1962 Frances there were less than 200
million international travelers in the
world what they call international
tourist arrivals in this case today
there’s over a billion and they’re
expecting that to come close to doubling
in the next you know the next really
twenty eight twelve years from now 2030
how do we keep that sense of adventure
or what’s extraordinary in travel alive
in that situation well I mean there’s
always an seems to me that there’s
always a new viewpoint I mean I I know
in my experience in in in the founding
of Billy’s which was in 1981 there was
this phenomenon which of course you’re
associated which which was ecotourism so
was looking at these extraordinary parts
of the world from a certain point of
view then there was archaeological
tourism going to again in in Latin in
Central America two countries the Mayan
countries where there were extraordinary
ancient cities such as peak owl or the
or the monument so so there seems to me
there’s always a particular way of
looking at things that inspires a new
kind of tourism ecotourism
archaeological tourism tourism to to
study trees to study botany
as many things as there are to learn
about that’s another style of tourism
basically you you actually touched on
something that I wanted to ask you a
little bit more about because you know
you of course you cast Marlon Brando in
The Godfather series and in Apocalypse
Now most people don’t know that and I
certainly didn’t that Marlon Brando was
an early visionary for what we call
sustainable travel he talked about
wanting to create a resort on his
beloved tootsie roll island in Tahiti
that would protect Polynesian heritage
that would demonstrate sustainable
technologies that would help save nature
he didn’t live long enough to see that
resort created but it is today the
Brando four years ago but most people
also don’t know that you created one of
the world’s earliest eco resorts you
were just talking about it in the lease
it puts you on the cover of National
Geographic best eco lodges in the world
and yet that was as you said in the
early 1980s in fact the term eco tourism
didn’t even exist at that time
and Blanca no resort in Belize you grow
your food organically you’re a hundred
percent renewable energy and this has
been happening since the 1980s so my
question is is it just a coincidence
that you and Marlon ended up doing these
things did you ever talk about this on
the set you both became pioneers in
sustainable eco travel well first to
talk about Marlon a second aside from
his of course great importance as an
actor and his the influence he had on so
many generations subsequent generations
of actors only Marlon was really beyond
that part of him
a few geniuses I’ve ever met and by that
I mean the way he fought you could have
the most extraordinary conversations or
I mean most of it would be listening to
him talking about termites or talking
about what it might have been like for
the Chinese who first came to the United
States to build the railroads he he had
a very unique mind and he could his mind
could get lost in a subject where he
would just talk about it and talk about
it and go on it was difficult working
with him as an actor because you know
like anyone he of course often was
stalling before we all had to get to
work and when he first showed up for
Apocalypse Now we were in a house boat
trailer kind of where we were supposed
to talk a little bit and then go shoot
but he would start talking about the
most fascinating stuff and before I know
it half the day was gone I only had
about three weeks and she half did to
shoot you know a million dollars a week
I had him for three weeks and he would
start talking about these interesting
subjugating would go on and on and then
they’d knock on God what should we do
should we break for lunch and I said
well yeah break for lunch and then three
hours later they would knock on door she
was well what should we do should we
send everyone home and I said yes send
everyone home because to listen to him
talk about interesting interesting
subject matter was just fascinating and
indeed when he made the film you tanea
on the bounty he fell in love with
Polynesia and with with the wife that he
I think he married her and he bought he
bought in in Polynesia and a tall that’s
right was it’s not really an island it’s
it’s a system of islands called Peter oh
yes and he always talked about and he
loved this he went for a while he even
had a little
Shack there and he would he would live
on it and he’s like a native and
what-have-you and he always had the
dream of making tea Turoa into some sort
of very advanced that goal along which
they did he did it in partnership I
think with a guy named Williams was that
yeah and apparently it’s it’s very
successful not only for the visitors I
understand President Obama went there to
work on his memoirs or on his memoirs
but also they get scientists studying
the various possible things to study in
Polynesia and and it’s a it’s a it’s a
model of a of what we’re talking about
which is where tourism doesn’t air Lloyd
a road and destroy what the people have
come to see but in some way helps
sustain it so that is an example of I
have not been there myself although only
recently I learned more about it I would
love to go to college I would love to
see it
became became the leaves in 1981 it did
so under the very enlightened guidance
of George Price who was the first Prime
Minister and his associate that it was
it was founded as an echo of preserve
the entire country was very careful to
preserve mangrove to preserve species to
preserve all that was natural in in in
Belize in fact at that time some of you
may remember there was an American
industrialist I mean
look big remember the episode of living
yeah when a ton of money and wanted to
build oh yes build a big well almost a
city in some primitive setting to do
logging or and ultimately he went to
Belize and offered George price and his
associates this vast amount of money to
buy a chunk of what was known as the
mountain pine ridge in Belize and they
turned him down because what he was
doing would have destroyed what was
naturally beautiful and instead he went
to mr. Ludwig went to Brazil that’s
right and and bought a big chunk of the
Amazon forest and big I don’t know what
was the outcome of that project but I
know it didn’t it wasn’t good for Brazil
it wasn’t good for the Amazon forest
which means it wasn’t good for humanity
and ultimately of course as as far as do
it swallowed up whatever the money mr.
