The ‘Essence of Phuket 2025’, an exclusive B2B luxury travel event, wrapped up successfully at SAii Laguna Phuket, one of the island’s premier resorts. Held from March 3-6, the four-day event brought together over 200 delegates, including top-tier luxury buyers and some equally iconic and luxury suppliers. The event featured three days of intense B2B meetings on days two through four, following an engaging first day dedicated to the Essence Conference, the inaugural gala dinner, and the prestigious ‘Idolons’ awards ceremony.
The annual event is organised by Paris-based Traveller Made for its exclusive ‘Serandipians’ members—an elite network of the world’s most sought-after luxury travel designers and hospitality brands, renowned for crafting bespoke experiences for discerning global travelers. Membership in this prestigious group represents the highest standards of service, design, and guest satisfaction.
“Essence of Phuket is the first event of this scale that we are organizing in Asia. The event has attracted some of the finest luxury travel suppliers from Asia and the Pacific region who will showcase their unique offerings to top luxury travel buyers from the Americas, Europe and Asia,” informed Quentin Desurmont, Founder & CEO, Traveller Made. Desurmont also promised to return with a bigger edition the next year.
The event brought together Serandipians members suppliers, namely hotels, resorts, destinations, DMCs, among others, from the Middle East, Asia and Pacific to showcase, promote and sell their unique offerings to some of the top international ‘luxury’ travel buyers from across the globe. A calendar event, Serandipians events are organised at iconic venues in global tourism hotspots.
Venue of the just concluded event, SAii Laguna Phuket, recently refurbished and upgraded with world class amenities and experiences, has also recently joined the Serandipians Luxury Travel Network. With over USD 20 million investment that has gone in in the property’s refurbishment and upgradation, the nearly four-decade old Phuket’s hospitality landmark has emerged as a redefining top international resort offering within the iconic Laguna Phuket Complex in one of Thailand’s Southern-most tourism paradises, the very touristic Phuket.
The event kicked off with an engaging conference during the day on day one followed by an inaugural gala-dinner called ‘Boho Sabai & Idolons Dinner Party’ on March 3. There were engaging discussion on ‘Iconicity’ that put into the spotlight the art of crafting lasting impact in a fast-evolving world and ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in luxury travel industry.
The Essence Conference also saw Jean-Noel KAPFEERER, a Teacher-Researcher, Advisor and Author on Luxury, speak on ‘Why Luxury needs Icons’, Alberto CAVALLI, Executive Director of Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, dwelled deep on the topic, ‘Original, Authentic, Iconic’, Anne Le Rolland, Founder & CEO of ACTE International Group taking it up on ‘CSR: Management’, among others.
The evening also witnessed an award function called ‘Idolons’ in recognition of excellence of various tourism services from Travel Made’s members.