Why your travel company needs retro

By Steve Keenan

Lovely fulfilment of our Erna Low project tonight, when BBC News featured my Travel Perspective co-founder Mark Frary on its Meet the Author weekly slot.

For those who missed our blog post last October, we started planning the 80th anniversary of ski operator Erna Low some 18 months previously.

There was a story to be told about a woman who pioneered ski holidays, but who was also at the forefront of country house holidays in the UK during the Second World War and summer package holidays in the 1950s.

Erna died in 2002 - but the company name lives on, and current MD Joanna Yellowlees-Bound wanted to enshrine the history of the firm in book and film - and that’s where the project became a whole lot easier, as Erna kept copious diaries and was also a keen 16mm film enthusiast.

I digitalised and edited the best of the films - you can see the results on our YouTube channel - while Mark set about writing Aiming High, his biography of Erna Low which was published by Troubador on January 1.

It was a labour of love for both of us, as the subject was fascinating and we had so much material to play with. And to get BBC coverage of the results was a real fillip.

But it’s also a tenet for both of us with Travel Perspective. It’s all about the story, not just PR - which is gratefully received.

And so many travel companies have such great stories to tell. While the social media goldrush is on, it’s always so worthwhile to curate your past and show travellers your history. Retro, digital and social - an unbeatable combination.