsman comes into the station. It’s also amazing to see how that initial excitement has survived the experience when they get off the train. I’ve been on trips where guests have given all of the staff hugs at the end of it. They are in tears saying they don’t want to leave. So I hope that we’re doing some things right.

What does Belmond mean to you as a luxury brand? How has the brand evolved during your tenure?

Belmond wants to deliver an exceptional travel experience. And how we do that has changed over 28 years. We’ve been very lucky to run these luxury trains for over 40 years, and we like to say that we pioneered this type of travel. I think the idea of what a luxurious travel experience means has evolved quite a bit over the time I’ve been at Belmond. When Belmond first started, it was about what the train looks like and how you feel seeing the train. I think increasingly, it’s not just about the train – it’s the service on board, the meals and the characters we have delivering this exceptional service. It’s also about providing an incredible atmosphere where people can relax and share experiences with their fellow travellers. It’s also a recognition that actually a big part of luxury now is time – having that moment to slow down and reflect; have conversations; enjoy a great meal or a lovely glass of wine, and perhaps sing along in the bar car afterwards. I think that’s become quite important for us, as well as making sure that the train is still relevant today. Our oldest carriage is from 1926, but it can’t be a museum piece. We talk about the golden age of travel, but it’s still got to meet the expectations of today’s travellers. We need to try to anticipate those needs, so that we are still relevant to what our guests are looking for.

You oversee the business operations for the world’s most famous trains. Can you tell us what updates Belmond has introduced to classic trains like the Venice-SimplonOrient-Express?

The carriages historically broke down borders and went across continental Europe. It was the way people got to new places. So that constant innovation about where this train may be able to go is an important one. Recently, we’ve added a whole host of new cities you can travel to with the train: Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Cannes, Rome, Florence and Vienna. We’ve also just announced new routes for December, so it’s not only new cities but new times of year. We’re travelling from Paris to BourgSaint-Maurice so that people can use this route to go to these incredibly beautiful mountains, take in some incredible skiing, while also enjoying the experience of travelling there.

We are also now working with Jean Imbert to update the food and beverage on board, but more than that, the concept. We’ve restyled the carriages, the mise en place, and the menus. It’s about telling the story of train in a modern way. I think Jean has been fantastic at coming up with a very local and seasonal menu that works really well on a train – and he’s very passionate about train travel as well.

Over the last few years, there are practical things we now have, like Wi Fi and air conditioning, which you’d expect, but is quite hard to do on a carriage that dates back to 1926. We had to make sure that we were very sympathetic in how we introduced those elements but it’s all come together and it’s constantly evolving.

Can you tell us about Belmond’s current fleet of cruises? And what makes the newest Belmond boat, Coquelicot, so distinct in the market?

If we talk about Les Bateaux Belmond, our fleet of boats in France, they tend to be on inland waterways, so we’re not in a deep sea environment. They are private charter for a group of friends or multi generational family to come together and have an amazing, relaxing time in a very private setting where the crew on board tailor the programme to what those guests want. We have guest experience managers who contact all of the guests before they travel and share what we might typically put together, but if they’re interested in antiques, wine or history, that programme can change. Guests may have a lot of input and it doesn’t ever have to be set. You can just stay and watch the beautiful French countryside, or go exploring on a bike along the towpath to the local town. The chef visits the local markets to collect the produce for the meals that evening, and you can go with them and understand exactly what all this produce means. I think that is the essence of slow travel in its purest form because you’re only travelling four or five miles an hour, it’s a very private setting and I think people are really understanding the value of experiencing new things. For me, there’s probably no greater joy than opening a bottle of wine you have never tried before, or trying a new type of food that someone has put together expertly.

In regards to Coquelicot, which is the new barge and floating hotel that we will be opening from May this year, what makes that even more special are the collaborations. We have Ruinart helping us understand how we can best talk about the champagne, deliver a unique champagne experience to the guests, and also open doors to some of the places in the region that perhaps you can’t do as an individual. For me, the memories we create for guests are more important than photos, more important than anything they might buy in the local shop. It’s those memories that are going to carry them through for the rest of their life. And to do that through the experiences we provide will be very special.

What is the standard of service that Belmond works towards onboard its trains and cruises?

We have an exceptionally dedicated crew who are very proud of their boat or train, and they love talking about it. We want them to also engage with the guests. Someone might want a lot, or they might want a little, but we empower the staff to anticipate that and provide connections. They should be the custodians of their own environment, but also proud custodians of the journey and the places that guests are visiting. One of the things that I’m most proud of is that almost everyone who writes letters to the company, to say they had an amazing experience, calls out one or two members of the team that just made it that extra bit special.

I was very lucky to go on Amaryllis with my family – my daughter was about four at the time – and she can still remember the name of the crew. I was left in charge of the children, reading my book, and then some part of my brain was saying, “it’s really quiet” – and quiet and children aren’t very good bedfellows! So I jumped out of my chair startled, hopefully no one had fallen overboard. But the crew, realising that I wanted a bit of quiet time, had taken out these fishing lines and my children were just sitting at the front of the boat with them transfixed. They were quieter than I’ve ever managed to get them, just hoping that a little fish from the river was going to take a bite of the hook. It was that level of anticipation that means my daughter can still remember their names. So that’s what we’re aiming for.

