Rob Stockman and Rita Polegri, TDC, with Linda Josimovic, Marlin Travel
Trafalgar Tours' Dumitru Rares, Winnifred Heung and Maurizio Mazzola
Wolf Paunic, V.P. Sales, Trafalgar Tours introduces author, Patricia Schultz at the VIP reception
Wolf Paunic; Jason du Sautoy, Flight Centre; Patricia Schultz; Sandra Wesson, TDC; David McCaig, ACTA; Jose Manuel de Juan, Embassy of Spain Tourism Section and Jeff Element, TravCorp
“Life is short and our knees have expiry dates.” This is what a 90-year-old woman told author, Patricia Schultz, during a trip to Machu Picchu. The old woman spent her entire life raising children, grandchildren and never once stepped foot outside of New Jersey. To celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary, she and her husband marked the milestone with a trip to Peru. It’s better late than never to travel and see the world. But why wait? In a 20-city book tour across North America, Patricia Schultz, the author of 1,000 Places To See Before We Die, visited Toronto (the only Canadian stop) to inspire Canadians to stop making excuses.
About 750 people gathered at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre last week for the promotion of the book’s second edition. The evening also marked the beginning of a new partnership with Trafalgar Tours, the global sponsor of the book tour. Trafalgar’s V.P. of Sales, Wolf Paunic, called it a match made in heaven at a VIP reception that was held for 50 industry insiders prior to the presentation. Schultz referred to it as a nurturing pairing and said the partnership came about naturally because the two share the same passion, interests and fascination with travel.
The reception, which was sponsored by the Spanish Tourism Office, featured Spanish wines and hor d’oevres like mini paella cups, steak sandwiches with chimichurri sauce and mini beef empanadas. VIP guests had the chance to mingle with Schultz and were even lucky enough to take home a signed copy of her book.
The first edition of 1,000 Places took Schultz 8 years to complete but became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. It sold over 3 million copies and was printed in 25 different languages. Now the second edition includes coloured photographs and over 200 new entries that were not featured in the original.
“Travel is the only thing you can purchase that makes you richer,” Schultz said at the beginning of her presentation. “It is an experience that opens you up and makes you a better person. This is travel’s guarantee.” The author chose 30 destinations, including Bruges, Morocco and Petra, to feature, and gave audience members a taste of the book and a taste of the world. She spoke so passionately about each place, sharing interesting facts and personal anecdotes that she ran out of time before getting through the list.
As much as the book is used as a practical travel guide, many readers also consider it a wish list of sorts. And with 1,000 places to see before we die, or at least before our knees expire, we better start checking off that list. “Bon voyage,” says Schultz.
