Just like art, music and fashion, travel culture is an expression of the times. For more than a century, Kuoni has pioneered and helped shape this culture - a tradition to which we now feel more strongly committed than ever. But if we are to continue meeting our high standards and pointing the way to the future, we have to really understand present-day social change, agenda-setting issues and popular preoccupations. This means identifying latent needs, foreseeing social developments, grasping the Zeitgeist and, most importantly, picking up on cultural innovations in other fields and using them as inspiration to devise new forms of travel.

What are the subjects that preoccupy avant-garde thinkers and post-modernists today - and that will permeate all of society tomorrow? What constitutes luxury in the 21st century? What needs are developing among the world's most discerning customers, and how might a travel company respond to them? Can travel draw inspiration from innovative fashion design? And what does a premium service-provider have in common with an ethnologist?

Kuoni set up the Getaway Council as a forum for wide-ranging and intense discussion of issues like these. The Council facilitates a new level of exchange among futurologists, opinion leaders in science and business, as well as icons of fashion, lifestyle, arts and culture. The Getaway Council examines the present and the future from a variety of perspectives. It considers issues such as the modern-day perception of luxury, and the latest developments in society, culture, and what people want. It also explores new ways of thinking about the future of travel and develops visions to match. The point of this exercise is not so much to obtain concrete results that can be immediately applied to day-to-day business. Rather, it is about staying receptive to forward-looking innovation and thinking about tomorrow's world, today. The Getaway Council was established as a permanent body, with members regularly convening in different combinations. The Council presents its findings in specially produced publications that preserve the experimental spirit of these gatherings for future reference.