I’m sitting here on a rather grey, drizzly London day dreaming of Thailand – fragrant curries, fierce sunlight, golden sand…how can it only be a week since I left?!

I would like to just thank each and every one of you who attended Connections Luxury Thailand for being such a wonderful group – your energy and positivity made it what it was, and it was really lovely to get to know so many new faces and find out more about you, and see friendships forming before me over the course of two days.

Seeing Phuket through grown-up eyes was really enlightening for me, because it showed me how some things just don’t change. This island has certainly developed since my last visit when I was sixteen years old, but it is still a place of smiling faces. The people are so consistently kind and hospitable, and it’s refreshing that Phuket is still the way I remember it.

For my team and I, it was exciting to know that 80% of attendees were new to Connections, though, of course, the pressure was on to live up to your expectations and prove that the recommendations peers were justified.

I’m so happy to say that the feedback so far has been so wonderful. People seem to have really embraced the Connections concept, with many signing up for more Connections events already. I’m delighted to watch Connections continue to bloom, and to learn that delegates are getting ROI on the relationships they’ve made – this is what we’re all about!

I have a few people to thank. First of all, thank you to Patricia Simillon from Amadeus, for sharing insights from the report we have worked on together, Shaping the Future of Luxury travel – and I’m sorry that Rob Sinclair wasn’t able to join us this time. It’s a pleasure to continue to work with both of you, and to create some truly useful content to help see where the luxury travel industry is heading.

The insights we were able to gain in the report were equal to none, and I’ve heard from many attendees that having the opportunity to debate about these insights during the roundtable discussions with your industry peers was really valuable. I’m so proud to be able to offer this educational aspect to Connections events – we really do want to hear your feedback about the report, and welcome any comments you may have.

Thank you to our speaker at Connections Luxury Phuket, vlogger and philosopher Jay Shetty, for his inspirational and rather moving speech about how to stay human in a digital age. I for one was blown away by his fresh outlook on how we can use social media to improve our relationships with our customers, and how we’re missing opportunities to serve them better if we don’t learn to experiment more with this amazing tool that we all have access to.

By the way, our journalist, Rose Dykins, will be pulling together insights from the roundtable discussions and the main takeaways from Jay’s speech and putting them into a report, which we’ll be sending round to you really soon.

Thanks also to The Telegraph, for continuing to be a supporter of Connections, it’s fantastic to have you on board.

Thanks again to our fantastic host hotel, the Dream Phuket Hotel and Spa, and also to Iniala Beach House for providing a stunning setting for the Connections experiences.

Destination Asia, thank you for getting all of us from A to B so seamlessly over the two days, you were fab!

Travizeo, thank you for being amazing as always, for giving many people their first “dronie” experience, and creating top quality video content from the event.

And last, but by no means least, the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Your contribution to Connections Luxury Phuket was outstanding – the evening entertainment was spectacular, you were an incredible team to work with, and I’m so happy with the outcome.

So, back to reality….

I hope you’ve all recovered and rested well. What have you been up to? Where are you now?

Please do keep in touch, with Connections, and with each other! I hope to see as many of you as possible at future Connections events – maybe in Rio…? Until then, I wish you all the best.

Kob kun ka!