The luxury agency still attracting new clients after 35 years

Short and sweet 

Pettitts has mastered the art of selling shorter trips to travellers with niche interests, who, in turn, may then book one of the agency’s longer tours. 

An example of this is the company’s collection of opera packages, which include 16 holidays to various opera houses around Europe. With the exception of one, all tours are just four days in length - making them an appetiser on Pettitts’ full menu.

The majority of the opera breaks sell for under £1,000, which again, allows travellers to experience the brand at a lower price before investing in a longer trip. 

“It’s an in-road into gaining new clients,” Kempster explains. “We have someone we work with to procure opera tickets, and then we market opera breaks to places like Verona, Milan, Venice, Milan and Rome. We put them together as packages with hotels, transfers and flights, and then market them to the client base and online.” 

He adds that this strategy is also behind Pettitts’ Venice Simplon-Orient-Express rail trip offering, which, at just two days in length, again targets travellers with less time on their hands. 

To Kempster, this is another effective way for the business to show new clients what it’s made of, so that, when that same guest wants to book a longer holiday, they’ll know exactly which agency to choose. 

“Down the line, they might become a client who goes on one of our tours to India,” he explains. These mini-breaks are also a shortcut to highlighting the clients’ tastes and preferences, helping Pettitts to market the right tour to the right person. “What we’re trying to anticipate is what might somebody be looking to use a business like ours for,” Kempster adds.

Happy supplier, happy client 

In Kempster’s experience, the satisfaction of the client is largely determined by the quality of the suppliers. In order to ensure they can emulate its high standard of service, Pettitts emphasises the importance of a collaborative work ethic. 

“We achieve strong relationships in key places by thinking of them as a partner, not just a supplier,” he explains. “When things do occasionally go wrong we try and understand why and work with them to mitigate things in the future. We understand they need to make money as well as us, so we keep the relationship personal. We visit them when possible and thank their staff personally.

“In India, we have a team of 16 people, including drivers and guides, working on the ground exclusively for us.” This close communication with an in-house team gives Pettitts more control to curate and personalise its tours, which is inevitably to the benefit of clients. 

As for new destinations, Pettitts is also planning to launch product in Central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, adding that it ultimately hopes to offer tours that visit the Belt and Road initiative. 

“There is great opportunity there for tourism, especially for handheld adventure,” Kempster says. “We’ll never send hundreds of people a year to this region, but if we can send 20 or 30 people to two or three of those countries, on tailor-made tours, that’s great for us. I’m very excited about it.”