When opportunity comes knocking, James Sherwood opens the door wide open. As chairman of the Orient Express travel enterprise, in the space of 25 years, he has managed to turn the legendary train route into an opulent travel experience covering six train destinations, 39 elite hotels, two river cruises, péniche-hotels and two standalone hotels. In 2006 alone, Orient Express managed to harness a net income of 39.8 million USD with a market capitalization of 2.4 billion USD.
When the service stopped in the mid-1970s, Sherwood went on a shopping spree, believing that it was “ridiculous that such an iconic train should be allowed to disappear” according to Pippa Isbell, the company’s vice president, public relations. He purchased three carriages from a Sotheby’s auction in Monte Carlo in 1977, slowly but surely building a travel industry empire from a concept that many experts believed was consigned to a bygone era. The refurbishment of 20 cars cost 22.6 million USD, taking 23,000 hours of labour and five arduous years. The new Orient Express was ready to make tracks on May 25th, 1985.
Its clientele is very niche and its packages well-researched, combining five-star accommodation and facilities with an inclusive concierge service. “We’re not about [putting] people in beds and train seats, we don’t really see the business like that,” explains Isbell, “we really do try to create experiences and memories for people.” These experiences don’t, however, come anywhere near cheap. The company’s latest 40-day excursion, scheduled to leave Paris on October 28th, encompasses a train journey to Venice, and stays at Orient Express properties at the Hotel Cipriani, the Copacabana Hotel in Rio, the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort, Ubud Hanging Gardens in Bali, The Governor’s Residence in Yangon, the Khwai River Lodge in Botswana and the Nelson Hotel in Cape Town amongst others – all for the neat sum of 82,300 USD per person.
But, for Isbell, the most challenging aspect of the business is keeping the magic intact. The brainchild of Belgian train enthusiast, Georges Nagelmackers, the original Orient Express was launched as a lavish European service in the 1880s, attracting the continent’s well-to-do crowd. But it wasn’t until the 1920s and the 1930s that the train service (now following the extended Simplon-Orient-Express route from Paris to Istanbul) reached its zenith and was forever immortalized in works by Agatha Christie and Graham Greene. “A lot of the myth is Agatha Christie and there is a lot of romance to the name, there is no denying it,” admits Isbell. “We maintain that by looking for new opportunities to make it special while being careful about how to go about it,” she says referring to several offers made by production companies to stage a reality TV show on the train service.
Opportunities for the Orient Express come in the details rather than with press-related notoriety. The Orient Express has been known to swing special events for its clients that other concierge services may not have access to. The company, for instance, can gain access to the Vasari corridor in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery where, by special appointments alone, you can view artists’ self-portraits. Or you may even find yourself having dinner at the Salt Mine in Krakow at the tail-end of the company’s newly inaugurated Poland train journey.
But its success lies, in large part, with the properties brought into the fold. Unlike the bigger chains, Orient Express does not feel it needs to be in every location but rather it acquires properties which can also moonlight as a destination in and of itself. “In a regular year, we’re presented with about 30 projects,” says Isbell, “out of those we will acquire only about three.” The select property needs to be a destination in its own right, have a high barrier of entry for people and to make commercial sense.
With Europe, Asia, Latin America and southern Africa firmly on the map; you would think that the Middle East would be the next region to fall to the charms of the Orient Express. But Isbell remains cautious, “We’re certainly looking into the area, but we don’t think that it is the right time,” she reasons. “Basically, we fall in love with an idea and get hard-nosed about it. After all, we are a public company and we have to make a profit while delivering the services guests want and expect,” she concludes.
Contact
Orient Express
London, UK
Tel +44 20 7960 0500
HYPERLINK "http://www.orient-express.com" www.orient-express.com