literally point into it and then there’s
though I think there’s no trade well
there was a film made and made about
that and you’re absolutely right I want
to take a moment to think about the film
because you said something to me once
that that caught my mind you said you
know films an extremely handmade thing
and when you talked about hotels you
said how you know hotels are also very
similar to a movie production in your
experience you said there’s the
hospitality vision the script the guests
the audience the staff the cast and the
location the set how do those ideas and
how have those ideas fit into your
accidentally becoming a hotelier because
you never set out purposely to do that
no you know it’s an interesting subject
but yes that’s very true why I when I
made the film Godfather to it was had
six settings there was a lake the modern
leg of Lake Tahoe setting there was the
last
setting there was a old New York
thanking 20s setting there was a
Sicilian setting there was a Havana
setting during the Havana Revolution so
in a sense the movie and had in New York
setting and had a la setting and a Las
Vegas setting if I mention so so it was
like this moving with all these other
parts but I never I never was scratching
my head saying on what part of my in to
me they were just all part of the same
movie and I went from one to the other
do it and that’s sort of how I find in
my life my relationship to storytelling
and and I’ll call it show business or
call it theater I I do i I have I have
you know my career I’ve gone from thing
to things sort of just irresponsibly
doing whatever I wouldn’t like get to be
a movie director and then just stay
being a movie director every year making
a movie like a sausage that goes out
I’ve always been interested in the
bigger the bigger idea of storytelling
or theater I mean after all cinema is
nothing more than a than an evolution of
theater which has been with us for
thousands of years and in thinking about
that I realized that all these
activities that I’ve been involved in
seemingly responsibly in a way the wine
business the hotel the resort that has
all been a form of theater it’s all been
a form of storytelling and those of you
who are in the wine business certainly
know that the wine business is largely
the storytelling businesses it’s not
that glass that beverage that the people
look at that they enjoy the aroma that
they enjoy the flavors because without
the story it is just a beverage but with
the story the story of the families that
went to those lands be
in Europe or in the new world such as
South Africa or or Argentina where we
are which makes incredibly wonderful
wine
the thing about Argentine wine that’s
different than Chilean wine and other
wines which are also there are fine
wines is that basically the Argentine
are largely Italians
whereas Chileans are largely other
people’s Germans Spanish of course but
they were very good at marketing and
commercializing wine but the Argentine
they drank it you know because it was
wonderful wine and so they were very
slow to begin to export it we and in
Argentine wine remains some of the best
wine in the world but you know it’s it’s
a bargain it’s it’s a great great when
you’re in a restaurant you look at all
the various wine if there’s an Argentine
wine on the list buy it because you’re
gonna get a lot for your money but my
point is that it’s the story it’s the
story of the people who came to those
countries that found the land that that
order or even in the wonderful Bordeaux
stories of the widow who was there in
the young English adventurer who came
and they found and fell in love and it
became chateau Palmer or what have you
so it’s the story of the wine and the
family and the the struggle to to
because ultimately wine is agriculture
and the struggle of against nature to
come up with this this dissolute this
fantastic liquor that we enjoy so much
with food without the story I don’t know
that wine would be a very interesting
business but without the story tourism
or hotels wouldn’t be interesting
because as you say indeed it’s the same
thing it’s a show and
and the staff the team is the is the
cast then the people who work in the
gardens that who worked so hard they’re
the crew and there is a vision and like
all theatre it’s made up usually in all
of these fields be it wine be in hotels
be it film via theatre any form of what
we’ll call show business there are two
aspects to it there’s the big concept
the big idea and then there’s a million
details that support it so when you go
into the hotel you may understand that
this is a hotel devoted to say the the
traditions of this land and then the the
the the culture of this land but it’s
through the details that you get to
really experience there’s sort of like
the difference between strategy and
ethics and in the film there might be a
all films have a big theme a big big
picture the big story but you really
enjoy it through the thousands of little
memorable details the line of dialogue
or the little moment the way so-and-so
looked at so-and-so so it’s this
combination of details supporting a big
theme that seems to be at the root of
all storytelling and storytelling is at
the root of all of the various
businesses that all of us are in being
hotel business be it tourism business be
the cinema be it the theater or the wine
business or the food business or the
restaurant business it’s all the same
thing it’s all that basic human activity
of telling a story with a big idea big
theme and using a thousand
details to support it so so I thought I
found in my own life
this accidentally you know I basically
you know when I was younger I recognized
it needs a lot of money to make the
movie you wanted to make because
otherwise you were going around begging
people to give you some money so you
could make a film that might or might
not ever make its money back and so when
I was younger I thought what I’ve got to
do is I’ve gotta I gotta have some money
so I can just go make the film so I
don’t go hat in hand and ask permission
to do it and I tried to make my invested
in this or I invest in that and I always
lost and then I said you know I’m not
going to even try to make money anymore
I’m just gonna do everything that I love
and if I love wine I’m gonna just make
wine and enjoy wine and make dinner for
my friends and like my grandfather did
and we had seven sons and they made wine
in their home because America had
something which many of you will not be
able to understand which was prohibition
where it was illegal was it illegal to
have wine and make wine and spirits
Winston Churchill Churchill said that’s
