Charlotte Harris is taking luxury travel advisor Charlotte Travel beyond five-star holidays

Charlotte Harris is taking luxury travel advisor Charlotte Travel beyond five-star holidays Charlotte Harris’ childhood in Borneo helped shape her approach to travel. Today, she is steering Hong Kong-based Charlotte Travel towards bespoke journeys built on private access, authenticity and a deeply human touch. When Charlotte Harris first considered joining the travel advisory company her mother founded, one of her ideas was to change the firm’s name completely. Founded in 2001 by Jackie Harris, Charlotte Travel specialises in highly personalised travel experiences for high-net-worth travellers – and is named after her daughter. “I didn’t want my name on the company,” the younger Harris said with a laugh. “But mum vetoed the change. The company had already been around for a long time and the name carried a legacy." In fact, mum was hesitant about her daughter joining the company in the first place. At the time, Harris was working in corporate risk management in Hong Kong. “She felt that I was on a good path with a good career. Travel is a high stress, high pressure environment. Everything is your fault. The flight’s delayed, it’s your fault. The luggage doesn’t arrive, it’s your fault. It’s raining, it’s your fault,” mused Harris. But Harris, whose love of travel had long shaped her life, was undeterred. Instead, she went to her mother with a business plan, one that would help shape the next chapter of Charlotte Travel. FROM HIGH-RISE APARTMENTS TO THE BORNEO RAINFORESTS Harris’ love of travel was shaped by her childhood. Although she was mostly raised in Hong Kong, her family moved to Kuching, Malaysia, when she was eight and lived there for four years while her father ran a consulting, research and social entrepreneurship firm advising governments, development agencies and aid donors. “My childhood changed overnight. I went from playing in high-rise apartments in Hong Kong to running around in the Borneo rainforest with my friends, trying to catch tadpoles,” recalled Harris, who is half Chinese, half English and an only child. The family also travelled frequently. Due to the nature of her father’s work, they often visited rural destinations and communities, “spending a lot of time with the local people and ingraining our travels with an understanding of local culture”. Weekends often meant packing their bags and staying in a longhouse, a traditional communal dwelling in Borneo where multiple families live under one roof and share communal spaces. “These experiences really shaped my approach to travel in such an open way, where everywhere you go, you respect the local customs,” said Harris. Her interest in people and culture led her to study anthropology before beginning her career in corporate risk management in Hong Kong. “I was very much in a very office-like, corporate environment,” she said. “I did that for a few years and was growing my career, but I was always travelling on the side. I reached a point where every weekend I just wanted to get away somewhere.” Friends would often turn to Harris for travel advice, and her personal trips and curiosity about new places steadily evolved into an informal expertise. That growing interest in sharing her knowledge ultimately became the spark for her desire to join the family business. While her mother was initially hesitant, she tasked Harris with putting together a business plan. At dinner one day, Harris had written down her ideas in “a little notebook”, while her mother showed up with “this big file”, she chuckled. “I thought, oh my god, I’m not getting the job. But we merged our plans together. We wanted to make the business more high-end, more personal and more human, where clients see the value of speaking to someone who can curate your experiences, rather than just being an order taker.” That vision has since become central to Charlotte Travel’s identity. Instead of operating as a traditional travel agency, the company describes itself as a travel advisor, designing bespoke journeys around each client’s interests and preferences. After more than a decade with the business, Harris took the helm as CEO in 2024. Today, Charlotte Travel is headquartered in Hong Kong, with dedicated offices in Bhutan and Singapore. It was the first travel advisor in Asia to join Virtuoso, an invitation-only network of luxury travel advisors, and has been a member for 10 years. Under Harris’ leadership, the company has continued to expand its regional footprint while strengthening its position in the luxury travel market. FROM PRIVATE ACCESS TO WOMEN-CENTRIC JOURNEYS Charlotte Travel’s evolution into a travel advisor reflects a broader shift in the luxury travel landscape. “It’s no longer about five-star hotels or first-class flights anymore. It’s more about access and authenticity and crafting a tailored experience that makes the difference between visiting a place and truly connecting with it,” said Harris. Clients can come with as much – or as little – of a plan as they like. As Harris puts it: “You can come with a blank canvas and we can paint the picture for you, or we can paint it together.” And when it comes to fulfilling their clients’ wishes, the sky is pretty much the limit. “We had a client who requested to meet David Attenborough. I always say nothing is impossible, it’s just a matter of how much.” Some requests may be ambitious, but the most meaningful experiences are those that offer rare insight into a destination and its people. For a jewellery enthusiast travelling to India, the agency arranged a meeting with a ninth-generation gemstone merchant, offering a behind-the-scenes look at a craft that has been passed down through the generations. Access comes in the form of opening doors that are usually closed to the public. In Rome, Charlotte Travel has organised after-hours access to the Sistine Chapel away from the usual crowds. In Paris, it could mean a private viewing at the Louvre to experience the Mona Lisa in an intimate setting before the museum opens to visitors. With multi-generational travel on the rise among Asian travellers, cruise holidays have become increasingly popular with the company's clientele. Family trips to Finland during Christmas are another favourite, with stays in private villas and thoughtfully planned experiences for kids such as private meetings with Santa Claus. As a women-founded and women-led company, Charlotte Travel is particularly proud of its women-centric journeys, a new collection of itineraries curated specially for female travellers. One of its signature experiences takes travellers through India's Golden Triangle, with insider access to Delhi's ateliers, Agra's renowned jewellers and Jaipur's artisan workshops, complemented by restorative Ayurvedic wellness at the ultra-luxury resort Amanbagh. The company has also curated wellness retreats designed for women navigating pre-, peri- and menopause, featuring personalised medical consultations, hormone-rebalancing treatments, tailored wellness cuisine and restorative therapies – addressing a life stage often overlooked in mainstream travel. The idea for women-centric journeys took shape after Harris became a mother herself. Like many of her female clients and friends, she noticed she was often planning holidays around everyone else's interests. She wanted to create journeys where women could travel in an environment that felt "safe, inspiring and community-driven". “When you bring together a group of like-minded women, there’s a different kind of energy,” the mum of two reflected. “We hope these journeys do more than just entertain or inspire. We want to spark something that's more lasting and create connections not just with the destination, but with each other." THE HUMAN TOUCH IN THE AGE OF AI In the age of AI, one might argue that travel planning has never been easier. ChatGPT-generated itineraries and booking platforms are just a click away. But Harris believes the role of the luxury travel advisor has never been more important. “We can’t ignore that technology plays a huge role when it comes to travel. Some people may start to think, ‘why use a travel advisor when I can just talk to ChatGPT?’” she mused. “But people still want people. You wouldn’t trust a computer with your health; you’d still go to a doctor. For legal advice, you’d go to a lawyer. When you’re investing so much of your time and money into a trip, that’s an investment you want to trust an expert with,” Harris continued. That same belief in personalisation underpins not only the way Harris advises her clients, but also the way she travels herself. Charlotte Travel's tagline is "The Luxury You Define", reflecting Harris’ view that luxury is ultimately personal. Her ideal holiday? Somewhere warm, preferably by the beach, and completely disconnected with no Wi-Fi. "Some people's definition of luxury is being at the Ritz in Paris, but luxury for me is being at a Four Seasons on the beach. If someone could just cut the modem so I have no connection, that would be the ultimate luxury!” she quipped.