The Moodie Davitt Roarport The Moodie Davitt Report is providing exclusive daily coverage of Wild Tiger’s Roar Trip, one of travel retail’s boldest CSR initiatives, via our special line extension, The Moodie Davitt Roarport. Via phone and social media, we’ll be with Gautom Menon and Paul George Vedanayagam on every stretch of their epic 65-day road trip from Kerala to Cannes and be there to greet them on the French Riviera when they arrive on the eve of the TFWA World Exhibition. We are unlikely to be alone. More news on that coming soon. Duty free retailers: If you’d like to meet Gautom and Paul along the way (see their destination course below) let us know at Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com. |
RUSSIA/ESTONIA. The intrepid Wild tiger duo has roared across Russia and into the ninth country on their epic trip towards Cannes.
Gautom Menon and Paul George Vedanayagam reached the stunning city of Tallinn in Estonia, and are en route to Riga, Lativa. But let’s backtrack a day or so to share their stopover in Saint Petersburg on Day No. 50.
According to Gautom, Saint Petersburg is “nothing short of breathtaking”. The Russian port city on the Baltic Sea was the imperial capital for two centuries, and remains the country’s cultural centre and home to the iconic ‘Bronze Horseman’ statue and countless other historic treasures.
The Wild Tiger pair were fortunate to be joined by a friend, Nikita Ustinov, who introduced them to the city through his eyes. Saturday night saw them out on the town in Saint Petersburg, letting their hair down with some bar hopping and ending up at a karaoke bar which Gautom says was aptly named ‘Poison’.
Could the Wild Tigers have been nursing a roaring headache the next day?
On Sunday they turned from rum-bunctious revellers into ‘culture vultures’ to visit the city’s famous Hermitage Museum. It is one of the largest in the world, and according to Saint-Petersburg.com a “must-see for all first-time travellers to the city”. It boasts over 3 million items in its collection and one estimate has it that you would need 11 years to view each exhibit on display for just one minute. Of course, Gautom and Paul George didn’t have that much time to spare – after all, they have a certain world-class travel retail exhibiton to attend – but they did manage to marvel at its sights before heading to the renowned St Isaac’s Cathedral.
They enjoyed the breathtaking panorama from the cathedral and realised what they would be leaving behind. “The best way to describe this city would be to call it an open air museum in it all its glory and entirety,” Gautom tells The Moodie Davitt Roarport.
They also took in the Lakhta Center on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg. According to Wikipedia, the 87-storey skyscraper is 462m tall, the tallest building in Russia, the tallest building in Europe, and the 13th-tallest in the world. It will soon house the headquarters of the Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Then it was farewell Russia and hello Estonia as the tireless twosome crossed into the ninth country on their journey. At the border, both Gautom and Paul George thought about a couple of the some stressful border crossings they’ve experienced throughout their journey and reckoned they were glad to be in the Schengen zone for the remainder of the Roar Trip.
Onto the port, where the Harding Retail crew, who were onboard the Oceania Nautica and enjoying a layover day in Tallinn, awaited the TRiger’s arrival. The Wild tiger duo was welcomed by Harding Retail’s Team members Chelsea Constable, Dragan Vukelic, Michelle Kiewitz and Marisol Fernandez Sapien.
“We spoke in depth about life on the decks and also shared our highlights of the Roar Trip,” Gautom says. “I reminded them that they are working for a great company and must be lucky to have a management team comprising of some great people like James Prescott, Suzanne Mahoney, Michael Holmes and the rest of the team. We cannot wait to see them at the finish line in Cannes and thank them in person for embracing our initiative.”
In Tallinn, as Gautom points out, “it was a no brainer for us to stay in the old town area”. The duo caught up with Mahesh Ramani and other friends at The Oak Lounge whisky bar which offers over 150 whiskeys and 300 cigars. The Roar Crew’s drink of choice, however, was some fine aged rum from Martinique; the Wild Tiger boys are, after all, rum loyalists and ‘pirates’ at heart.
Mahesh is a well-respected Indian and entrepreneur in the Baltic region and has lived in Estonia for 30 years. He also represents many brands in travel retail and is a trusted supplier of Tallink Silja.