against civilization but but they did
allow Italians or euro or since
Americans are all immigrants they did
allow people from wine drinking country
you could make two barrels of wine in
your home for Europe for your own table
and so I went here some I thought my
grandfather had seven sons so I heard
these great stories of trying to steal
the grapes and because the kids didn’t
want the wine they wanted the grapes you
know so that’s how I got into it and and
I my point is I just started to do what
I love and I made money I don’t know why
I know maybe there is some magic that if
you do what you love you’ll be lucky I
always tell you young people are always
being told by their parents no don’t
don’t don’t study philosophy and be a
novelist be an accountant first and then
when you have a living then then study
philosophy and be a novelist or or don’t
be a don’t be an artist be a be a
teacher or get education degree but
that’s the wrong thing to tell young
people you should tell people young
people say do what you love because by
doing what you love they’re gonna know
who they are
and the odds are that whatever they do
that they love is gonna be very useful
to them and they’re my daughter Sophia
said to me once all she’s like I don’t
know maybe not even 20 she said Oh daddy
am I just a dilettante I I love I want
to be a painter I love to paint and I
like stories and I like fashion I like
fashion photography and I am I just a
dilettante and I said no do everything
you love and eventually it will all be
clear what it is you’re meant to do and
I advise all of you who have young young
kids who who are at that age where
they’re not sure what to do tell them to
do what they love because by doing that
they are going to define who they are
and whatever it is they are if they
study for a while fashion or if they
study for a while journalism believe me
it will all come together as it did for
Sophia gee who knew she was gonna be a
movie director that that writing stories
and doing fashion and and being a
painter was all gonna eventually
contribute to what she was so I guess
what I’m saying at this ripe grey old
age as I come to you because I see you
all look pretty young to me I must say
is that I did make a decision midway
through my life to forget trying to make
money and just do all the things that I
loved and that included winemaking that
included going off into the junk you
know when you make a movie in the jungle
as
I did with Apocalypse Now in the
Philippines and famously Lawrence of
Arabia David Lean he felt so in love
with the desert that when the movie was
over he couldn’t leave and I found that
when Apocalypse Now was over I could the
judge you know the jungle is a scary
place as I’m sure the desert is but the
jungle is also a very safe place the
jungle is the place where there might be
a thorn that will kill you but the same
tree that has the thorn that will kill
you has a leaf that if you eat it will
cure you which is why all medicine comes
from the jungle so so I start to realize
I loved the jungle I didn’t want to
leave the jungle and and I said to my
wife when I want to buy a place in the
jungle you know I want to actually see
my friends you just pour a winery in you
have to get back there ask me what they
should do with the winery find a jungle
that’s closer to the winery because
you’re not probably not going to get on
a plane and go to the Philippines for 11
hours so I said well maybe you’re right
so when I read in the paper that British
Honduras which was the part of Central
America was becoming Bailey’s in 1981 I
went with my son to find my own jungle
and that’s how I we found a place up in
an abandoned place up in the mountains
and that’s how I found myself in having
a lodge and ultimately being in the
hotel but if you say yes and not you’ll
be in the hotel business that’s the key
so so I I i love my life i I love the
fact that I stumbled along just
basically doing the things that I was
interested in that I loved telling my
story along the way whether it was in a
film whether is in a hotel whether it
was in
Wein i prospered and more wonderful of
all I ended up having children who are
all as you know my daughter is a
wonderful filmmaker my granddaughter
that so all my children have done what
they love and and they seem to be
prospering and be happy so that’s that’s
what I’ve learned that this whole the
tourism business the hotel BISM is
another expression of storytelling and
storytelling is where we first uncover
that mysterious word that you all want
to know about which is the brand because
when when do you first encounter your
brand it’s when you’re four years old
and you go to kindergarten and you tell
the other kids
I’m Francie Coppola had my lucky number
is seven I already at a kindergarten I
had a brand I was Francie and and I was
Francie and my lucky number was seven
because I was born on April seventh and
I could tell stories and so suddenly the
other kids liked me because I told a
lots of stories because I had read I
don’t know how I could read but I could
all the fairy tales and I would tell
them the story of Snow White and Rose
red and the tinderbox and the Little
Mermaid and what have you so already I
had my brand at age five and I had my
profession I was going to be a
storyteller and I being a storyteller
doesn’t necessarily be you can only make
movies you can also make wine you can
also make hotels you can you can do
everything that you bring a group of
people together and you have a big idea
and give them all these wonderful
details that you can possibly think of
Francis and ladies and gentlemen I’ve
learned having the privilege to speak
with this wonderful man he calls Marlon
Brando a genius I think we can all agree
we have a genius right here in the room
and I’ve learned that when he’s talking
give him the chance to speak and I
didn’t want to we only have it rob me
give me questions okay
no we only above really just a few more
minutes but you you touch it Francis I
can’t tell you the wisdom personally the
inspiration with what you just said the
idea of do what we love don’t think
about what we’re gonna make this and
that do what we love in our passion we
know that you and your family your wife
your children Roman with his
screenwriting have all gone on to do and
be very very successful but I do want to
come to one point and that is this as
much as film has been a part of your
life travel has been a part of your life
you have traveled consistently with your
kids from the youngest age you’ve taken
them all around the world you shot a
film in Buenos Aires in 2009 called
Tetro you loved a town house you were
