MEETING AT EMIRATES PALACE We touch down at Abu Dhabi Airport in the late afternoon. Our personal driver Ahmed is waiting for us at the arrivals, dressed in an impeccable uniform and carrying a sign with our names on it. “Welcome to Abu Dhabi,” he says. “Your car is waiting.” Two porters take our suitcases; all we have to do is follow Ahmed outside where a white Rolls Royce is waiting for us. This is a perfect start! We drive to the Emirates Palace where we have a meeting with CEO Reto Wittwer and Ulrich Eckhardt, President for the Kempinski Hotels throughout the Middle East and Africa. We pass the newly built Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which looks like it is floating in the air in the light of the setting sun. The reason we are here is our Transmedia Storytelling project including CoolTravel and CoolBrands. So our job is to travel the planet, take pictures, write stories with a wow-factor and stickiness to facilitate word-of-mouth. Publish them in our series of books, distributed to opinion leaders. Seeded online in blogs and social media. Last year, we gave the Kempinski group’s Roland Obermeier a copy of one of our books at the World Travel Market in London. “How about helping us with storytelling” Roland suggested. “You stay in our hotels, take pictures and write stories which we will publish on the Facebook pages of the hotels. When the tour is over, you can print a book about the Kempinski destinations which we will use as a cross selling tool in the hotels”. “Well Roland,” we said. “We would have to think about that… for about two nano seconds! Let’s do it!”

Three months later, we’re rolling up to the Emirates Palace where we receive a warm welcome in Arab style with coffee and a cold towel. “Your mission is to do what you do best: travel, take pictures and write stories,” Ulrich says. “Kempinski will give you ground support. Not only five-star hospitality, but also in-depth local knowledge.”We nod as we take a sip of our caffè latte. “We would like you to write the personal story of two travellers discovering the Middle East and Africa,” Reto continues. “It has to be aspirational – something our guests can identify with.” We take another sip of our caffè latte and nod. “Our hotels are all different, a collection of individuals – like our guests,” Ulrich adds. “And when you are in Djibouti, try to swim with a whale shark.” “And try to ‘capture’ a lion in Etosha,” Reto adds, “and go to Petra when you’re in Aqaba.”

“Thank you, gentlemen,” we reply, “but can we finish our caffè latte first?”

Maarten and Anouk

Extract from the book “Discovering the Middle East and Africa” – CoolTravel powered by Kempinski Stories written by: Anouk Pappers and Maarten Schäfer Pictures taken by: Anouk Pappers and Maarten Schäfer Tags: CoolTravel, Kempinski, Cool Travel, Middle East, Africa, Maarten Schafer, Anouk Pappers, Storytelling, Story Telling,