John O’Ceallaigh

Introduction

From Ireland, John O’Ceallaigh is a luxury-travel journalist and consultant based between Dubai and London. Formerly the luxury travel editor of The Telegraph, he writes about luxury travel for many of the world’s leading travel titles. A voracious traveller who has stayed in hundreds of leading hotels, he is also an advisor to some of the world’s leading hospitality companies. 

Experience

John’s interest in travel began when he won a scholarship to be an Irish youth ambassador to Japan at 16, an honour that saw him travel alone to the country as a teen to spend a summer attending high school while living with local families. After many years of backpacking as a student, he became immersed in the fancier end of the travel spectrum after becoming The Telegraph’s luxury travel editor. After many years in that role, he became a freelance travel writer and now contributes to the likes of Condé Nast Traveller, Robb Report, Elite Traveler, National Geographic Travel and Architectural Digest Middle East. He is the host of the industry podcast The Luxury Travel Edit, regularly appears on and hosts industry panels, and speaks about luxury travel on TV and radio. In addition to his journalism work, he is a consultant for luxury hospitality companies, advising on matters such as branding, guest experience and creative concepts. 

Education

John has a first-class degree in Sociology and German at the University of Manchester. 

Fun fact

Having visited 70-odd countries to date, John’s current travel focus is going to new-to-him destinations. That was the prompt for a recent trip to Palau (which receives approximately 70,000 international tourist arrivals a year), Uzbekistan, Namibia and Azerbaijan. Future dream trip locations include Kazakhstan, Armenia, Djibouti and Bolivia.