Back from Marrakech, where the utterly fabulous 2104 edition of PURE Life Experiences, the best travel show in the world, is over; we all remember the fireworks, the parties, the Berber horsemen, but of course, the real excitement is meeting the stars from the travel world; the amazing new travel agents and trip designers that come from all over the globe – China, the Gulf, Latin America, Canada, the US and of course Europe. This year was special – for the first time, PURE invited the world’s leading travel press stars to attend and make appointments with us – we were honoured to have the editors in chief of Travel and Leisure, Town and Country, Porter, How to Spend it, and Condé Nast Traveler amongst others visit us – and getting editors to keep appointments is like herding cats….
A personal highlight was meeting the wonderful Pico Iyer, the most elegant and thoughtful old school travel writer. He told a lovely story about a small hotel in Kyoto, whose guest book includes the immortal entry “Marilyn Monroe cancelled her booking here.” He found that charmingly eccentric, so I thought I would not mention that we have successfully (and truthfully) enhanced a glorious villa’s appeal by saying “Hilary Clinton cancelled her booking here.”
Pico Iyer and Five Star Greece
Five Star Greece feels at home in PURE as it is about much more than chic bedrooms and shiny bathrooms, it is about feeling the joy of being in a different country, of travelling, of freedom, and that is always what we try to give to our clients. In fact, our glossy coffee table books with our beautiful photography of stunning Greek villas and elegant yachts were pinched from our stall by a Moroccan cleaning lady (with excellent taste) before the show even started, and I swear that not having pictures to show people made not a scrap of difference –
I love to think of a little dark mud kasbah house where, in the evening, the Berber villagers all cluster together, children in front, looking at photos of the M/Y O’Ceanos by flickering candlelight, and dream of infinity pools overlooking Delos. The joy of travel. Everyone can dream.
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