Los Angeles Times' Expeditions Design in the Desert
The L.A. Times has a loyal readership for architectural topics. To tap into that market, we designed a trip with Christopher Hawthorne, the Times’ architecture critic from 2004 to 2018. Hawthorne had written pieces for the paper about the architecture of Dubai. Dubai trips are fairly unusual in our corner of the travel industry, but with Hawthorne’s expertise, we saw an opportunity to tap into a new destination.
With the content and activities he helped curate, other journalists were able to replicate the program for multiple departures.
Participants visited a variety of neighborhoods in Dubai, learned about the city’s ultramodern architecture, and traveled to Abu Dhabi. One guest commented, “Each day was so different, it’s hard to say [what I enjoyed the most]. Memorable moments: the dinner at the Burj Al Arab, Christopher Hawthorne’s talk at the hotel, the days on the bus with Richard Wagner’s packed with informative talks, the talk on construction of Palm Island to name a few.”
The trip fit the market perfectly and was an immediate sell out. The first program was led by Hawthorne himself. With the content and activities that he helped curate, other journalists were able to replicate the program on subsequent departures.
