Our judging panel is made up of a diverse cross-section of some of the best editors, travel writers and content creators in experiential travel. A special thank you to all our Experientialist® judges for taking the time to deliberate over the entries.
Aisha and Lexie Shaibu-Lenoir
Aisha & Lexie are a married queer content-creator couple otherwise known as @thequeernomads. They are brand ambassadors for several travel brands including Belmond, Celebrity Cruises and Contiki. Their mission is to increase the visibility of queer women of colour in the travel industry and media, through their lived experiences, travelling across the world to showcase, feature and uplift marginalised voices through brands and companies that align with our values. As prominent queer members in the LGBTQ+ community, they make impact through the work we do with UK Black Pride and other community projects.
Caoilfhionn Macguire
Caoilfhionn is a travel writer, photographer and filmmaker contributing to Condé Nast Traveller, OutThere, Arcadia, Elle, & Suitcase among others. She travels the world with Crusoe Collective, her content production agency for sustainable travel & lifestyle brands. From hotels and fashion houses to tourist boards and global beer brands, Caoilfhionn uses the power of photography & filmmaking to create emotive consumer-led stories for clients.
Francisca Kellett
Francisca is the Travel editor-at-large for Country & Town House magazine, and was previously the Travel editor at Tatler magazine, and Digital travel editor at The Telegraph Media Group. She continues to write for a number of the world’s leading publications, including The Times, The Sunday Times, LUXX, National Geographic Traveller and The FT, and is regarded as an industry expert on luxury and sustainable travel.
Hollie-Rae Brader
Hollie-Rae is editor of luxury travel trade magazine Aspire. Since taking the helm at Aspire in 2016 she has significantly increased the magazine’s frequency and grown its distribution. To ensure the magazine is the leading title for luxury travel sellers she also introduced a string of networking and thought-leadership events and offers consumer marketing tools for her readers. Prior to joining Aspire, Hollie was deputy news editor and cruise reporter at sister title Travel Weekly.
Jeninne Lee-St. John
Jeninne is Travel+Leisure South East Asia’s editor-in-chief, loves living in Bangkok, though she wishes it were also on a beach. She’s especially interested in food with a good backstory, new ways to define luxury, regenerative travel, wellness from ancient to cutting-edge, and weird wine. Jeninne worked at Time in New York and London, has a masters from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and a bachelors from Williams College. Born in Washington, D.C., she’s lived in Southeast Asia since 2009, and is known among friends as the queen of bubbles.
Jenny Southan
Jenny is Editor and Founder of Globetrender, an online magazine and trend forecasting agency dedicated to the future of travel. She specialises in forward-looking, consumer-facing editorial as well as trend reports, research and consulting services for the travel industry. She is also a freelance travel writer and contributor on titles like Mr Porter, Conde Nast Traveller and City AM.
Martin Perry
Martin is co-Founder and Creative Director of OutThere and heads up OutThere/Studio, the first-of-its-kind brand engagement agency that specialises in diverse and inclusive content for destinations and travel brands.
Patrick Hamilton Courtney
Patrick is a travel and arts writer who was previously travel editor at Homes & Gardens and Livingetc. His background as a writer of Thai heritage informs his editorial voice, and he specialises in stories about cultural and design-led experiences. He has recently contributed to titles including World of Interiors and Service95, amongst others.
Steffen Michels
Steffen is OutThere’s Digital Experientialist (Editor) and heads up all things online and social at the magazine.. He is passionate about authentic travel experiences, arts and culture, animal rights advocacy and environmentalism.
Ute Junker
Ute is an award-winning travel writer, editor and podcaster. She has spent 20 years charting the evolution of luxury travel for a range of leading publications including the Centurion and Departures magazines, The Australian Financial Review, The South China Morning Post, T Australia: the New York Times Style Magazine and Delicious.
Uwern Jong
Uwern is co-Founder and Experientialist-in-Chief at OutThere, celebrating over a decade of publishing as an award-winning luxury and experiential travel journal rooted in diversity, discovery and discernment.
Featured image: photography by Martin Perry, shot on location at Maslin Beach, South Australia