The next morning, as the Tigers were getting ready to roar towards Riga, they ran into (not literally) some Indian students from the Bangalore Indian Institute of Management who are on an overseas exchange student programme in Europe.
The final stop in Tallinn, and one without which the Wild Tiger Team’s time in the city would have been incomplete, was at the headquarters of drinks company Liviko. There they were greeted warmly by the Estonian distiller’s Export and Travel Retail Director Jorgen Herman.
Gautom emphasised the “stupendous” job Jorgen has done to put Estonian brands on the global drinks map. They were joined by Liviko Chairman Janek Kalvi who, much to Gautom and Paul George’s delight, proved to be a supporter of their conservation efforts, and a huge tiger and wildlife enthusiast. Janek has visited a number of India’s tiger safaris and the Wild Tiger team look forward to introducing him to their Taj Safari sponsors which operates four properties in Central India.
The Wild Tiger co-pilots enjoyed lunch with Jorgen at the Liviko canteen where they were treated to “quintessential Estonian food”… and a special goodie bag of refreshments to keep them in rumtastic spirits as they head on towards Cannes.
The Roar Trip continues.
##RoarTrip, #Roarforourtigers, #KeralatoCannes, #WildTigerFoundation #TigerConservation
HOW TO SUPPORT THE WILD TIGER ROARTRIP
Via the official website – www.roartrip.in
Or:
Account Name: Roar Trip WTF
Account No: 6766903189
Bank Name: Indian Bank
Branch: Sivananda Colony Branch, Coimbatore – 641 012,
Tamil Nadu, India
IFS Code : IDIB000S075 /SWIFT: IDIBINBBCBE
Please encourage your colleagues, friends and family to consider doing so.
En route to Cannes, the daring duo will be meeting up with other travel retailers. Those wishing to ‘meet and greet’ them are encouraged to make contact. Yes, Gautom will be checking his email: gautom@wildtiger.in
EARLIER ON THE WILD TIGER ROARTRIP…
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: Red Square, Regstaer – a Wild Tiger loose in Moscow
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: India → Myanmar → Thailand → Laos → China → Krygyzstan → Kazakhstan
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: Stranded at the border but captivated by the view
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: Goodbye China, hello Kyrgyzstan as epic journey passes halfway
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: Mountains, deserts and the Great Wall of China
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: Landslides, Hotpot and Terracotta Warriors
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: New frontiers for The Roar Crew
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’: A tiger gets loose in Laos
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Days 13-15: Turning on the (King) Power in Bangkok
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Day 12: Crossing the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Bridge
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Days 9-11: “For their tomorrow, we gave our today”
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Days 7 & 8: The Tigers Who Came to Tea
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Days 5 & 6: Wild Tigers become Bengal Tigers
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Days 4 & 5: The team earn their stripes but not a tiger in sight
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Day 3: High times in Hyderabad
The Moodie Davitt ‘Roarport’ Day 2: Wild Tiger roars into Dufry Bengaluru
#RoarTrip, #Roarforourtigers, #KeralatoCannes, #WildTigerFoundation #TigerConservation
ABOUT WILD TIGER RUM: Kerala-based Wild Tiger is India’s first rum to be produced from a blend of molasses and cane spirit. The rum’s velvet tiger print stripe packaging reflects the fact that no two tigers share the same stripe pattern – so the stripe design of the sleeve has been designed and cut to ensure that no two bottles are alike.Wild Tiger made its Indian travel retail debut in February 2016 and is now available in 53 countries.
ABOUT WILD TIGER FOUNDATION (WTF): Wild Tiger Foundation is a CSR initiative by Wild Tiger Rum, which contributes 10% of its profits to the cause. It is a registered non-profit organisation headquartered in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India that focuses on the conservation of the tiger and its habitat by raising funds and creating awareness. It was founded in 2015 by drinks entrepreneur Gautom Menon and Coimbatore-based businessman Suprej Venkat.
The primary focus is the conservation of tigers and their habitats within the state of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, specifically Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Kerala and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. Wild Tiger Foundation acts as an influencer and an enabler.India had around 100,000 tigers in the mid-19th century. Today it has around 2,200, underlining the urgency of the conservation cause.