staying in you that’s one of your hotels
now you told me a story once about how
you were in Istanbul and you went out on
a night of I’ll just say straight out
drinking with locals came back fell
asleep and got one of the ideas for your
film twixt from a dream that came to you
so how much has traveled been and played
a role in inspiring your creativity well
I mean let’s be frank life is travel
well we live our lives we don’t fit in
their room
in an easy-chair we’re out interacting
with in our culture within within our
family who would who would be given this
incredible opportunity to be alive and
not go anywhere or interact with people
that that’s all it is that’s that’s
ultimately you know and I like to think
of you know in that great mysterious
moment coming up we don’t ever know when
but when you meet your maker as they say
or when you when you confront death I’m
not gonna sit there and say gee I wish I
had done this I wish I had done that I
wish I had been I’m gonna say oh I got
to do this and I got to do that and I
got to be in the movie business I got to
see my my kids be in the movie biz I got
to be in the hotel business and I got to
go to Argentina make a movie and I got
I’m we so busy saying all the things I
got to do that when I die I’m not going
friends but and the irony is that what
you said the irony and I don’t know if
this is some great cosmic joke but if
you do the things to love the odds are
you will make a lot of money – for some
strange reason I don’t even know what
the logic of that is but that is what
has happened that if maybe it makes
sense if you do the things that you
really that you really personally are
involved in and motivated by of course
it’s gonna connect with other people and
isn’t that what making money or having
power or influence really is that other
people are attracted or somehow respond
to what it is you’re doing and if
everyone who responds it gives you pen
sense you’re gonna have a lot of money
in that and so it makes sense that if
you do the things you love you’re gonna
probably do it better than the things
that you don’t love because you’re doing
it with all of that all the force of
your heart and your and your your
imagination and it will all be you’ll
prosper and so those people here who are
concerned with the brand or their
platform or their hospitality or travel
life is an adventure life is an
incredible adventure in there and you’re
sharing that with other people so
coarser than a prosper well Francis you
have in this room the world’s top
leaders in the travel and tourism
industry I know what the words you just
spoke and in previous conversations I
mean and right now in particular they I
feel like I’ve had a a life coach
session and I take this to heart what
message do you have for the business
leaders of the travel and tourism
industry at a time when travel and
tourism is growing rapidly there’s
really no place left on the planet we
can’t go we have every means to get
there how would you like travel to be
for your grandchildren you’ve always
been a big family guy I had a rule my
family that if every week I was gonna go
away because in the move
or in any business you have to go away
for two weeks or I said if I ever have
to go away more than two weeks I’m
taking the kids out of school and taking
them with us because I knew very often
two weeks turns into 14 weeks and
because I did that and it’s harder to do
today than it was then because now a lot
of schools when you go and say we’re
taking the kids with us on a trip for
two weeks they put pressure especially
certain private schools that don’t know
we don’t allow that but I’m so happy I
did it was tough on their academic
careers but what they saw what they
experienced is going to be part of them
and then the way the things work out of
their children as well I I I think what
I would ask for out of travel if your
thing about travel is is assuming we’re
not going to other worlds right away and
I don’t want to go anywhere it doesn’t
have trees so the I you know all the
kids at table we’re gonna go to Mars I
well you can go to Mars there are no
trees on Mars I don’t want to go to Mars
III trees are too wonderful to have to
go anywhere where they are not but at
any rate the fact that we are going to
go through you know people were
traveling to France and England in
in the 19th century in the 18th century
in the 15th century but each time we
travel we travel with a different
mindset so in a sense is a different
journey so what I hope for the future of
my grandchildren that yes indeed they go
to this beautiful earth because let’s
face it all beauty all beauty of art all
beauty and everything all comes from
this planet the beauty of art of the
artists who have done such beautiful
things all is conspired from what’s here
this planet is so varied and so so so
full of variation and beauty that what I
would wish is that the next generation
that transverses the deserts and the
Seas does it with their mind and a
slightly more advanced place so in a
sense it’s a totally new journey but
that’s not the key to tourism even now
if you can invite your guests to come to
where you are welcoming them granted you
could give them a wonderful experience
your staff could be just perfectly tuned
your ideas or details the amenities you
give or forget the double sink because
no one brushes their teeth in the
bathroom with the sink here and they
think there and there’s no place to put
your stuff on the sink anymore
instead of that better to have the
master bedroom have two bathrooms that’s
my suggestion but what I’m saying aside
from those little amenities it all
started with the chocolate bar that
someone put on the pillow my feeling is
that you’re you’re inviting people to
see this world with a different mental
point of view and by doing that it’s a
whole new trip and so that’s what I wish
for my grandchildren that they see
people and places
and culture with more more interest in
in what was really there so it’s it’s
really a mental trace like I’m not a lot
like a movie when you think about it I
mean all the movies that are made pretty
much you can look and say well this
movies really like that movie this rule
but what’s different it’s all the
details and the mental attitude that the
director gives you so as they come to
your places to visit it’s you’re gonna
give them a different a different way of
thinking Echo tourism was that the doing
trying to do tour with the extraordinary
food opportunities that there are it’s
always a new mental adjustment so that’s
where you that’s where you get the earth
is only so big but it becomes infinitely
