PHOTO: Cox & Kings is offering its Spotlight Journeys to Paris.

For Cox & Kings, one of the world’s oldest existing tour operators, 2014 was a storm of activity. In November, the company rolled out 50 new programs for the 2015-16 travel season. Fifty new programs in one year is a great deal for any tour operator. It suggests an unusual amount of innovation for a tour operator founded in 1758. The new programs are targeted to experienced travelers who want to go beyond the frontiers of mainstream travel.

“This was a good year for us from the product development side,” said Scott Wiseman, president of Cox & Kings, the Americas. “We stuck to what we’re good at. We didn’t add products just because others were selling them or because they seemed like a natural fit. We did a lot of research and development to put out programs where we think we add value as a tour operator. That’s what makes this particular product launch kind of fun. We did things that allowed us to bring something different to the table than what other people were doing.”

Sold under the brand Private Journeys, the new programs are designed to serve as templates so that clients can take the whole package without having to piece everything together if they want to. Or clients can use it as a starting point, deconstruct it and put it together differently.

“I think that, because we service so many places around the globe, it’s important to give people a starting point,” says Wiseman. “So that’s why we have these Private Journeys, or brochure type of journeys so that people know where they can start from.”

About 75 percent of the programs are brand new from scratch, including luxury Airstream camping in the Bolivian salt flats, as well as adventures in Australia and New Zealand, Greenland and Sardinia.

“In other areas, we might have redone a program, but it has to be done to a certain level to call it new,” said Wiseman. “We wouldn’t just change a hotel in a program and say it’s new. Maybe we’ve changed routings and added other cities. For example, Vienna, Prague and Budapest, which is a normal circuit for other tour operators, we built into it Salzburg and Bratislava. We’re adding more to it and it really changes the context of the trip. It has to have some kind of significant change for us to call [a program] new.”

Spotlight Journeys, a New Product Type

Not only did Cox & Kings introduce 50 new individual programs, but it also brought out a new product line, a new style of tour for the company called Spotlight Journeys.

“We launched Spotlight Journeys because we’re getting a lot of late-season travel to Europe, people doing smaller four-day, three-night type of experiences in cities and lumping them with other cities,” said Wiseman. “So we put out a portfolio of these Spotlight Journeys, in which you can mix and match or pair the cities any way you want to build an ad hoc European experience. You can take Paris and pack it onto three nights in Nice, for example. That has developed from people booking a little later to Europe as well.”

The packages are formulated to enable customers to design their own trips by stringing a series of cities together. The programs start at $750 per person. Designed by Cox & Kings destination experts, each package includes three nights in a four- or five-star hotel and private transfers to and from the closest international airport.

The packages are offered for a wide range of major cities in Europe, including Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg, Austria; Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; Reykjavik, Iceland; Munich, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; London, England; Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice, Italy; Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm, Sweden.

“A ‘new way to travel’ is the way we would describe it,” said Wiseman. “It provides a different approach to building a Europe journey, with more flexibility and for shorter trips. Some people do Europe [in brief stays].”

Custom FITs in the USA

Last October, Cox & Kings put out a new product that targeted a market that was not being served by Cox & Kings’ competitors: custom luxury FITs in the U.S. The company redefined the Great American Road Trip with what it calls a “new collection of handcrafted, expertly curated experiences to some of the country’s most fascinating regions.”

A year and a half ago, prior to the launch, Cox & Kings discerned that no tour operator at the luxury level was offering custom FITs in the US. Wiseman and the crew decided to tackle the market. Then they discovered why no one had attempted it before.

“It’s not easy,” said Wiseman. “It took us a year and half to put [the programs] together. We put together the same kinds of experiences you would get with us overseas in the destinations where you have amazing guides and beautiful properties, custom touring and insider access.”

PHOTO: Grand Teton National Park.

The product line rolled out with six packages: Napa and Sonoma for Connoisseurs; A Geothermal Adventure Through Yellowstone National Park, Low Country Adventure (Charleston, Savannah and Sea Island), Cajun and Creole Cultural Road Trip (Louisiana), Behind the Scenes of the Big Apple (New York), and Southwestern Spa and Healing Immersion (Sedona, Arizona, and Santa Fe, New Mexico).

The packages range in length from four days/three nights for the New York package to eight days/seven nights for Southwestern Spa and Healing Immersion and Low Country Adventure. Prices start from $5,400 per person, double occupancy.

“We picked some destinations we thought we could do well with,” said Wiseman. “None of the packages is longer than a week. Some are four to five days. It depends on what people are looking for. The price, because of the inclusions, is an amazing value, similar to what you would pay if you were going outside of country. So we know they’re not for everyone. But the same type of client who is short on time but seeks that amazing experience, and appreciates the value in that, will find these packages really fascinating.”

Most of the programs include a luxury rental sedan. The exceptions are Napa Valley, because wine tastings and driving don’t go together, and Yellowstone, where a naturalist guide takes clients through the wilderness.

The response to the domestic luxury FITs was positive from the beginning.

“We hear from travel agents,” said Wiseman, “and they are always asking, ‘What can you do for me?’ They want to take the family, they want them to see New York, or have a couples weekend. They ask, ‘What we can do that is different from everyone else?’ So we think there was a little pent up demand for this.”

New River Cruising Products

Earlier in the year the company dropped another product launch bombshell: river cruising. River cruising has been booming for the past decade, but Cox & Kings has not had a river cruise program until now. But Wiseman emphasizes that Cox & Kings was not just jumping in to join the pack.

“The ethos in the way Cox & Kings was born, our credo, is that if we can offer a value we will do it, not just because everyone else doing it,” said Wiseman, “Often people will come to us to do what others can’t. In river cruising we did find a niche that we know is adding value because the travel professionals are booking it like mad.”

Cox & Kings is offering Scenic River Cruises, from an Australian company. “It’s one of most all-inclusive premium experiences that you can find,” said Wiseman. “They offer great itineraries, amazing personalized and go-it-alone sightseeing, and we are offering a couple of amazing added values. We give a $150 spa credit per cabin and a private meeting with the captain, which you get only if you book it through us.”

MasterChef Culinary Programs

Also in 2015 Cox & Kings introduced a new series of tours under a co-branding partnership with the “MasterChef” television series. The tour series will feature “MasterChef” contestants from the TV program.

The initial rollout of MasterChef Travel consists of five chef-led tours, four of which will be accompanied by chefs who are former winners or contestants from the TV show, including Season Three winner Christine Ha, Season Four winner Luca Manfé, Season One winner Whitney Miller and Season Three contestant Felix Fang.

Manfé will host a tour to Italy, his native land, Sept. 9-15. Christine Ha will host the trip to Vietnam in Oct. 5-12. Whitney Miller will host a tour to South Africa June 15-22. Felix Fang will host a trip to Hawaii Sept. 6-10. The fifth in the series will not have a contestant host, but will travel to Northern Spain, Basque Country, La Rioja and will conclude in Barcelona.

“This partnership is the perfect pairing of our expertise in creating bespoke travel and rare insider access with the culinary expertise of MasterChef to guide travelers through their journeys,” said Wiseman. “The new itineraries we have crafted really raise the bar on the immersive epicurean experience.”