Digging For Tourmalines
Perhaps it is not surprising, but gem- and jewelry-themed travel is a trend especially relevant to the tastes and inclinations of high-net worth individuals — people with at least $1 million in liquid assets — according to Milton Pedraza, the founder and chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a consultancy specializing in luxury consumer research with offices in New York and Florida.
Mr. Pedraza said the sophisticated traveler has “seen it, done it.” So, he said, when someone has the opportunity to access an exclusive experience in a far-flung part of the world, “it makes your life more unique,” he said,“and everybody wants to be seen as authentic, unique and genuine.”
The designer Pamela Hastry is connected to such clients through Morphée, her jewelry company in Paris, and the lectures that she regularly hosts in and around her hometown, Brussels. She also conducts private tours of Place Vendôme in Paris, a center for high jewelry, and of the Diamantkwartier, or Diamond Quarter, in Antwerp, Belgium, one of the jewelry industry’s oldest and most prominent diamond centers.
In November Ms. Hastry is planning to take a group to Namibia, in southern Africa, to discover the country’s beautiful tourmalines (while also making a stop at a mine that produces chrysocolla, an unusual blue-green type of chalcedony). Organized with Destination, a luxury travel agency in Belgium, the 10-day itinerary includes at least one night in a tent near one of the tourmaline mines (€8,986 or about $9,711, without airfare).
“You’re going to live — and dig — like a miner for a day and a half,” Ms. Hastry said.
Damien Van Bellinghen, the founder of Le Club des Etoiles, a business and social club in Brussels, has one of the 15 reservations for the Namibia trip. Mr. Van Bellinghen, who went on one of Ms. Hastry’s private tours of Antwerp’s diamond district, wrote in an email that he looked forward to discovering how gems are extracted, getting to know the miners and exploring the country through the lens of a jeweler.