About the Academy

Camilla Guebur is a luxury travel expert who has explored unique destinations since her teenage years, when she travelled the world as an international model and TV actor. Today, Guebur is recognised as one of Brazil's foremost luxury travel content creators. Her career includes five years as a travel columnist for Vogue Brazil, a successful YouTube channel featuring curated travel guides and a large community across Instagram and TikTok. Guebur also hosts Viagem + Vinho on Grupo Globo's Modo Viagem channel, taking viewers around the globe and blending travel with wine tourism for discerning adventurers. 

Cecilia Núñez is a specialist travel journalist with a voracious appetite for cuisine. Over more than two decades, Núñez has visited more than 73 countries, creating travel and gastronomy content for magazines, newspapers, radio and television. Since February 2024, she has been anchor, producer and director of Concierge, a TV and radio show on Imagen Multimedia. Núñez previously worked in the travel section of Reforma and served as publisher and editorial director of Food and Travel Mexico from 2013 to 2024, also leading its radio programme, awards and destination special issues.

Danielle Demetriou is a British writer who moved from London to Japan in 2007. Demetriou travels extensively across Japan – from snow-flecked Hokkaido to subtropical Okinawa – writing about architecture, design and culture as well as reviewing new hotels. Her work is published widely, including in Condé Nast Traveller, The Daily Telegraph, Wallpaper*, Travel + Leisure and Architectural Review. Her book projects include contributions to Phaidon's Japanese Interiors. Based in Kyoto, Demetriou lives in an old machiya and continues to explore Japan's evolving hospitality, architecture and design scenes, with a particular interest in thoughtful places and distinctive stays. 

Hrvoje Petrić is a Croatian travel and food journalist, award-winning writer, F&B consultant and organiser of restaurant, bar and olive oil festivals. Petrić has visited more than 80 countries and has written about hotels, restaurants and travel for national and international lifestyle and food publications for more than 20 years, including Vogue Adria, ELLE and StoryBook. An author, editor and translator, he also works as a brand and concept consultant for fine-dining restaurants. Petrić's work reflects a lifelong passion for travel, exceptional food and beautiful hotels across Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. 

Born in South Africa, raised between Cape Town and the UK and now based in Dubai, Isabella Craddock has covered travel, lifestyle and F&B for a decade. Craddock is founder and editor of Near+Far, a luxury travel publication focused on the Middle East, and a former editor at Condé Nast Traveller Middle East. Before moving to Dubai, she worked on travel publications in London and launched a media platform aimed at re-romanticising slow travel in 2020. Having grown up in hotels and a family of hoteliers, Craddock is passionate about the industry and the magic hotels create. 

Jesse Ashlock most recently served as deputy global editorial director and US head of editorial content at Condé Nast Traveler, overseeing its flagship American edition while coordinating content and strategy across global markets. Before joining the title, Ashlock guided daily editorial operations at Travel + Leisure as executive editor. He has also served as online director of T: The New York Times Style Magazine and deputy editor of Details, alongside senior roles at Visionaire, the Tribeca Film Festival and Palm Pictures. Ashlock has additionally been an adjunct instructor and board member at NYU's Center for Publishing, Writing, and Media. 

Jeninne Lee-St John is editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia and is based in Bangkok, where she has lived in the region since 2009. Lee-St John is particularly interested in food with a good backstory, new definitions of luxury, regenerative travel, wellness – from ancient to cutting-edge – and unusual wine. She previously worked at Time in New York and London and holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Williams College. Born in Washington, DC, Lee-St John is also known among friends as the queen of bubbles. 

Kee Foong is a freelance writer who has set foot on all seven continents yet remains in awe of how much of the world is left to explore. Foong was previously editor of LUXE City Guides and Discovery magazine, and his work appears in publications including Travel + Leisure Asia, SCMP, Tatler and Design Anthology. An experienced observer of hotels, design and destinations across Asia and beyond, Foong combines wide-ranging travel with a strong appreciation for distinctive hospitality. He believes there is no place like home – except where there is a fabulous hotel involved. 

Originally from South Africa, Lauren Ho has spent more than two decades based in London while living a nomadic life, travelling the world to review luxury hotels and explore destinations as a travel writer, consultant and copywriter. Ho is travel director of Wallpaper*, where she has worked for two decades, and a contributing editor at Country & Town House. She also writes freelance for publications including The Daily Telegraph, Robb Report, Condé Nast Traveller and House & Garden. Her work combines a deep knowledge of luxury hospitality with extensive first-hand experience of destinations around the world. 

Michael Harden has been critiquing and writing about restaurants, bars and hotels for more than two decades. Before writing about and commentating on hospitality, Harden worked in the industry for 15 years across Australia, Europe, the UK and US, giving him extensive first-hand experience of its operations and culture. He is the Victorian and Tasmanian editor for Australian Gourmet Traveller and the author of numerous books exploring the social, historical and cultural aspects of hospitality. Harden's work spans food, drink, hotels and travel, with a particular depth of knowledge of the Australian industry. 

Born, raised and based in Los Angeles, Samantha Brooks began her career at Robb Report, travelling the world to cover home design and real estate for more than a decade. Brooks has since written for outlets including Bloomberg, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Cultured, C Magazine, Penta and Vogue, and created custom content for lifestyle brands, including a Los Angeles city guide for Louis Vuitton. She is editor-in-chief of Curator, a Sandow publication, as well as the custom publication for The Agency. Alongside travel, Brooks regularly covers art, design, culture, food and wellness. 

Wendy Watta is a freelance travel writer, vlogger and marketing consultant based in Nairobi, Kenya, covering adventure, hotels, food and conservation across Africa. Watta's assignments have ranged from swimming in a natural pool in an Ethiopian salt desert to tracking rhinos on foot in Zambia and exploring Cape Town's cultural scene. Always ready for the next trip, she has been a newspaper columnist and edited two African travel and food magazines. Watta's bylines include Condé Nast Traveler, Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Virtuoso and Msafiri, reflecting her broad experience of travel and hospitality across the continent. 

Zinara Rathnayake is a freelance journalist and social media manager specialising in travel and food, always on the move in search of new adventures and stories. Rathnayake divides her time between India and Sri Lanka, giving her a close perspective on travel, hospitality and food across South Asia. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, BBC Travel, Singapore Air, CNN Travel, Hong Kong Airlines and Saveur, among other outlets. Through her reporting, Rathnayake explores destinations through their people, culture, landscapes and cuisine, with a particular interest in lesser-known places and locally rooted experiences.