Sri Lanka – the Muse of Luxury Travellers

“Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable.”

In 2022, an Indian and a Frenchman embarked on a strange quest. They were in search of a phrase, a word, in fact, that held at its kernel the secret of a country. The word is Serendipity and the country was Sri Lanka. In a world awash with social media interruptions, sound-bites and chaos, it is rare to come across a duo on a mission such as this.

A few years ago, Frenchman Quentin Desurmont happened to read the delightful story of the Three Princes of Serendip. If you are not familiar with the story, in brief, it is that three princes of Serendip travelled the world, making accidental discoveries and finding wonderful things they were not in search of. Thoroughly enchanted with both the story and the concept of serendipitous discoveries, Quentin and his friend Nageshwaran decided to visit Sri Lanka, the Island of Serendib.

Both are in the travel industry, more specifically the high-end travel industry which aspires to provide exceptional adventures for the discerning traveller in the subcontinent. Nagesh, owner and chairman of Incent Lanka by Saffron, a travel agency which for the past 25 years has specialized in organizing exceptional adventures for ultra-wealthy travellers to the subcontinent, and Frenchman Quentin Desurmont, chairman of Swiss based Traveller Made Luxury Travel Designers’ Network, despite having travelled all over the world and having worked in the travel industry for so long, believed the art of travel is more than a consumerist commodity. Instead, they wanted to offer their community of travel colleagues a goal of using the concept of Serendipity as a permanent source of inspiration for their teams to create surprises and unique experiences.

In February 2022, Nagesh and Quentin arrived in Sri Lanka to travel through the island that inspired the concept. What they found were outstanding experiences – food, sights, history and personalities. They were delighted to discover that creative personae such as the legendary and internationally renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa, Batik Designer Ena de Silva, film maker Lester James Peiris, Booker Award winning writers Michael Ondaatje and Shehan Karunatilleke, artist George Keyt, sculptor, painter and horticulturist Laki Senanayake and a score of others all called this magical island home.

Readers will be interested to know that the tale of The Three Princes of Serendip that captivated these travellers has itself a long and convoluted history. In 1304, Amir Khusrao wrote down a tale that had been told over centuries before. This in turn was found and translated by Italian writer Cristoforo Armeno in 1557. It was translated into French by Louis de Mailly in 1719 and captured the imagination of Voltaire who wrote a delightful story titled Zadig, which was greatly influenced by the tale. It was not until 1754 that Englishman Sir Horace Walpole, the fourth Earl of Oxford, translated the tale into English and subsequently coined the word Serendipity’’ which was soon adopted by the World.

This is why Quentin chose to rename his community of fellow Travel Designers as The Serandipians”. Thus, was born the idea for both of them that Sri Lanka is the Muse of Luxury Travellers as most international luxury travel designers had fallen in love with it – with Ceylon, with Serendib, the Persian name for Ceylon which gave birth to the term Serendipity.

The two adventurers call on the world to seek serendipity; to take on the mantle of the Three Princes of Serendip both in Sri Lanka and across the globe. For now is the time when the world needs more change makers’’ who will be able to bring more wisdom, scientific solutions and joyful enchantment to protect future generations, and to bring them delight.