In today’s world, luxury travel may seem just a click away, but for those seeking unique and tailored experiences, Serandipians, a network of the greatest luxury travel designers and experts are ready to help.
Serandipians is a community of the world’s best travel designers, hoteliers, resorts, and destinations dedicated to creating bespoke travel experiences that cater to your every desire. Founded in 2013 by Quentin Desurmont, the network has grown to include over 520 agencies in 74 countries, each hand-picked and audited to meet the highest standards of quality, expertise, and service.
Personalisation has been the emphasis for the past 10 years. Serandipians‘ members pride themselves on getting to know their clients, giving personalised recommendations, and crafting tailor-made itineraries that suit their unique tastes and preferences.
Whether you want to explore hidden gems or embark on an off-the-beaten-path adventure, they can make it happen. The portfolio covers a diverse range of destinations and experiences, from exotic safaris in Africa, chic Mexican Riviera luxury, to luxurious spa retreats in Europe.
Serandipians is more than a network of travel designers. It is a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for travel and a commitment to excellence. Members regularly come together for events and conferences, sharing knowledge and insights, and enjoying the occasional party.
One of the highlights of the community is the annual Essence of Luxury Travel, event where members can network, share ideas, and discuss the latest trends in luxury travel. The conference is a perfect opportunity to get inspired and learn about unique destinations and the latest trends.
For 2023 the week-long event took place in the glamorous Andalusian resort of Marbella where 800 travel industry professionals were treated on the first day to a whirlwind conference focused on this year’s hot topic of ‘Brand Fashionability’. We were taken on a fascinating three-hour journey of how Brand Fashionability can translate and be adapted to the travel industry.
The current landscape of the Ultra High Net Worth (those with a net worth of more than $30m) individuals were explained by Barton Consulting’s Winston Chesterfield. Attraction to rarity, innovation and niche or Meta brands are of noted interest.
Sabine Ichikama PhD explored fashion and time, offering the audience examples of how fashion brands often diversify into other areas; designer homewares or opening their design-chic cafes were an inspiration. She also made the connection between timeless style, classic materials and experiential campaigns that offer longevity to brands.
Luxury and the relationship between technological innovation and disruption was a key takeaway from speaker and marketing expert Benoit Heilbrunn.
“Fashionability means building bridges between universes that are usually not connected,” he stated, and gave examples of how ‘fashionability’ can be created with and for anything, sharing an example of the approach of French pastry chef Pierre Herme who uses high-end fashion boutiques as inspiration for his stores.
He also noted: “Fashionability is about the recycling of cultural references” and shared how brands will often make a nod or use iconic imagery as playful metaphors too sell their own products.
Katja Graisse completed the inspiring talks by sharing the next visionary trend example of ‘Luxification’ and the ability to democratise the notion of ‘luxury’ by reimagining it so that all cost-points are blended making brands suitable and attractive to younger, less affluent generations. This shifted the perception of luxury brands only producing bespoke, expensive, or limited edition items to collaborations with High Street brands, releasing food items and using artists as a catalyst to be aligned with coolness or mass markets.
During office hours 33,000 meetings were undertaken throughout the week as travel insiders had one-to-one tailor-made matched meetings, while during evenings some of the most beautiful resorts in Marbella are used to host parties, dinners and networking events. We attended the dazzling gala launch at the up-scale Anantara Villa Padierna Palace where an evening of celebrations, performances and free-flowing champagne were on offer for guests.
The following evening it was on to dining at El Patio with a delicious tasting menu at The Marbella Club followed by a fun round of iPad music bingo, partying and cocktails in one of the privately owned grand villas on the grounds of the iconic resort.
We left the Serandipians full of travel inspiration, armed with a wealth of striking new resorts to share, and the knowledge that there are people in the world lucky to have the resources of some of the world’s best destination experts in their phone contacts.