big when you change how you look at it
ladies and gentlemen Francis Ford
Coppola
a legendary filmmaker and an ambassador of travel
million international travelers in the
world what they call international
tourist arrivals in this case today
there’s over a billion and they’re
expecting that to come close to doubling
in the next you know the next really
twenty eight twelve years from now 2030
how do we keep that sense of adventure
or what’s extraordinary in travel alive
in that situation well I mean there’s
always an seems to me that there’s
always a new viewpoint I mean I I know
in my experience in in in the founding
of Billy’s which was in 1981 there was
this phenomenon which of course you’re
associated which which was ecotourism so
was looking at these extraordinary parts
of the world from a certain point of
view then there was archaeological
tourism going to again in in Latin in
Central America two countries the Mayan
countries where there were extraordinary
ancient cities such as peak owl or the
or the monument so so there seems to me
there’s always a particular way of
looking at things that inspires a new
kind of tourism ecotourism
archaeological tourism tourism to to
study trees to study botany
as many things as there are to learn
about that’s another style of tourism
basically you you actually touched on
something that I wanted to ask you a
little bit more about because you know
you of course you cast Marlon Brando in
The Godfather series and in Apocalypse
Now most people don’t know that and I
certainly didn’t that Marlon Brando was
an early visionary for what we call
sustainable travel he talked about
wanting to create a resort on his
beloved tootsie roll island in Tahiti
that would protect Polynesian heritage
that would demonstrate sustainable
technologies that would help save nature
he didn’t live long enough to see that
resort created but it is today the
Brando four years ago but most people
also don’t know that you created one of
the world’s earliest eco resorts you
were just talking about it in the lease
it puts you on the cover of National
Geographic best eco lodges in the world
and yet that was as you said in the
early 1980s in fact the term eco tourism
didn’t even exist at that time
and Blanca no resort in Belize you grow
your food organically you’re a hundred
percent renewable energy and this has
been happening since the 1980s so my
question is is it just a coincidence
that you and Marlon ended up doing these
things did you ever talk about this on
the set you both became pioneers in
sustainable eco travel well first to
talk about Marlon a second aside from
his of course great importance as an
actor and his the influence he had on so
many generations subsequent generations
of actors only Marlon was really beyond
that part of him
a few geniuses I’ve ever met and by that
I mean the way he fought you could have
the most extraordinary conversations or
I mean most of it would be listening to
him talking about termites or talking
about what it might have been like for
the Chinese who first came to the United
States to build the railroads he he had
a very unique mind and he could his mind
could get lost in a subject where he
would just talk about it and talk about
it and go on it was difficult working
with him as an actor because you know
like anyone he of course often was
stalling before we all had to get to
work and when he first showed up for
Apocalypse Now we were in a house boat
trailer kind of where we were supposed
to talk a little bit and then go shoot
but he would start talking about the
most fascinating stuff and before I know
it half the day was gone I only had
about three weeks and she half did to
shoot you know a million dollars a week
I had him for three weeks and he would
start talking about these interesting
subjugating would go on and on and then
they’d knock on God what should we do
should we break for lunch and I said
well yeah break for lunch and then three
hours later they would knock on door she
was well what should we do should we
send everyone home and I said yes send
everyone home because to listen to him
talk about interesting interesting
subject matter was just fascinating and
indeed when he made the film you tanea
on the bounty he fell in love with
Polynesia and with with the wife that he
I think he married her and he bought he
bought in in Polynesia and a tall that’s
right was it’s not really an island it’s
it’s a system of islands called Peter oh
yes and he always talked about and he
loved this he went for a while he even
had a little
Shack there and he would he would live
on it and he’s like a native and
what-have-you and he always had the
dream of making tea Turoa into some sort
of very advanced that goal along which
they did he did it in partnership I
think with a guy named Williams was that
yeah and apparently it’s it’s very
successful not only for the visitors I
understand President Obama went there to
work on his memoirs or on his memoirs
but also they get scientists studying
the various possible things to study in
Polynesia and and it’s a it’s a it’s a
model of a of what we’re talking about
which is where tourism doesn’t air Lloyd
a road and destroy what the people have
come to see but in some way helps
sustain it so that is an example of I
have not been there myself although only
recently I learned more about it I would
love to go to college I would love to
see it
became became the leaves in 1981 it did
so under the very enlightened guidance
of George Price who was the first Prime
Minister and his associate that it was
it was founded as an echo of preserve
the entire country was very careful to
preserve mangrove to preserve species to
preserve all that was natural in in in
Belize in fact at that time some of you
may remember there was an American
industrialist I mean
look big remember the episode of living
yeah when a ton of money and wanted to
build oh yes build a big well almost a
city in some primitive setting to do
logging or and ultimately he went to
Belize and offered George price and his
associates this vast amount of money to
buy a chunk of what was known as the
mountain pine ridge in Belize and they
turned him down because what he was
doing would have destroyed what was
naturally beautiful and instead he went
to mr. Ludwig went to Brazil that’s
right and and bought a big chunk of the
Amazon forest and big I don’t know what
was the outcome of that project but I
know it didn’t it wasn’t good for Brazil
it wasn’t good for the Amazon forest
which means it wasn’t good for humanity
and ultimately of course as as far as do
it swallowed up whatever the money mr.
