Europe-born luxury community of travel designers, Serandipians, has returned to its original branding of Traveller Made, concurrently launching a new community known as Takumians. The global community made the name change three years ago, adopting Serandipians after the pandemic, in late September 2021.
Takumians’ arrival comes as Traveller Made’s membership numbers topped out at 600, viewed by Founder and President Quentin Desurmont, as the ‘sweet spot’ for the founding community. Speaking exclusively with LATTE at The Essence of Luxury Travel event in Marbella in March, Desurmont said capping numbers for the original community was “very important” in order to “maintain very precise positioning.”
At the multi-day luxury trade event, Desurmont hinted a solution to enable Traveller Made to continues its membership growth path beyond 600 had been in the works for some time. Overnight, the consortia revealed its next move had arrived in the form of a “little sister” to Serandipians. Enter Takumians.
“Now that we are approaching the ‘numerus clausus‘ of 600 Member agencies worldwide, it is important that we praise and that we sanctuarise them as an outstanding community of luxury Member Travel Designers. And as we close the number of Serandipians , Traveller Made is launching a new community, Takumians®,” Desurmont confirmed.
In Traveller Made’s words, “Takumians is a community of luxury travel master designers and crafters, with values built around excellence, craftsmanship, wisdom and authenticity.”
Takumians debuts with a community of 50 member travel agencies and more than 100 hotel partners worldwide.
So what are the key differences? According to Diana Nuber, Commercial Director & Media Relations of Traveller Made, both communities are on par with one another and identify as “being part of Traveller Made, to avoid any tendency to think of different tiers.”
Nuber said the same in-house teams will handle both Serandipians and Takumians communities. “For now Serandipians and Takumians share the same extranet, and very soon Takumians will have their own website,” she confirmed.
The main difference between Takumians and Serandipians is chronological, Serandipians being the first 600 agencies to join our community since the beginnings of Traveller Made, in 2013.
“We will soon reach this number, and while some agencies in some geographies can still join Serandipians – as we are aiming for balanced numbers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific – others , in places where we have reached the maximum number of Serandipains, have and are joining as Takumians,” she explained.
Both Serandipians and Takumians agencies will have access to the same partners. “The idea is to offer a larger variety of luxury suppliers to meet all the different needs of our member agencies, for individual and group bookings, leisure and corporate,” Nuber told LATTE.
Membership criteria to join Takumians is the same as Serandipians. Past members who may have left Seranadipians to, for instance join another consortia and then subsequently choose to return, would likely be welcomed into Takumians.
The introduction of the new community also opens the door to expanded verticals for Traveller Made, such as cruising.
Meanwhile, Traveller Made officially welcomed the Dominican Republic as a Preferred Destination Partner this month.
“Dominican Republic has been a destination of choice for our member agencies’ discerning travellers for a while now, and we are pleased to have this opportunity to further reinforce its place among some of the most sought-after luxury holiday locations,” Desurmont noted.
“By partnering with the destinations’ tourism authorities, we will be able to showcase its many attractions for the luxury traveller through the most legitimate source, the Serandipians Travel Designers!” he added.
