At the Monaco Yacht Show, Shari Liu sits down with Director of Kensington Expeditions, Neal Bateman, to talk about what it takes to create genuinely meaningful access to the places very few people ever experience — a brief that now spans land, sea, air, and soon, space.
"It's really about listening to what the client wants to do and presenting them with options."
That philosophy underpins everything Kensington builds, whatever the destination. But it's the space side of the business that's generated the most anticipation since last year's show, when the team teased a partnership it wasn't yet able to reveal. With private journeys into space now launching soon, that reticence has finally lifted.
"It's all happening at the same time... we can offer our clients trips to the stratosphere, into suborbit, or a complete orbital trip."
Space may be the headline, but it sits alongside a broader shift the team has noticed in what clients actually want from an expedition. Traditional markers of luxury — scale, opulence, exclusivity for its own sake — no longer carry the same weight they once did.
"There is a shift in the taste preference of clients, but on our expeditions we always try to maintain a level of luxury... it depends on the location."
That recalibration matters most for a client base that can, in theory, access almost anything already. Designing something genuinely new for people in that position isn't about adding more — it's about knowing where to look.
"Leveraging that network of experts... a lot of time goes into the research and planning to uncover hidden gems."
Taken together, these threads point to a business constantly redefining what's actually achievable for its clients. Space travel pushes the outer limit of what any expedition company has previously been able to offer, while the quieter work — researching, scouting, building relationships with experts in places most people will never reach — pushes a different kind of limit entirely. For Kensington, growth doesn't appear to mean expanding into more destinations for their own sake. It means expanding the definition of what's possible for each individual client, whether that's a seat on an orbital flight or a journey to somewhere undiscovered back on Earth.
We sold our first trip to space [last year]... so we’re very excited to take our clients out of this world!
Neal Bateman