literally point into it and then there’s
though I think there’s no trade well
there was a film made and made about
that and you’re absolutely right I want
to take a moment to think about the film
because you said something to me once
that that caught my mind you said you
know films an extremely handmade thing
and when you talked about hotels you
said how you know hotels are also very
similar to a movie production in your
experience you said there’s the
hospitality vision the script the guests
the audience the staff the cast and the
location the set how do those ideas and
how have those ideas fit into your
accidentally becoming a hotelier because
you never set out purposely to do that
no you know it’s an interesting subject
but yes that’s very true why I when I
made the film Godfather to it was had
six settings there was a lake the modern
leg of Lake Tahoe setting there was the
last
setting there was a old New York
thanking 20s setting there was a
Sicilian setting there was a Havana
setting during the Havana Revolution so
in a sense the movie and had in New York
setting and had a la setting and a Las
Vegas setting if I mention so so it was
like this moving with all these other
parts but I never I never was scratching
my head saying on what part of my in to
me they were just all part of the same
movie and I went from one to the other
do it and that’s sort of how I find in
my life my relationship to storytelling
and and I’ll call it show business or
call it theater I I do i I have I have
you know my career I’ve gone from thing
to things sort of just irresponsibly
doing whatever I wouldn’t like get to be
a movie director and then just stay
being a movie director every year making
a movie like a sausage that goes out
I’ve always been interested in the
bigger the bigger idea of storytelling
or theater I mean after all cinema is
nothing more than a than an evolution of
theater which has been with us for
thousands of years and in thinking about
that I realized that all these
activities that I’ve been involved in
seemingly responsibly in a way the wine
business the hotel the resort that has
all been a form of theater it’s all been
a form of storytelling and those of you
who are in the wine business certainly
know that the wine business is largely
the storytelling businesses it’s not
that glass that beverage that the people
look at that they enjoy the aroma that
they enjoy the flavors because without
the story it is just a beverage but with
the story the story of the families that
went to those lands be
in Europe or in the new world such as
South Africa or or Argentina where we
are which makes incredibly wonderful
wine
the thing about Argentine wine that’s
different than Chilean wine and other
wines which are also there are fine
wines is that basically the Argentine
are largely Italians
whereas Chileans are largely other
people’s Germans Spanish of course but
they were very good at marketing and
commercializing wine but the Argentine
they drank it you know because it was
wonderful wine and so they were very
slow to begin to export it we and in
Argentine wine remains some of the best
wine in the world but you know it’s it’s
a bargain it’s it’s a great great when
you’re in a restaurant you look at all
the various wine if there’s an Argentine
wine on the list buy it because you’re
gonna get a lot for your money but my
point is that it’s the story it’s the
story of the people who came to those
countries that found the land that that
order or even in the wonderful Bordeaux
stories of the widow who was there in
the young English adventurer who came
and they found and fell in love and it
became chateau Palmer or what have you
so it’s the story of the wine and the
family and the the struggle to to
because ultimately wine is agriculture
and the struggle of against nature to
come up with this this dissolute this
fantastic liquor that we enjoy so much
with food without the story I don’t know
that wine would be a very interesting
business but without the story tourism
or hotels wouldn’t be interesting
because as you say indeed it’s the same
thing it’s a show and
and the staff the team is the is the
cast then the people who work in the
gardens that who worked so hard they’re
the crew and there is a vision and like
all theatre it’s made up usually in all
of these fields be it wine be in hotels
be it film via theatre any form of what
we’ll call show business there are two
aspects to it there’s the big concept
the big idea and then there’s a million
details that support it so when you go
into the hotel you may understand that
this is a hotel devoted to say the the
traditions of this land and then the the
the the culture of this land but it’s
through the details that you get to
really experience there’s sort of like
the difference between strategy and
ethics and in the film there might be a
all films have a big theme a big big
picture the big story but you really
enjoy it through the thousands of little
memorable details the line of dialogue
or the little moment the way so-and-so
looked at so-and-so so it’s this
combination of details supporting a big
theme that seems to be at the root of
all storytelling and storytelling is at
the root of all of the various
businesses that all of us are in being
hotel business be it tourism business be
the cinema be it the theater or the wine
business or the food business or the
restaurant business it’s all the same
thing it’s all that basic human activity
of telling a story with a big idea big
theme and using a thousand
details to support it so so I thought I
found in my own life
this accidentally you know I basically
you know when I was younger I recognized
it needs a lot of money to make the
movie you wanted to make because
otherwise you were going around begging
people to give you some money so you
could make a film that might or might
not ever make its money back and so when
I was younger I thought what I’ve got to
do is I’ve gotta I gotta have some money
so I can just go make the film so I
don’t go hat in hand and ask permission
to do it and I tried to make my invested
in this or I invest in that and I always
lost and then I said you know I’m not
going to even try to make money anymore
I’m just gonna do everything that I love
and if I love wine I’m gonna just make
wine and enjoy wine and make dinner for
my friends and like my grandfather did
and we had seven sons and they made wine
in their home because America had
something which many of you will not be
able to understand which was prohibition
where it was illegal was it illegal to
have wine and make wine and spirits
Winston Churchill Churchill said that’s
against civilization but but they did
allow Italians or euro or since
