Fabio Casilli is a man with many hats. Indeed, he leads both freelance missions with tourism stakeholders (in this capacity he is also in charge of missions for the IFTM-TOPRESA trade fair), manages the coworking space dedicated to tourism “La Bulle du Voyage“and is also founding president of the association Respire. The common denominator of all these functions is tourism, his greatest passion. It is for this reason that he imagined and created Respire from the start of the Covid crisis. He is convinced that more virtuous tourism is necessary and wishes to create a community of professionals and a dynamic around this issue. To get to know him better, I invite you to discover his interview.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us what the trip means to you?
Hello, Fabio Casilli, Italian by birth, Brazilian at heart and French by adoption, traveler and inveterate dreamer by profession and as a passion… travel is life, exchange, knowledge, the discovery of the Other before same as the discovery of a country. Traveling while respecting the places and populations that welcome us for a few days or a few weeks is the greatest gesture of respect and tolerance that we can have. Everyone should be able to travel, it should be reimbursed by social security as a source of well-being and openness.
What was the trip that struck you the most? Why ?
I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to many countries, whether for my leisure or for my work. I am always very curious to discover the history and the culture of the places where I am, and for that I often go to meet the inhabitants by inhaling the atmosphere in the streets or in the popular markets more than in the museums . I could give you plenty of examples but I think that one of the most striking was one of my many trips to Brazil, to Salvador de Bahia, where I attended, alone, for one night, a rehearsal. of a capoeira show lit only by candles. Beyond the magical atmosphere, I felt really welcomed by the members of the troop as one of their own, in total osmosis with these people that I did not know a few hours before and that I have never seen again.A magnificent parenthesis of life.
How do you see post-Covid tourism?
Tourism can only emerge from this crisis better. The break imposed on us by the Covid made us face up to our responsibilities with unimaginable violence but at the same time it also gave us the time to be able to reflect on how to be able to start again. It is from this observation that in March 2020 I launched the association Respire le tourisme de demain, in order to be able to anticipate the changes that will be necessary for a virtuous and lasting restart of the activity.
What’s your next vacation destination?
After two years of hardly being able to get there, my next vacation will be in Italy, with my family and close friends.
A book to advise us that we could slip into our suitcase this summer?
Oh my God, only one? If we go to the great classics I would say Siddhârta by Herman Hesse or the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The inner journey is the most beautiful of journeys and the one which then allows us to be able to face any other journey with the optimism and the strength necessary to be able to travel and move forward in our lives with a different perspective, more just and peaceful, this which is not a luxury given the turmoil we have been through for over a year and a half.
