Back on Track
If exemplary service and luxury travel are to survive, we will need to demand them. Globility Board member Mike Russo recently sent me a picture of his room service meal during a five-night stay at El Conquistador Tucson, A Hilton Resort. He said the rest of the hotel was terrific, but the room service left much to be desired. Although the quality of the food was high, the service and presentation were poor, to say the least. This reminded me of my stay last July at Hilton Los Angeles Airport. The room service was similar if not worse — hardly edible. Time for the industry to address these standards and make improvements.
I was pleased this was not the case in December at The Peninsula Beverly Hills. I ordered room service the final day, and it was delivered as one would expect, on china and by friendly staff — on par with a fine restaurant.
This makes a nice segue into our GT Tested Reader Survey awards gala at The Peninsula Beverly Hills
Dec. 14, when we gathered to honor the reader-voted winners, who pride themselves on their attention to detail and service. As we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, it is a fine time to return to fine service. As airlines return to better in-flight catering, menus and wine, we hope this is a signal the Global Traveler Wines on the Wing business- and first-class wine competition can resume in 2022. We are fielding airlines’ participation.
The Peninsula put on a superb spread for our event, and a perennial favorite, Peking duck, proved a big hit. Please see the recap article on page 32 featuring great photos of the winners and, well, everyone having a good time — evidence of our dedication to get back to face-to-face meetings and events. Be sure to check out our videos of the event and interviews with winners on our social media platforms. Our team worked tirelessly to produce them for your enjoyment.
We feel 2022 will see a further resumption of travel, especially as countries work on reopening and more people around the world are vaccinated. In the past several weeks I have had many meetings with top players in the business and luxury fields, including
IHG Hotels & Resorts, United Airlines, oneworld and others, indicating we are learning to deal with and work around issues to turn the flow of travel back on. Tourism Ireland launched the theme “Press the Green Button” to welcome back tourism. Who does not want to travel to Ireland?
I am pleased to announce our launch of a more user-friendly digital edition of Global Traveler, which nicely complements our print edition. We will also add a special Whereverfamily digital edition in May and a
Trazee Travel digital edition in October, designed to complement their respective websites, whereverfamily .com and trazeetravel.com. More than 500,000 subscribers will enjoy access to these two special digital issues.
So let’s applaud the industry’s return to great luxury and service and, as consumers, let’s demand it. Enjoy your next destination!