Slow travel has been trending in hospitality for some time. How has Belmond positioned itself as a leader in this sphere?

We’ve been doing it for 40 years, so I hope that we’re seen as the pioneers of slow travel. I think train travel in general has seen a renaissance around the world at lots of different levels. Again, everyone sees it in different ways, but the fact that the journey is part of the experience is the key one. People understand that there are environmental benefits from rail travel and the fact you’re relaxing into that experience on a beautiful train with great staff, great food, great drinks and a great environment adds to that. It also provides people with that moment to just sit in their cabin with their book, or with their parents and have a conversation. What I think is also important is that the windows wind down on the train. I just love the fact that you’re rushing through all this countryside and you can wind the window down, and involve your sense of smell, which is probably an understated sense. We don’t understand the importance of it until it’s not there. So I think slow travel has always been part of what we do. Again, we’re the pioneers of it. We have worked really hard on everything that happens around that.

In 2021, Belmond collaborated with Wes Anderson on one of the British Pullman’s carriages. How did the conversation and project come about? And is the brand interested in partnering with any other artists or luminaries in the future?

You have moments in your career where you have some bad luck and you have some good luck. I think that the Wes Anderson collaboration was a stroke of amazing good luck. Most of Wes’s movies involve some sort of train. He is a big train lover and tries to travel everywhere by train, not by plane, and he had travelled on our train.

We are constantly reinventing our carriages and trying to update them. The luck came in because we had that conversation and invited him down to our railway depot. We told him we’re going to completely renovate this carriage, and would he like to be involved? Luckily, Wes is inspired by trains and he saw some of our unrestored cars, as well as our restored cars, and was able to dedicate some time to it. It was an incredible collaboration because he really was engaged in every element that went into that carriage. I would say it was probably one of our greatest collaborations – all the stars aligned at that moment in time. With Wes, we had someone who loved train travel and was a pleasure to work with.

We would like to do that again. It’s hard because it was such a perfect match. How do we replicate it in other ways? I’d love to. There are people out there who are incredibly successful in their own fields, who just love trains. Rod Stewart, for example, has this amazing model railway. So I think we need those stars to align, but having other collaborations on our carriages would be amazing. We’ve done this in other places within Belmond, like at La Residencia, in Mallorca, we have a Matthew Williamson suite. I think where it makes sense, and where it looks right, we would definitely look at it.

Have you seen people’s attitudes change towards staying on a luxury train, rather than a luxury hotel?

I think it’s become an accepted way to think about travelling, especially on long distance trains. People know they don’t need to fly everywhere. All different levels of rail travel have seen that growth in ridership. There are more overnight trains being developed in Europe all of the time and there are more journeys that we’re doing with our overnight trains. We are always going to be doing luxury train travel, and combining the journey with beautiful railway carriages, great food and great service. And we always have to make it relevant for our guests. That’s why we’re introducing new cities, new types of accommodation and different times of the year. The idea of dressing up for dinner as you’re leaving Paris on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express or waking up and having breakfast in bed in your beautifully appointed cabin is very appealing. And whatever time you wake up on that train, you just roll up the blinds because it’ll be an amazing view. Most of the time it’s in the Swiss Alps, so you’ve got lakes and mountains, and then in the afternoon, you’re going across northern Italy and across the causeway into Venice, one of the most amazing cities in the world. It’s incredibly beautiful.

Being responsible for the train and cruise division, what insights do you get into luxury hospitality in general, and how do Belmond’s divisions link together?

Belmond has a mission that is transferable. We are a luxury travel brand. That is inherent with the trains, because we are travelling, but a lot of people have to travel to our hotels in new destinations. So I think the mission is very similar. In trains and cruises, we try to be the flagbearer for some of these experiences because we are travelling all the time. We work very closely together and look at what’s going on in the wider world as well. So are there other industries that we can be learning from to make sure that we can deliver that experience? And I think that it’s really important that we’re not inward looking. The guest’s experience will always be at the forefront.

The Venice Simplon-OrientExpress made its red carpet debut at ILTM Cannes 2022. What is the importance of presenting your offering at in-person events post Covid?

I can talk about trains, carriages and river boats forever. Conveying that experience through words, or sometimes through pictures and video, does part of the job. With this project, we took the carriage and parked it outside the Palais in Cannes, where people could touch it and see it with their own eyes. And when people go through that carriage, they get it. I could have talked to that person for days but the fact that they’ve seen it is going to do a much better job than I ever would be able to. You also see this within our own team. When someone has actually gone to see the train, they come alive. Nothing beats that connection of being able to see and feel. Covid was definitely a tough time for a couple of years for a lot of people. But all of the trade had been incredibly resilient to survive that experience. To see old connections and friends and share those experiences, but also share the optimism and the positivity for the future was a great thing.

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