By ADAM BISHOP, Travel Daily editor
In search of the meaning of luxury
As a man who used to think buying a Streets Viennetta dessert was a touch boujie, I have been forced to undertake a trial-by-fire approach to better understanding luxury over the years.
In my first week working as a travel journalist (many Target work shirts ago), I earned the ire of one ultra luxury cruise brand after I naively enquired about the prospect of installing water slides and splash parks on its ships.
Needless to say, the disenchanted tone from the PR rep still rings in my plebbish ears to this day.
The point of this confession – outside of making myself less employable – is to clumsily illustrate that there has always been a fairly objective distinction between luxury and mass market goods and experiences.
However, those working in the luxury travel space will tell you that in recent years, the line between the historical gold standard and new interpretations of ‘luxury’ are becoming increasingly blurred.
I was recently in Auckland to cover Virtuoso’s regional forum, an obvious place – one would assume – to get a clearer picture of the definition. After talking to many members and suppliers however, a more crystalised description of luxury seemed ironically more concealed than ever.
Several agency members were telling me about their clients and what they look for in a high-end leisure trip, and while the premium quality of product was a clear throughline, the desires and experiences being sought were all over the shop.
After these conversations it became clear that I had been asking the wrong question. Better understanding the luxury space was not about seeking out a consensus on the latest definition, but rather grasping the concept that it’s about placing the traveller at the centre of their own travel experience.
When the 24-carat penny dropped it made a lot of sense.
In a world of seemingly infinite access to information and an equally unquantifiable fog of online confusion, the true value of a luxury travel advisor is the ability to slice through the tangled mess toward a holiday sutured to the client’s every whim.
Chatting on the sidelines of the conference with Virtuoso’s senior vice president, global operations Michael Londregan, he provided me with a salient example of what this means in practice.
While many luxury hotels will carefully arrange a juicy collection of fruits, cheeses and a bottle of expensive champagne, Londregan rightly pointed out that these premium first impressions are unlikely to impress the non-drinker, the lactose intolerant, or god forbid, those who are allergic to a slice of delicious honeydew melon.
He explained a much better approach taken by a London hotel he stayed at last year, which on arrival catered for many of his personal preferences.
“The welcome told me that ‘we know you’re a huge rugby fan, there’s two beers in the fridge and the game is on at 4pm on channel seven’.
“‘The match is also available at the pub on the corner called the Pickle and Possum if you want to watch there too’.
“It didn’t cost them any more margin and what had happened was my travel agent had said to them, listen, Michael’s coming in and he’s a mad rugby nut and they took it from there.”
Taking a more cerebral approach to luxury’s changing face was Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch, who predicted the future of the space as being “intentionally personal in a world built for speed”.
When I pressed him on what that concept will mean in practice for advisors, he emphasised the counterintuitive value of slowing down while the world speeds up.
“Everything is going faster and faster and it will literally be that which is inefficient that makes it luxury,” he explained.
“If you think about it, getting a customer to agree to have a conversation with you at a certain moment on a certain day for a certain amount of time is also radically inefficient, but the point really is how you add value”.
As Upchurch was making his point, it reminded me a lot of my dad’s advice of showing more speed and less haste. While I must confess it really rankled me as a kid struggling with his leg spin bowling, I’ve come to think about that phrase more and more – especially since become a father myself.
While almost all of us no doubt want to keep up with Joneses in areas such as AI, the speed of adoption alone cannot be the main metric for measuring success.
Besides, when it comes to speed, I’m afraid the bots have already won that particular race my dear comrades. So then, what is left for us humans to excel at in that type of luxury paradigm?
I think the answer is in line with what the experts at Virtuoso have already mentioned, it’s taking the ‘time’ to know the preferences of clients and fighting sameness, it’s avoiding impermanent races to supposed ‘hot travel trends’, and for travellers, it’s about slowing things right down until the earth once again feels less like a malfunctioning blender whirring incessantly around our collective heads.
Ah, how’s the serenity?
Adam Bishop
Travel Daily editor
[email protected]
The rest of the week, with Jo-Anne Hui-Miller
The luxury sector continues to boom, with Flight Centre Travel Group-owned Travel Associates launching a new business aimed at the next generation of luxury travellers.
Trading as Monaghan & Turner Travel Associates, the new initiative will be led by FCTG’s Ben Monaghan and operate as an online business.
“The next-generation luxury client is more digitally literate and likes the option to reach their advisor through modern channels like social media and direct message,” said Travel Associates GM Rachel Kingswell.
Meanwhile, Cruise Weekly editor Myles Stedman is currently sailing with Avalon Waterways on a special training charter through Europe, where he has spoken with president Pam Hoffee about catering to Aussie passengers, who prefer a relaxed approach to their luxury cruising experience.
Hoffee also claimed that in order for the river cruising sector to grow in the future, it will need to expand on its destinations to cater for added capacity in the future.
“I think there are a lot of opportunities in Europe to go beyond the itineraries that exist now, and with so much more capacity coming, I think that’s a reality of what we need to do as an industry,” Hoffee said in an exclusive interview.
“There are communities that already have enough business from the river cruise industry and they’re happy with what they have,” she added.
While on the ship, Myles also chatted with Globus family of brands’ head of commercial Brett Simon about its focuses for the year, including small group departures, back-to-backs, and specialising in particular destinations, such as Canada
Over in the South Pacific, Travel Daily journalist James Bale is currently in Nadi for the annual Fiji Tourism Exchange, where he reported that the Fiji Government has confirmed the long-awaited runway expansion at Nadi Airway is underway.
Speaking of airports, earlier this week, we also broke the news that Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport’s (WSI) international tickets are now on sale via Singapore Airlines.
“We mark a terrific milestone moment today with our first international airline partner, Skytrax certified 5-Star carrier Singapore Airlines, now giving passengers the first opportunity to book tickets from Western Sydney International Airport,” said CEO Simon Hickey.
Another breaker was the announcement of CVFR Consolidation Services and itravel’s new two-year Preferred Partnership Agreement, reinforcing their long-standing strategic relationship.
Speaking of itravel, the agency is fresh off its successful Elevate conference in Queenstown, where attendees heard from industry leaders including ATIA’s Dean Long, CVFR’s James Brooker and itravel’s marketing manager Rebecca Clarke.
Meanwhile, ATIA held an online forum for its members, giving them the opportunity to hear directly from a host of suppliers on how to navigate the Middle East conflict.
Major takeaways included advising clients not to panic-cancel as credits and rerouting are available; being aware that for most travellers, the issue is not their destination but how they are getting there; and setting the expectation early that war is excluded from standard travel insurance.
Attendees were also informed that alternative destinations are open, available and selling and were advised to rely on supplier trade portals as a daily source of reliable updates.
Lastly, check out Travel Daily’s newly released Luxury on the Move special report, covering the hottest trends shaping the sector’s future. Click HERE to check it out.
Jo-Anne Hui-Miller
Travel Daily associate publisher
[email protected]
