Living Your Brand – Health and Fitness Travel

In 2010 we launched Health and Fitness Travel, a travel company which specialises in creating tailor-made wellness holidays worldwide. Our business started as the brainchild of myself and my friend, to work on what we loved – wellness and travel. With the travel industry so competitive, it was important we found a niche; to become the leading experts on wellness travel and always remain the experts. We knew that our customers wouldn’t give up on their holidays, as we are fortunate that we built a brand around healthy experiences for people looking to invest in their well-being and escape from their pressured working environments.

I grew up a dreamer and the dream of creating a wellness hub providing a personalized service that recognized what the true meaning of a wellness holiday is, became my motivation and eventually a reality. Travel and wellness had always been a big influence on my life, which started with my mother taking me on spa & well-being trips, experiencing travel at a young age, thanks to her job at the time. I’ve been practicing yoga for 14 years now and when I’m not working in the office, I’m focused on living a healthy lifestyle and scouring the planet for the perfect destinations to suit a legion of clients seeking to improve or maintain their health while on holiday.

Before we launched Health and Fitness Travel, it was easy to book a spa holiday, but not a wellness holiday. There was not a travel company which created bespoke wellness holidays worldwide for both men and women, it was important I created something which I knew would grow as more people began choosing to live a healthy lifestyle. My business partner and I worked obsessively for years, six years on we have an international business sending thousands of clients away each year to focus on their health and fitness around the world.

I’ve always stayed true to my values and been creative, consistent to our brand voice and had an effective PR and marketing strategy, staying focussed on building our brand name and reputation. Regardless of the business we happen to run, all of us need to understand the importance of branding, my most important job is to be head marketer for our brand.

Being true to my brand is one of the ways we create relevant and competitive differentiation that sets us apart and builds our business. Our brand is about creating an emotional connection with our customers, so we cannot have happy customers if we do not have happy employees. None of our team are defined by their job title and confined by their job description, we are a brand and multiple minds working together arrive at the best results.

We are constantly building relationships with the media, our audience and suppliers. Wellness travel was a very niche market when we entered it 6 years ago, but now it’s becoming more mainstream and projected to grow nearly 50% faster than overall global tourism. In 2012 we started creating our own exclusive tailor-made wellness programmes such as our Fusion Fitness™ holidays which now operate in over 50 hotels worldwide. We work very closely with our suppliers to build packages our clients want.

In order to reach our audience, and really connect with them, it’s important we stay true to what’s in our DNA. I believe the reason we are successful is because we have a genuine passion and interest in what we do, and care about our customers making sure they have the best experience before, during and after their holiday. We also work very hard to make sure we have the best product and stay ahead of the trends.

One of the best parts of my job is hearing all the positive feedback we receive every week from our clients who return from our holidays feeling totally rejuvenated. It’s so satisfying to have them call and email us to tell us what a fantastic healthy holiday experience they have and how they can’t wait to book the next trip with us. This shows everything we do and all our hard work is worthwhile.

We will continue to mould and shape our brand, it’s an asset that we must protect and manage with the intention of always helping others benefit from having a relationship and good experience with us. I’ve always seen myself living through the lens of my brand which has made me more mindful about how I approach the personal brand we continue to build. Living my brand requires a great amount of self-awareness, action and accountability.