remembering the ladies and gentlemen...

doormen at The Goring (c) 2020 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

So much has changed since last I wrote you a little more than two weeks ago about travel in the age of the coronavirus.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed at 27,090 on March 4th, is currently at 20,212, down over 25%.
• Countries around the world are closing their borders to tourists. Americans can't travel to Europe. Europeans can't travel to the U.S. The Governor of Hawaii asked visitors to stay away. The US-Canada border is closed.
• The list of hotel closures is growing daily. Even the iconic George V in Paris has closed its doors through May 4th.
• Cruise lines are shutting down operations, and two clients are currently stuck on a Seabourn Cruise off the coast of South America waiting for an evacuation plane to fly them home to the US.
• The entire State of California has been ordered to shelter in place.

The world has changed profoundly over the past two weeks. My original assessment was clearly overly optimistic. We are all disappointed at long-anticipated trips we've had to cancel. I had intended to travel to Hawaii this Sunday and to Amsterdam next month, but when the Conservatorium in Amsterdam emailed to inform me the hotel was closing and my reservation was canceled, that pretty much settled matters. I'm "sheltering in place" in California, and that seems like the wisest thing for me to do.

But my deepest concern is not my own disappointment. It is for the many people in the travel industry who truly are hurting right now. We love the experience of staying at luxury hotels. Our stays are made so comfortable by doormen who greet us and offer to carry our bags, front desk agents who show us to our rooms, concierges who make restaurant reservations and arrange transportation, housekeeping staff who clean our rooms daily, and restaurant staff who serve our breakfasts and keep our coffee cups full. So many of these people are out of work for the time being, missing out on paychecks and gratuities. And hoteliers themselves are facing massive financial pressures.

So let us be mindful of those ladies and gentlemen who make our hotel stays so special. When we travel again — and we will — let us regard them with new eyes, with true appreciation for the service they provide us. They are gracious hosts. Let us be grateful guests.

copyright (c) 2020 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

if it's August, it must be Las Vegas

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Though I don't think of Las Vegas as a summer destination, I have found myself making annual pilgrimages to Vegas every August since 2006. Why Vegas? Why August? August is the month when elite members of the luxury travel industry gather for Virtuoso Travel Week, an event that has grown larger year after year. Thousands of luxury travel advisors travel to Vegas to meet with reps of of a thousand hotels, cruise lines, airlines, tour companies, and other travel providers.

Think of Travel Week as a shopping spree for travel. I shop for travel ideas for you — new hotels that are opening their doors, older hotels that have transformed themselves through multi-million dollar renovations, creative ideas from tour companies about things to do and see, opportunities for unique experiences that come with a lifetime of "bragging rights." There's always something new and surprising to learn.

And there's networking... One of my favorite Travel Week stories: I was seated at dinner one evening next to my rep from Four Seasons Hong Kong. While we were talking, a client email came in with a special request for her hotel. Handing her the phone, she read the email, said "Done!," and emailed her team in Hong Kong. Luxury travel is all about relationships ... and Virtuoso Travel Week is our chance to nurture those relationships. Virtuoso hotel bookings give you even more than hundreds of dollars of amenities per stay: when you're the client of a Virtuoso travel advisor, hotels receive you as a true VIP.

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Paris | I'll be there next Saturday

woman by the Seine (c) 2014 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Though I've been to Paris more than a dozen times, this is one place I can never get enough of. I inherited my love of travel from my grandparents who were intrepid world travelers in the 50's and 60's, and I always enjoyed my grandfather's slide shows of their travels. He traveled with his Leica, and I've photographed Paris with all sorts of cameras from a Minolta SLR and a Contax rangefinder to a Canon DSLR and a tiny Ricoh GR (which gets the credit for the photo above taken during my last visit).

Places to visit and things to do — here's a summary of the things I'm looking forward to this time around (and my travel partners who have helped organize the two walking tours).

Musée Marmottan Monet
Occupation & Liberation of Paris walking tour (Paris Personalized)
day trip to Giverny
Art Street tour of the 13th Arrondissement (W Travel France)
Quai Branly Museum
Bois du Boulogne

Hotels and places to stay — no visit to Paris would be complete (for me) without the chance to visit hotels. I'll be staying at and/or doing site inspections at the following:

Le Meurice
Le Bristol
Four Seasons George V
Grand Hotel du Palais Royal
Ritz Paris
La Reserve
Plaza Athenee
Peninsula Paris
d'Aubusson
Relais Christine
Saint James Paris
OneFineStay (apartment on rue Saint André des Arts, 6th arr.)

Please reach out to us for hotel bookings in Paris (with value-added amenities such as free daily breakfast and hotel credits that will save you hundreds!) and to consult with us to Discover More during your stay.

I'll be live blogging during my three weeks (!) in France, so subscribe to Travel Horizons or friend me on Facebook so you don't miss an article.

copyright (c) 2016 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.