Americans are all immigrants they did
allow people from wine drinking country
you could make two barrels of wine in
your home for Europe for your own table
and so I went here some I thought my
grandfather had seven sons so I heard
these great stories of trying to steal
the grapes and because the kids didn’t
want the wine they wanted the grapes you
know so that’s how I got into it and and
I my point is I just started to do what
I love and I made money I don’t know why
I know maybe there is some magic that if
you do what you love you’ll be lucky I
always tell you young people are always
being told by their parents no don’t
don’t don’t study philosophy and be a
novelist be an accountant first and then
when you have a living then then study
philosophy and be a novelist or or don’t
be a don’t be an artist be a be a
teacher or get education degree but
that’s the wrong thing to tell young
people you should tell people young
people say do what you love because by
doing what you love they’re gonna know
who they are
and the odds are that whatever they do
that they love is gonna be very useful
to them and they’re my daughter Sophia
said to me once all she’s like I don’t
know maybe not even 20 she said Oh daddy
am I just a dilettante I I love I want
to be a painter I love to paint and I
like stories and I like fashion I like
fashion photography and I am I just a
dilettante and I said no do everything
you love and eventually it will all be
clear what it is you’re meant to do and
I advise all of you who have young young
kids who who are at that age where
they’re not sure what to do tell them to
do what they love because by doing that
they are going to define who they are
and whatever it is they are if they
study for a while fashion or if they
study for a while journalism believe me
it will all come together as it did for
Sophia gee who knew she was gonna be a
movie director that that writing stories
and doing fashion and and being a
painter was all gonna eventually
contribute to what she was so I guess
what I’m saying at this ripe grey old
age as I come to you because I see you
all look pretty young to me I must say
is that I did make a decision midway
through my life to forget trying to make
money and just do all the things that I
loved and that included winemaking that
included going off into the junk you
know when you make a movie in the jungle
as
I did with Apocalypse Now in the
Philippines and famously Lawrence of
Arabia David Lean he felt so in love
with the desert that when the movie was
over he couldn’t leave and I found that
when Apocalypse Now was over I could the
judge you know the jungle is a scary
place as I’m sure the desert is but the
jungle is also a very safe place the
jungle is the place where there might be
a thorn that will kill you but the same
tree that has the thorn that will kill
you has a leaf that if you eat it will
cure you which is why all medicine comes
from the jungle so so I start to realize
I loved the jungle I didn’t want to
leave the jungle and and I said to my
wife when I want to buy a place in the
jungle you know I want to actually see
my friends you just pour a winery in you
have to get back there ask me what they
should do with the winery find a jungle
that’s closer to the winery because
you’re not probably not going to get on
a plane and go to the Philippines for 11
hours so I said well maybe you’re right
so when I read in the paper that British
Honduras which was the part of Central
America was becoming Bailey’s in 1981 I
went with my son to find my own jungle
and that’s how I we found a place up in
an abandoned place up in the mountains
and that’s how I found myself in having
a lodge and ultimately being in the
hotel but if you say yes and not you’ll
be in the hotel business that’s the key
so so I I i love my life i I love the
fact that I stumbled along just
basically doing the things that I was
interested in that I loved telling my
story along the way whether it was in a
film whether is in a hotel whether it
was in
Wein i prospered and more wonderful of
all I ended up having children who are
all as you know my daughter is a
wonderful filmmaker my granddaughter
that so all my children have done what
they love and and they seem to be
prospering and be happy so that’s that’s
what I’ve learned that this whole the
tourism business the hotel BISM is
another expression of storytelling and
storytelling is where we first uncover
that mysterious word that you all want
to know about which is the brand because
when when do you first encounter your
brand it’s when you’re four years old
and you go to kindergarten and you tell
the other kids
I’m Francie Coppola had my lucky number
is seven I already at a kindergarten I
had a brand I was Francie and and I was
Francie and my lucky number was seven
because I was born on April seventh and
I could tell stories and so suddenly the
other kids liked me because I told a
lots of stories because I had read I
don’t know how I could read but I could
all the fairy tales and I would tell
them the story of Snow White and Rose
red and the tinderbox and the Little
Mermaid and what have you so already I
had my brand at age five and I had my
profession I was going to be a
storyteller and I being a storyteller
doesn’t necessarily be you can only make
movies you can also make wine you can
also make hotels you can you can do
everything that you bring a group of
people together and you have a big idea
and give them all these wonderful
details that you can possibly think of
Francis and ladies and gentlemen I’ve
learned having the privilege to speak
with this wonderful man he calls Marlon
Brando a genius I think we can all agree
we have a genius right here in the room
and I’ve learned that when he’s talking
give him the chance to speak and I
didn’t want to we only have it rob me
give me questions okay
no we only above really just a few more
minutes but you you touch it Francis I
can’t tell you the wisdom personally the
inspiration with what you just said the
idea of do what we love don’t think
about what we’re gonna make this and
that do what we love in our passion we
know that you and your family your wife
your children Roman with his
screenwriting have all gone on to do and
be very very successful but I do want to
come to one point and that is this as
much as film has been a part of your
life travel has been a part of your life
you have traveled consistently with your
kids from the youngest age you’ve taken
them all around the world you shot a
film in Buenos Aires in 2009 called
Tetro you loved a town house you were
staying in you that’s one of your hotels
now you told me a story once about how
you were in Istanbul and you went out on
