By Spencer Spellman, on April 29, 2014

Find your magic in Morocco

When you think of iconic destinations that inspire travel, what comes to mind? Paris? New York City? Maybe Australia? Rome? Hawaii? These hotspots, and many other far-flung destinations like them, have become ingrained in our imaginations over the years. One big reason: Movies, which, upon watching, make us say to ourselves, simply, “I want to go there.”

Last year, we asked travel writers and bloggers around the world to tell us where the movies have inspired them to travel. In conjunction with our “Find Yours” campaign, we challenged them to tell us about an iconic destination in which they would most like to be filmed, and asked them to outline how they would “find theirs” on the ground in that spot. We also partnered with the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) to select one person for an all-expenses-paid trip with a  NFFTY filmmaker to make an original “Find Yours” short video.

The winner of this contest, Kelley Ferro, told us she would travel to Morocco to find her magic. In the words of Kelley, “Morocco is thoroughly its own destination, and that distinctiveness is what makes it feel so exotic. I think that personality is why I felt like I was walking on a movie set.”

This “distinctiveness,” as Kelley put it, is what Expedia has sought to tell in their “Find Yours” campaign. The ideas behind the campaign are that every trip is unique, every trip is personal, and every trip has the potential to be transformational. With more flight and hotel options than any other online travel agency, Expedia exists to help travelers find what they’re looking for, each and every time they book.

For Kelley, this was magic.

“Finding the magic of a place is all about opening yourself up to the people and the new experiences,” Kelley told me. “This is what I believe travel is all about. It’s about capturing those moments and experiences that you can’t just capture anywhere else.”

When I asked Kelley what those magical moments looked like for her, she responded by saying: “The magical moments for me were sitting with a Moroccan women and having her show me how to make a carpet, or sitting behind the pottery wheel at a ceramics cooperative and having no idea how to spin a clay pot but being guided by a laughing apprentice.”

Travel really is about finding and capturing those unique, personal moments of a trip. Kelley Ferro found hers. Now it’s your turn to go and find yours.

If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?