When you think of luxury travel companies, it’s difficult to look past the name Orient-Express.
Orient-Express has been realizing the dreams of luxury travelers all over the world for decades. The company’s name was derived from the world famous long-distance passenger train that ran from 1883-2009 and today is found on the Venice-Simpleton Orient-Express that is still thrilling luxury train travellers.
It might come as a surprise then, that Orient-Express has decided to rebrand their 45 luxury hotel and travel experiences in some of the world’s most inspiring destinations under the new brand name – Belmond, from 10th March, 2014. You might be thinking to yourself -‘Why – They have such a famous name why change it?’, to us, it seems obvious. It gives the brand a huge number of opportunities to re-market and publicize their existing collection. The extensive promotional and marketing activities that the company has planned for the launch of Belmond will offer the opportunity to bring the hotels and activities to a new audience and reconfirm it’s status as the epitome of luxury travel.
The Belmond name marks an important new era for this iconic company’s history, the new name embraces all that is special about this unique travel operator and should soon become as synonymous with high-end luxury travel as the Orient-Express name is.
John M. Scott, president & chief executive officer, Orient-Express Hotels Ltd said: “We are excited that we are entering the next chapter in our journey with a name that celebrates our character, resonates with our guests and encompasses the broad scope of our celebrated collection of hotels, river cruises and trains. Each of our iconic and one-of-a-kind luxury experiences evokes strong customer loyalty and we are extremely proud of the heritage that makes us unique. The new brand name provides us with a fresh opportunity to tell our story – from romantic journeys across Europe the authentic restored carriages of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, to cruising along the undiscovered rivers of Myanmar on our river cruiser, Orcaella, and sunset cocktails on the terrace of our newest hotel, El Encanto.”
”We will support the launch of Belmond with a sizable investment of $15 million in enhanced promotional and marketing initiatives. This investment will include new websites, social media and our first ever large-scale advertising campaign.” said Ralph Aruzza, chief sales & marketing officer.
The Belmond.com website will be launched on the 10th March and the Belmond name will be prominent alongside each individual property brand, uniting the collection with one clear collective voice.