In conversation with Sam Blunsdon
Sam's experience in luxury travel and hospitality has seen him occupy pivotal positions that have played a definitive role in shaping his expertise at Connections Luxury. We sat down with Sam to hear the journey he's made to becoming Head of Tourist Board Promotion.
Tell us a bit about your professional journey joining Connections Luxury.
Where to start! I always had a passion for travel from an early age; like many others, I decided to travel the world before heading to university. While studying international business at Nottingham Trent, I had the opportunity to work for a global B2B events company, joining as their sales executive, and instantly got hooked. I became their top salesman within a year, and re-joined the company after University to continue my journey in sales.
I also wanted to build on my passion for creativity and ventured into the world of PR, which helped develop my understanding for promotion and sales within media. This is when I was approached to join a company that was taking a pioneering approach to events in the luxury travel sphere, and met Greg Reeves, the now managing director of Connections. Feeling bold, I asked for the job in the interview – and got it – and have loved every minute since!
For the first couple of years, I worked as a sales manager, building our community of luxury decision-makers by developing relationships with luxury hotels, DMCs and destination partners. Over time, my interest in destinations grew, and I wanted to dedicate more time to promoting these incredible places to our community.
Now as Head of Tourism Promotions, I work closely with all our destination partners, building a strong relationship with each to understand their needs and wants. I fully manage their projects and follow market trends to find new and exciting ways to promote their destination to our luxury community.
How do you collaborate with tourism stakeholders to best promote the destination?
The exciting thing about tourist boards and destination promotion is there are so many ways we can showcase these incredible places.
Some of our most successful initiatives for tourist boards are our in-person events, where we incorporate the ‘Connections Way’ approach.
Projects we have seen great success with include our bespoke series, which is our most targeted and curated product. Working closely with tourist boards, we invite chosen luxury agencies from key and emerging source markets to experience a destination first-hand, while meeting with leading, in-destination suppliers.
Alternatively, a destination partner can be a host of a community-wide event, or even a more intimate specialist event, which focuses on key sectors including wellness, adventure, weddings or MICE. We have also been incredibly creative with fam trips, recruiting buyers to destinations for an experiential, cultural programme.
These are all supported by the power of our Connections community, where we’re able to create a far-reaching and tailored campaign for tourist boards to inspire, educate and connect with our qualified buyers.
“We can’t ignore the ever-evolving world of technology, and how this plays an important role in travel. We should also be closely monitoring Web3 and the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to market and promote a destination.”
What do you consider the biggest opportunities or trends in luxury travel today?
We are all seeing the shift in how we perceive luxury. Gone are the days where luxury is material. Now the focus has shifted to experience – and I don’t just mean an amazing experience in a destination. Luxury is spending time on the smaller details, so that you are given an exceptional, wonderfully surprising, memorable experience from start to finish.
We also can’t ignore the ever-evolving world of technology, and how this plays an important role in travel. AI has been mentioned a lot lately and businesses in travel need to be excited by it, rather than be hiding from it.
We should also be closely monitoring Web3, a blockchain-based web. Tourist boards could use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to market and promote a destination. The Metaverse, or Virtual 3D worlds, is a key example of where destinations can use NFTs, by buying and building virtual worlds showcasing the experience to a huge audience of digital users; NFTs could be utilised and sold to promote and engage the trade or end consumer. For example, you could work with a digital artist to create an NFT related to your destination or promotional campaign, which when bought from a luxury travel trade professional or end consumer, could reflect real-life loyalty reward programmes such as free night stays, discounts or benefits
The way we use the internet is changing, which means how we market to our audiences is also changing. Destinations and travel businesses alike should start to understand how they can take advantage of new tech within their long-term strategies, both with how they service their clients and how they promote to different audiences across different platforms.
What do you find most fulfilling or rewarding about your role?
As many of us know, the events industry can be hard going with long hours, multiple moving parts and a fast-paced environment. So, for me, the most rewarding part is seeing all your hard work come to fruition. You may work on a project for three, six or 12 months, and each can come with its own set of challenges, which is all part of the fun. But, when you see an event come together, or hear the community sharing their passion for the destination you have worked hard to showcase, it’s rewarding beyond words.
I am lucky enough to work every day doing a job I love. I measure my success by seeing how the people around me - my clients, colleagues and industry friends – are responding to our projects. We all want to do good in life, and so when I know I am supporting others to achieve their goals, that fills me with such pride and joy.
Can you share any notable destinations you have visited that stood out the most?
This is a tough question, because I see each of the destinations I work with as part of my family – and I definitely have a soft spot for all of them!
The destination that matches my personality is California; I could spend my days basking in the sun, soaking up all that laid-back energy while enjoying the adventurous activities and stopping off at food trucks along the way. However, when it comes to food… Asia is my standout. I have had some of my best cultural cuisine moments in Tokyo and Seoul. From teppanyaki grills to Korean fried chicken, here you can enjoy the simple life, as well as a fully immersive experience.