This was published 7 years ago

Best guided tours: The people who create the world's greatest trips

By Sue Williams

April 7, 2017 — 10.00am

Flamingoes in Laguna Colorada, Atacama Desert in Bolivia.Credit: iStock

Standing in the desert in Namibia, Jenny Gray idly watched as a truck pulled up and the tourists inside starting climbing out. And then more climbed out. And more. It was as if Dr Who's Tardis had landed, and there were hundreds of people cramped into what looked like a very small space.

"When they started getting out, I couldn't believe how many people had been packed inside!" she says. "They just kept on coming. It was incredible. The truck had been converted with bunk beds inside, so they weren't even able to sleep under Africa's vast starry night sky. I felt very sorry for them."

Everyone has witnessed their own private hell of an overseas tour – hopefully from afar – and it's to avoid any travel downside that journey designers exist. They are the select band of experts employed by tour companies who painstakingly draw up itineraries, test them, check out every journey, stop, hotel, restaurant and event on the schedule, and make sure the end result is going to make a dream trip, rather than an enduring nightmare.

For Gray, a journey designer with the Intrepid Group, that scene in the desert was her personal vision of hell, while the pet hate for Marion Bunnik, who does the job for Bunnik Tours, is tours where you stop only one or two nights in every place, giving you no chance at all to relax and enjoy a destination.

"There are companies who do Europe in 15 days, for example," she says. "That's not giving you anything of what Europe has to offer. It's exhausting and people never get the essence or culture of the places they're visiting."

Instead, it's the journey designers' task to make sure travellers stay for just long enough to make the most of a stay, have the kind of experiences that are going to prove enjoyable, rewarding and memorable, avoid the queues at popular attractions and take the opportunity to interact with the locals that are denied individual, independent tourists.

One for the bucketlist, the Taj Mahal, India.Credit: iStock

If it's a cruise, then they'll make sure their clients always arrive when a port isn't going to be choc-a-bloc with other ships – or, worst of all, when the town is closed for a public holiday – and airline schedules are pored over for the most comfortable and direct flights.

Every self-respecting tour or cruise company today has that set of experienced and research-hungry experts, whether called journey designers, journey planners or product managers, who pull together a range of itineraries from all the diverse elements that go into a great holiday.

Most of them are huge travellers themselves and constantly come up with novel ideas for making trips ever more fascinating, or exclusive, with special entry to museums accompanied by champagne or canapes, or visits to local schools.

Working the fields near Otavelo, Ecuador.Credit: Ammonitefoto

"It does have its pressures as we're always looking for enriching experiences and putting together captivating itineraries," says Marc Ryan of Captain's Choice. "But I get my kicks from the surveys of those who come back who say we've exceeded their expectations. That makes me feel great."

It can certainly become a dream job. Although she is now 67, Bunnik has no plans to retire. "I love my job so much and I never want to stop," she laughs. "I get so much enjoyment out of the group's enjoyment and the relationships we make with our offices overseas and locals."

Of course, there are hardships, too. "There are a lot of good things about it, but it also involves long days, being away a lot and doing so much work, you don't have time to fully enjoy destinations yourself," says Adam Burke of Scenic.

A local woman with a little child carried in traditional way walks through Ngorongoro Park, Tanzania.Credit: iStock

So how do they do their jobs, what are they looking for, what do they plan to avoid, and what great ideas have they had for making our holidays the best we've ever had?

THE JOURNEY DESIGNER

Adam Burke, 46, journey designer Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, specialising in south-east Asia, based in Sydney, scenic.com.au

A view from on board a chinese junk cruise of Halong Bay.Credit: gethinlane

MY DEFINITION OF A GREAT JOURNEY IS ...

One that exceeds the guests' expectations of what they would experience and remember from the journey and would readily continually speak and reminisce about their highlights to their friends and family upon their return.

MY JOB AS A JOURNEY DESIGNER INVOLVES ...

School children in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.Credit: iStock

Visiting the destinations alone, inspecting hotels, restaurants, and reviewing the sights, or sometimes I dip into a trip that my company is already running, watching to see how the itinerary is being interpreted, seeing how the participants are doing, and assessing their feedback.

WHAT I LOOK FOR WHEN DESIGNING A JOURNEY ARE ...

Things that will enrich and prove memorable, and especially things that aren't available to normal tourists. I'm also looking for changes in the product itself, like hotels and restaurants, and any trends. For instance, we used to do just a day trip to Vietnam's Halong Bay, but now there are decent hotels there, and a huge variety of boats suitable for sleeping on, so the itineraries have been adjusted to allow one or two nights there, either sleeping on a boat or in a hotel. We also check how often tourists might visit a particular village, school or nunnery in places like Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia to make sure one isn't benefiting too hugely from tourist cash, and others are not benefiting at all.

MY JOURNEY 'MUST-AVOIDS' ARE ...

Journeys that take too long from A to B, or involve too much walking, or with no time to relax or go shopping.

THE JOURNEY-ENHANCING IDEA I'M PROUDEST OF IS ...

Michael Pawlus from Azamara Club Cruises.

When we discovered that the municipal museum in Xian, China, decided not to charge for entry anymore and, as a result, it's been overrun with big Chinese tour groups and local people on hot days taking advantage of the airconditioning. So we now book guests into a hotel that has its own private museum with a huge collection of artefacts, and arrange after-hours tours of the museum, which they can do with champagne and nibbles, which is so much more pleasant.