From the Editor Christian Schwalbach “ The hospitality industry has been busy, whether it’s opening new properties or finding a silver lining in the slower months by giving its establishments a facelift „ 12 DEPARTURES TRAVEL IS IN OUR DNA. It is, most obviously, built into the magazine’s title, Departures, but travel dispatches, previews and roundups have always been at the heart of this publication, from the bite-sized blitzes in our opening section to the long-form features that fully immerse you in a destination with richly textured writing and evocative photography. This past year, like so many other people and publications, we’ve had to pivot: in our case, it’s meant moving away from travel. Pre-Covid, a majority of our pages were dedicated to travel. In the past few issues, it’s been significantly less – reflecting not only the difficulty of travelling, but also our collective state of mind, wrapped up, as we have all been, in discovering new ways to work, to educate our children, to enjoy celebratory meals and, above all, to stay healthy in body and soul. In this issue, we return – with cautious optimism – to our travel-centric approach. We are emerging from our various cocoons at different speeds, and international travel remains a case-by-case prospect. I advise you to abide by all the governmental restrictions and to double- and triple-check every detail before you book and again before you depart. But as new hotels are debuting around the globe and airlines are slowly reintroducing familiar routes, I also encourage you to find inspiration in these pages: our friends across the hospitality industry have been very busy in recent months, whether it’s opening new properties or finding a silver lining in the slower months by giving their establishments a facelift – or, in some instances, a full makeover. In addition to looking at destinations like sun-drenched Mexico and thought-provoking Warsaw, we also check in on the world of cruising and revisit the ever-expanding notion of sustainability – always an important topic – exploring the ongoing evolution of both watchmaking and hotel construction. There are many more stories and trend reports in the magazine, including a wonderful feature on immersive, hand-painted murals that gives us our cover this quarter. I wish you happy reading and soon – with luck – happy travels.
