This year we've been

We’ve booked an eyewatering 2,500 holidays this year, delivering five-star customer service every step of the way. From sending family trips in Dubai to jetting honeymooners off for a Maldivian escape, it’s been a busy year for our personal travel managers and the rest of the Winged Boots team. If you have any feedback from your holiday, we’d love to hear it! Simply email your personal travel manager or marketing@wingedboots.co.uk. 

Customers have enjoyed some downtime in 61 destinations around the world with our top seller being the United Arab Emirates. The United States and Spain took the second and third spots respectively, with staycations still ever popular as the UK reached fourth place.
 
Spain wasn’t the only European country that we’ve jetted our customers off to, as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and France were also in the running for the top spot. The Indian Ocean wasn’t left out of the picture either as the Maldives featured in the top 10, with Mauritius not far behind. Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden have increased in popularity, with Nordic countries including Iceland also showing traction.
 
In terms of the Caribbean, it’s clear that the sun of Barbados and Antigua were calling our customer’s names, and Mexico and Thailand also managed to make the top 15.

See the top 15 destinations below:

1. United Arab Emirates
2. United States
3. Spain
4. United Kingdom
5. Greece
6. Italy
7. France
8. Maldives
9. Barbados
10. Portugal
11. Switzerland
12. Mauritius
13. Thailand
14. Antigua and Barbuda
15. Mexico

2019 was the second year of our events programme ‘Winged Boots: The Extra Mile,’ and it’s been a huge success. We hosted 23 events in total spanning sport, music and dining. Eight events saw us take advantage of our private Hospitality Box at The O2 in London which saw staff and customers dance to the likes of Cher, Drake, Panic! at the Disco and Michael Buble as well as Hugh Jackman, Take That and George Ezra.
 
That wasn’t all though, as we also held a dinner in Nipa Thai restaurant at Royal Lancaster Hotel London in collaboration with The Tourism Authority of Thailand as well as our first annual Patrons lunch at Isabel Mayfair in partnership with Four Seasons Hotels.
 

The year saw another first in the form of our annual clay pigeon shoot event at Royal Berkshire Shooting School with One&Only sponsoring the day. Sprinkled throughout 2019 we also attended a fair few races at Silverstone. As we became an official Patron of its Young Driver Programme this year, this unlocked the chance to watch five races including the British Grand Prix Final from the comfort of the exclusive BRDC Clubhouse.

It’s important that the Winged Boots team is up to date with everything related to travel, and that’s why we often have industry experts from hotels, tourism boards and destination management companies come in to Winged Boots HQ to share their knowledge. In 2019 alone, 63 hours of training were delivered to members of staff from across the business. Hotels such as: Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai; Gleneagles; W Barcelona; Faena Hotel Miami Beach and Viceroy brought the team up to date, and the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Board as well as the Oman Tourism Board also delved into their respective destinations. Not only that but the marketing team has also been to events such as the TTG Luxury Summit and Leaders of Luxury by Aspire, and gone on various marketing courses which boosted the team’s travel knowledge in terms of trending hotels, destinations and what’s working in the digital world.

Speaking of training, FAM trips are crucial to the day-to-day work that the Winged Boots team do. Standing for Familiarisation Trips, the few days abroad are for staff to get to know the hotels in the area as well as the destination and what fantastic and exciting excursions and experiences can be done there. This year, Winged Boots organised 11 FAM trips to a variety of destinations:
 

1. Head of business sales James Kenyon went to Scotland and stayed at Gleneagles
2. Personal travel manager Louise Silverman, product manager Anna-Maria Janssen and product executive Ellen Stevens went to Dubai and stayed at Mandarin Oriental, Jumeira and Jumeirah Zabeel Saray
3. Personal travel manager Claire Baker went to Oman and stayed at The Chedi Muscat, Al Nahda Resort & Spa and Al Bandar Hotel at Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa
4. Product executive Ellen Stevens went to the Maldives and stayed at the InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort and Niyama Private Islands Maldives
5. Personal travel executive Charley Curwood went to Mykonos and stayed at Kenshō Ornos and Kenshō Psarou
6. Operations executive Sophie Azeem went to Crete and Athens, and stayed at Grecotel Cape Sounio, Grecotel Lux Me White Palace and Grecotel Caramel
7. Product executive Ellen Stevens went to Marbella and stayed at Puente Romano Beach Resort & Spa and Marbella Club Hotel
8. Personal travel manager Louise Silverman went to Santorini and stayed at OMMA Santorini
9. Personal travel manager Dean Jeffries went to Abu Dhabi and stayed at Yas Island Rotana, The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, The Abu Dhabi EDITION and Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas
10. Personal travel manager Ryan Collins went to Mauritius and stayed at Heritage Le Telfair, Heritage Awali and Heritage The Villas
11. Personal travel executive Charley Curwood went to Swedish Lapland and stayed at ICEHOTEL and Lapland Resort