Decades-Old Travel Media Company Andrew Harper Goes Back to Basics
Skift Take
Truth in consumer travel coverage is a rare commodity in this day and age of influencers, paid content and the pursuit of profit. But one bespoke media company thinks it can succeed solely by sending writers around the world, paying the travel bills along the way.
At a time when consumer travel media outlets are trying to stay profitable through brand extensions, custom content, affiliate advertising and pay-to-play coverage, one middle-aged publication is going back to basics.
Andrew Harper is a mysterious name that has been around the luxury travel world for decades. The pseudonymous critic started the Andrew Harper’s Hideaways newsletter in 1979. Every month a small, but discerning (read rich) subscriber base received a publication filled with unfiltered reviews of high-end hotels.
Sharing the “truth in travel” mantra claimed at the time by Condé Nast Traveler, Harper funded his own excursions and always traveled incognito. To help subsidize the editorial operation, the empire expanded during the 1990s to include a travel agency and a travel directory filled with paid listings of partnering hotels, cruises and tour companies.
In 2006, a small Austin, Texas-based investor group purchased the Andrew Harper brand. Last year, the group sold the profitable travel agency operation and the Andrew Harper Alliance hotel program to Travel Leaders Group. Andrew Harper CEO Crista Bailey said the sale left the company to focus “on its crown jewel, using the extra cash from the sale of the agency to fund the editorial portfolio.”
That portfolio is made up of Andrew Harper’s Hideaway
