Skift: How do you assess how the experience of European travelers has shifted in recent years, particularly the effect of increased tourism?

Atladóttir: Not ever ything has changed. Tourism has been on the rise and people are traveling for recreation and relaxation as never before. This means that in many instances we as travelers often still look for an experience we can recognize: a relaxing time off, a cultural city experience, a shopping and entertainment time out with fine food and wine, all at a good price. However, there is an easily discernable increased interest in experience-based traveling, in which seasoned travelers strive for singular experiences, based upon a perception of independent travel. Among these travelers, there is an increased awareness of sustainability issues and a more prominent demand for quality products and services.

Skift: How does a steep rise in tourism affect the experience of travelers, and how are you working to direct tourists in a sustainable manner?

Atladóttir: We have been fortunate. According to recent surveys, 95 percent of our foreign visitors say that the visit to Iceland met their expectations, say that they would like to visit again. Our visitors also name our hospitality as our second greatest strength — and we are grateful for that, because without a welcoming host nation, tourism will not go very far. It should be noted that the rise in tourism is taking place outside of the summer season — Iceland has been discovered as an exciting place to visit all year round. This opens up new opportunities for both visitors and hosts.

Skift: What trends are destinations paying attention to in order to ensure travelers have a great experience without impacting local residents and the local culture?

Atladóttir: Don’t only ask the question of what destinations do to attract more tourists — also ask: “What impact do we want tourism to have upon us?” The understanding of the impact tourism has upon societies, the utilization of public goods and services, and the objectification of a multitude of cultural and natural phenomena that has great emotional value to residents have to be addressed. These things need to be in harmony, as visitors will perceive an imbalance in these matters in a multitude of ways. Without harmony, there can be no assurance of quality and enjoyment. At the same time we need to ensure that residents understand and experience the positive effects that tourism and an increase in visitors can have on their lives, increasing services in rural areas, enriching interactions with other people, while perceiving that government and industry are working in a manner aimed at counteracting the possible negative effects of tourism.

Skift: You’re currently engaged in moving from a multi-brand to a single brand, how is this going?

Friemuth: The rebrand that we’re currently doing is based on our belief that we would like to develop a global TUI brand that helps us to market ourselves more consistently than we did previously. The main thing is the customer experience. There are lots of things or reasons why you want a single brand, but a consistent customer experience for our customers across our various markets is the main reason.

Skift: That must present a lot of challenges to TUI. The Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordics are all subtly different markets. How have you gone about the change and how has it been received so far?

Friemuth: It’s been very successful so far. We rebranded the Netherlands last year. As a result, we’ve seen the highest unaided awareness for TUI in the Netherlands ever measured. Even if you take into account the former brand, which was in the market 80 years. And we see younger target groups joining TUI, which is one of the main secondary aims that we have, to modernise and broaden the brand and to make the brand popular in younger target groups.

This year we’re currently doing the four Nordic markets as well as Belgium. And again we see similar patterns so it helps us to approach the younger target groups and helps us to market ourselves better. In some cases we even grow market share. The UK is due for this year together with Ireland.

Skift: You’ve recently moved into the content space with website travel.me. What was the thinking behind this and how do you see it growing?

Friemuth: Social media is very strong and with our product, travel, we have fantastic content that we’d like to share. Travel.me is our content hub, which we then can use in many channels and across many territories.

Skift: Many low-cost airlines fly short-haul routes, but relatively few cross oceans. For a long time, other airlines seemed to think that what works on shorter routes — charging low fares, while also assessing fees for food, seats and checked bags — wouldn’t work for long-haul. Why did you see an opportunity?

Kjos: They do it on the short haul. It works on the short haul. That’s what people want for the short haul. Why shouldn’t it work on the long haul?

Skift: Yet for so long, the conventional wisdom said it couldn’t be done.

Kjos: That’s because you have all these experts. They [said the same thing] when we started out in 2002. They said we would never survive, and they said easyJet and Ryanair were just a flop. That was the saying over there at that time. And now the largest carrier in Europe is Ryanair so experts aren’t always right.

Skift: Could your long- haul model work without the Boeing 787?

Kjos: No. [Before] we set it up, we did the calculation with the [Boeing] 767 and the [Airbus] A340, because those were the ones that were available. The [Airbus] A330s were good, but they didn’t have the range that we needed. We couldn’t get the figures to add up. In order to have low costs, you have to have high utilization. You have to [fly] close to 18 hours [a day] on [each] long-haul aircraft. Needless to say, dividing your costs by 18, you get a lower figure than when divided by 14. We were aiming for 18 hours utilization in order to get low enough costs. Most aircraft couldn’t do it.

Skift: Do you expect you’ll have more low-cost competitors flying trans-Atlantic soon?

Kjos: I hope so. Today,there are way too high prices to fly over the Atlantic. More competition is exactly what happened in the early 2000s when Ryanair and easyJet took over the [European] market. They lowered the prices and ramped up the volume. Now it’s cheap to fly and no one is making more money than Ryanair.

Skift: In your early career working with DJs in Germany as an event planner and concert promoter, how did that direct your journey toward launching Design Hotels?

Sendlinger: I was always fascinated by youth culture and its influence on fashion, music, art, and pop culture. Seeing the DJs mixing vinyl in the ‘80s during the very beginning of house/techno, my prediction was DJs would be the rock stars of the 21st century. I was close to these guys. And then in 1990 there was a music industry event hosted at The Paramount in New York, which was owned by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, and designed by Philippe Starck, that changed everything.

Skift: How did you proceed to define the company’s identity based on the selection of member hotels?

Kjos: Ever y hotel that applied for membership, which had like a red sofa in the lobby, started calling themselves a design hotel. We knew that could become a potential burden to the brand because we firmly believed that good design was just the beginning of every good product and experience in the 21st century. Suddenly we were receiving hundreds of applications every year from hotels that wanted to join, and we could have easily become a 1,000 to 1,200-hotel group very early, but then it would have diluted the portfolio.

Therefore we created this criteria about what a hotel needs to comply with in order to become a member in Design Hotels, because the hotels were saying, “Give us a book of standards about how you choose us.” But it is very subjective because there is always innovation out there, so if we create a standard on what exists, we might exclude the ones who are pushing the boundaries even further. So we decided we were going to create this culture in our organization where everybody who works in our company will learn how to judge a hotel by going through the lobby, listening to the music, talking to the managers at different levels, looking at the way they’re communicating, looking at their web presence, and so on.

Skift: You have promoted the owners of your member hotels by producing a lot of content around the theme of “Made by Originals,” focusing on the owners’ individual histories that informed their hotel designs and development.

Kjos: The common denominator at Design Hotels is really the originality of the creators, of the owners, of the investors. This is continually happening. The word that brings them all together is “Originals.” What everyone is looking for in this experience economy is that unforgettable moment, you know, and that’s why we came up with “Made by Originals.” These are successful people with fantastic taste who have made a big impact in their destination, so even as a global chain, we can speak like a local in Seoul, or a local in Nairobi, or a local in Zurich. We choose these people, these creative directors, really, who have made their neighborhoods into important destinations because of what they do as hoteliers. I think the more luxury becomes accessible to everybody, the more the affluent traveler is searching for the hidden and secret spots that are truly unique and special. They’re searching for something original, which is why we’re well set for the future.