MAN OF THE HOUR

Beautiful Destinations founder Jeremy Jauncey talks about his first experience with culture shock, the undeniable power of social media, and his upcoming role as co-chair for the Tatler Best of Asia event

- Coco Marett

W hen it comes to travel, Jeremy Jauncey was a late bloomer. He had spent his life on a farm in rural Scotland until, at 18 years old, he was offered an opportunity to play elite level rugby in New Zealand.

But first, he had a layover in Singapore. “I remember being at Changi Airport for the first time. I had never seen an airport that big—I was blown away,” Jauncey recalls. “I was looking at the arrivals board, seeing all of the flights coming in from Italy, from Australia—all these places that had never been on my radar. I remember thinking, ‘I have not seen any of the world. I haven’t experienced any of this.’ I felt like I was missing out.”

Stepping out of the airport that day only magnified these feelings as he wandered around the Lion City, observing an atmosphere and way of life that was completely different to what he’d known. “Going into hawker centres and eating street food—just eating on the streets with people—was not something that we really do in Scotland, and certainly not on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” he says with a laugh. “That was a huge cultural shock for me, but in a really positive way because it was so vibrant, so lively.”

Chasing that feeling of awe is something Jauncey has since carved into a—very successful—career. In 2012, he founded Beautiful Destinations, one of the most popular and influential online travel platforms today.

What started as a way to share photos of the world’s most scenic and breathtaking places on Instagram has since evolved into a multi-award-winning strategic, creative and content studio, with one of the world’s largest online travel communities. “Industries like fashion and beauty were much quicker to adopt the power of social media. But travel? Not so much,” he says. “I always had the belief that we had something special, and that customers would come if we could stay alive for long enough as we were building the business. Thankfully, here we are, talking about it now.”