a night of I’ll just say straight out
drinking with locals came back fell
asleep and got one of the ideas for your
film twixt from a dream that came to you
so how much has traveled been and played
a role in inspiring your creativity well
I mean let’s be frank life is travel
well we live our lives we don’t fit in
their room
in an easy-chair we’re out interacting
with in our culture within within our
family who would who would be given this
incredible opportunity to be alive and
not go anywhere or interact with people
that that’s all it is that’s that’s
ultimately you know and I like to think
of you know in that great mysterious
moment coming up we don’t ever know when
but when you meet your maker as they say
or when you when you confront death I’m
not gonna sit there and say gee I wish I
had done this I wish I had done that I
wish I had been I’m gonna say oh I got
to do this and I got to do that and I
got to be in the movie business I got to
see my my kids be in the movie biz I got
to be in the hotel business and I got to
go to Argentina make a movie and I got
I’m we so busy saying all the things I
got to do that when I die I’m not going
friends but and the irony is that what
you said the irony and I don’t know if
this is some great cosmic joke but if
you do the things to love the odds are
you will make a lot of money – for some
strange reason I don’t even know what
the logic of that is but that is what
has happened that if maybe it makes
sense if you do the things that you
really that you really personally are
involved in and motivated by of course
it’s gonna connect with other people and
isn’t that what making money or having
power or influence really is that other
people are attracted or somehow respond
to what it is you’re doing and if
everyone who responds it gives you pen
sense you’re gonna have a lot of money
in that and so it makes sense that if
you do the things you love you’re gonna
probably do it better than the things
that you don’t love because you’re doing
it with all of that all the force of
your heart and your and your your
imagination and it will all be you’ll
prosper and so those people here who are
concerned with the brand or their
platform or their hospitality or travel
life is an adventure life is an
incredible adventure in there and you’re
sharing that with other people so
coarser than a prosper well Francis you
have in this room the world’s top
leaders in the travel and tourism
industry I know what the words you just
spoke and in previous conversations I
mean and right now in particular they I
feel like I’ve had a a life coach
session and I take this to heart what
message do you have for the business
leaders of the travel and tourism
industry at a time when travel and
tourism is growing rapidly there’s
really no place left on the planet we
can’t go we have every means to get
there how would you like travel to be
for your grandchildren you’ve always
been a big family guy I had a rule my
family that if every week I was gonna go
away because in the move
or in any business you have to go away
for two weeks or I said if I ever have
to go away more than two weeks I’m
taking the kids out of school and taking
them with us because I knew very often
two weeks turns into 14 weeks and
because I did that and it’s harder to do
today than it was then because now a lot
of schools when you go and say we’re
taking the kids with us on a trip for
two weeks they put pressure especially
certain private schools that don’t know
we don’t allow that but I’m so happy I
did it was tough on their academic
careers but what they saw what they
experienced is going to be part of them
and then the way the things work out of
their children as well I I I think what
I would ask for out of travel if your
thing about travel is is assuming we’re
not going to other worlds right away and
I don’t want to go anywhere it doesn’t
have trees so the I you know all the
kids at table we’re gonna go to Mars I
well you can go to Mars there are no
trees on Mars I don’t want to go to Mars
III trees are too wonderful to have to
go anywhere where they are not but at
any rate the fact that we are going to
go through you know people were
traveling to France and England in
in the 19th century in the 18th century
in the 15th century but each time we
travel we travel with a different
mindset so in a sense is a different
journey so what I hope for the future of
my grandchildren that yes indeed they go
to this beautiful earth because let’s
face it all beauty all beauty of art all
beauty and everything all comes from
this planet the beauty of art of the
artists who have done such beautiful
things all is conspired from what’s here
this planet is so varied and so so so
full of variation and beauty that what I
would wish is that the next generation
that transverses the deserts and the
Seas does it with their mind and a
slightly more advanced place so in a
sense it’s a totally new journey but
that’s not the key to tourism even now
if you can invite your guests to come to
where you are welcoming them granted you
could give them a wonderful experience
your staff could be just perfectly tuned
your ideas or details the amenities you
give or forget the double sink because
no one brushes their teeth in the
bathroom with the sink here and they
think there and there’s no place to put
your stuff on the sink anymore
instead of that better to have the
master bedroom have two bathrooms that’s
my suggestion but what I’m saying aside
from those little amenities it all
started with the chocolate bar that
someone put on the pillow my feeling is
that you’re you’re inviting people to
see this world with a different mental
point of view and by doing that it’s a
whole new trip and so that’s what I wish
for my grandchildren that they see
people and places
and culture with more more interest in
in what was really there so it’s it’s
really a mental trace like I’m not a lot
like a movie when you think about it I
mean all the movies that are made pretty
much you can look and say well this
movies really like that movie this rule
but what’s different it’s all the
details and the mental attitude that the
director gives you so as they come to
your places to visit it’s you’re gonna
give them a different a different way of
thinking Echo tourism was that the doing
trying to do tour with the extraordinary
food opportunities that there are it’s
always a new mental adjustment so that’s
where you that’s where you get the earth
is only so big but it becomes infinitely
big when you change how you look at it
ladies and gentlemen Francis Ford
Coppola
a legendary filmmaker and an ambassador of travel
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