Distincte will offer customized worldwide travel experiences
(January 11, 2016) Maidens Media Group, LLC, today announced plans for the official launch of Distincte, its new lifestyle travel platform, which will showcase exciting destinations and unique experiences for customers looking for distinct “Distincte” travel experiences throughout the world. Distincte will be marketed in cooperation with its distribution partner TravelSmith, a subsidiary of Cornerstone Brands, Inc., and the premier purveyor of travel clothing and accessories. The new platform, www.Distincte.com, will go live on January 11, 2016.
Offering unique marketing opportunities to the world’s leading tourist boards, convention and visitors’ bureaus, boutique hotels and resorts to showcase their products, Distincte will be managed by a concierge team of some of the world’s most knowledgeable and experienced travel industry specialists.
Customers of the popular travel clothing and accessories catalog will be able to book value-added vacation experiences at more than 700 four- and five-star hotels and resorts worldwide now that TravelSmith and Distincte have affiliated with New York’s Tzell Travel, a division of Travel Leaders Group. As an affiliate of Tzell, TravelSmith and Distincte will repackage Travel Leaders Group’s proprietary private label Select Hotels & Resorts collection of global luxury properties.
The Distincte program has been conceived and will be implemented by a team of experienced travel industry executives, led by CEO Sean Winton. Unlike other multi-channel media platforms, Distincte intends to share all booking data with its advertising and sponsorship partners to provide ongoing metrics to support their marketing investments, Winton said.
Initially, the Distincte brand will be marketed through the TravelSmith catalogs, which reach up to 1.4 million travel-savvy customers each month. The company’s future plans will incorporate additional distribution partners.
“We are very excited to partner with a forward thinking company like TravelSmith to launch our brand,” Winton said. “The customers of TravelSmith are just the kind of active, upscale and experienced travelers who will be interested in the unique travel experiences that Distincte can create.”
Customers who book travel through the Distincte program will be able to select from hotels and resorts affiliated with the Distincte Resorts network, located in the most popular destinations around the world. Distincte will then customize a travel itinerary according to the client’s wishes, by recommending and arranging unique experiences for that destination. Those added experiences may range from booking a table at a city’s hottest new restaurant to arranging an early morning hot air balloon ride to hiring a personal shopper to provide a guided tour of a destination’s best bargain spots.
“To us, the customer is always king,” said Winton. “Whatever they can imagine, we’ll try to make happen. And if customers need some ideas or suggestions to turn an ordinary trip into a memorable experience, we’ve got the ability to provide that.”
The sales team at Distincte is actively seeking destination partners to create and host unique travel experiences for TravelSmith customers. They will be offering partnership programs at various levels of participation which may include the opportunity to host a TravelSmith fashion photo shoot for a future catalog issue.
Distincte will also publish unique travel content on its website and in an ezine, which will be shared with the TravelSmith customer base. The new platform will also utilize the expertise and editorial contributions of TravelSmith’s resident travel expert and Travel Channel TV personality, Samantha Brown.
“We were very impressed with the level of sophistication of this well thought out program,” said Brian Tsung, TravelSmith’s Vice President of Marketing. “Distincte will appeal to our core customers, who are experienced, savvy travelers who are looking for something out of the ordinary, exciting and truly memorable whenever they travel.”
The program’s launch will coincide with the release of the TravelSmith January 2016 catalog. Specific digital content to support the Distincte program will appear live at www.TravelSmith.com/TravelCenter.
For more information, contact Mike O’Toole at motoole@maidensmg.com or at (860) 331-6080.
About Maidens Media Group
Maidens Media Group, LLC (MMG) is a lifestyle marketing company specializing in luxury travel and tourism. Led by Sean Winton and a seasoned team of travel and media professionals, MMG has trademarked its consumer facing brand, Distincte, with a planned launch in January of 2016 Additionally, MMG provides brand development, luxury travel fulfillment, and digital and print media design services.
For more information, visit www.maidensmg.com
About TravelSmith
TravelSmith Outfitters, Inc. (www.travelsmith.com) was founded in 1992 with a mission to make travel as hassle free and pleasurable as possible. Drawing on resources and inspirations from around the globe, TravelSmith set out to provide goods that make the journey smoother and simpler, lighter and more convenient. TravelSmith is part of the Cornerstone Brands segment of the HSN, Inc. (HSNi) family of businesses. HSNi is a $3.6 billion interactive multichannel retailer with strong direct-to-consumer expertise among its two operating segments, HSN and Cornerstone.
For more information, visit www.travelsmith.com
About Tzell Travel
With annual sales of $2 billion in 2013, Tzell Travel Group – as part of Travel Leaders Group – is currently ranked first among the nation’s largest corporate travel management companies, according to Business Travel News. Tzell maintains its headquarters in New York City and has offices in 20 states.
In everything it does, Tzell Travel Group places the highest priority on both its corporate client and its agents. For the individual traveler, Tzell addresses value, convenience, comfort and safety, with its customized quality traveler services. For the corporation, Tzell offers a broad product line of cost containment, meeting services and comprehensive travel management programs.
Tzell focuses on the needs of its agents by providing the best work environment possible and the strongest leadership and support team. These elements combined with excellent air/hotel leisure programs create the ‘safe haven’ which is a hallmark of the Tzell brand.
For more information, visit www.travelleadersgroup.com