Heads up Parrotheads

Your boy Jimmy Buffett will raise his voice in song on the chi-chi French island of St. Barth on November 7. The raison d'être is the 60th Anniversary of Le Select, a scruffy little beach bar in the harbor side capitol of Gustavia. Its legendary bar keep (and octogenarian) Marius Stakelborough is a great pal of Mr. Buffett's. Something is scruffy in St. Barth?! Oui. One can only consume so much Cristal and goat cheese salad without craving a cold Caribe and a burger, so folks tuck-in at Le Select. The clientele is an interesting mix of locals, tourists and "beautiful people. Wanna go and dance on the quay? For info and digs http://www.stbarth.com/

Travel and Today's Economy

Monday morning and I’m multi-tasking – drinking coffee, listening to Good Morning America and checking out at the travel industry websites. The news is much of the same. President Obama looks grim, Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts are chatting with experts on how to deal with loosing your job, while Travel Weekly and Travel Pulse Daily have predictions of possible dire consequences for travel agents and tour operators. The economy – everybody is talkin’ about it.

Selling travel in this climate is indeed a challenge. Delivering Asia’s bulletin today is pitching chocolate massage packages at the Anatara Spa in the Golden Triangle. Now that’s an experience. Will people pay for it? We’ll all find out soon enough.

Items on my To Do list this week will include an outline for St. Barth Properties e-newsletter. The island remains the playground for the beautiful people and all the mega-yachts still pulled into its little harbor over the holidays. But it’s a long season and there are lots of villas to rent. Past clients are looking at their 401Ks and wondering what was behind their boss’s cryptic remarks at the staff meeting. Consumer confidence.

We’ve chosen the mantra of selling the experience –‘cause we really do believe the philosophy behind it. Travel and especially sharing special places and moments with family and friends really is priceless. And worth way more than most “stuff”.

I know I can only clearly remember a handful of presents that I’ve received over the years – and half of them where the B-A-D ones. Why is it we always remember the awful gifts? I still grimace at a bagel-slicing contraption I once received and I finally just shoved the world’s ugliest coffee table book into a desk drawer.

But I will never forget climbing the Great Wall one cool and misty October morning, laughs shared with friends at a villa in Provence, my elephant ride in Chiang Mai. the wonderful little restaurant my husband and I discovered in Paris….or sunset cocktails overlooking this picture-postcard of a harbor in St. Barth's Gustavia.

And if I can ride an elephant to the spa for that chocolate massage - they’ve sold me.