Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

Were the Olympics worth the investment for the publicity of encouraging future investment and tourism? In this age of everyone looking for ROI, it’s hard to gauge. Only time will tell, but many think that it will be tight financially.

The travel industry apparently has a long way to go in convincing green travelers that it is environmentally friendly. Therefore, taking the lead in truly going green is still like a real opportunity all around for leading travel brands and independents.

Here’s a new product that came to my attention in Luxury Briefing that hits all the right hot buttons for today’s luxury consumer. It’s called The North Circular, a new knitwear brand. It promotes British heritage and craftsmanship (which ticks the ‘authentic’ and ‘artisanal’ boxes), uses wool from a rare-breed of rescued British sheep (ticks the ‘sustainable’ and ‘ecological’ boxes), is knitted by older workers (ticks the ‘socially responsible’ box) and last but not least, is sustaining a dying art.

If it offers value as well, then you really can’t get better than that.

By: Karen Weiner Escalera

Over the last couple years, ART has become a central focus for hoteliers due to its appeal to affluent consumers (i.e. art is a part of an affluent lifestyle), its ability to add personality to any room, and the value it adds to the guest experience. An added benefit - it can be a very good investment over time. As a result, we’re seeing more and more hotels creating distinctive interiors by keeping up with some of the hottest trends affecting the art market.

Social media’s proliferation has helped to advance public relations and marketing practice. Yet, despite the long distance we’ve traveled in just a short time with social media, we still have much to learn about both its potential and its limitations. So whether you’re an experienced social media user or are just developing this as a part of your communication program, we call all benefit from recognizing some common myths surrounding social media.

Exclusionary and elusive experiences still appeal to consumers and remains at the top of what is appealing and sexy in the minds of consumers, despite the recession. They want to feel as if they are a part of a select elite group, even if it’s only a temporary illusion. The more privileged a consumer feels for having access to a product or service, the more the added level of mystique will sell. Here are some nifty examples of selling the mystique factor….

Although USA Today recently publicized that Medical Tourism was one of the top trends for 2010, we’ve had our eye on this tourism trends for sometime. Back in 2007, we noted that ‘wellness and looking good continue were moving up in consumers financial priorities.’ Lifestyle trends such as this fueled the spa and medical tourism boom in 2007. We saw the advent of medical real estate, where master-planned communities such as Cooper Life at Craig Ranch in Texas, were built around wellness and medicine. Monthly fees provide luxuries and services, including annual physical examinations and doctor house calls.

Do-it-yourself retailing - personalization to the max - is coming into its own. Following in the footsteps of companies we’ve already written about that lets consumers customize their own products (dresses, handbags, lingerie and duvets, Maps, LEGOs, even original shoe art) Sydney-based online shoe retailer Shoes of Prey is leading the design-your-own trend towards stylish, custom-made women’s shoes.

You’ve got to aim to get your message everywhere for maximum impact, giving your target markets the chance to listen to it, watch it, and read it - whenever they want it. Ubiquity is a watchword because of the fragmentation of people’s media consumption habits, as in we can no longer count on reaching the masses at least once through several media channels (an exception possibly being the Super Bowl).

Until not so long ago, we lived in a throwaway society. But then a thrifty culture was born out of the global economic downturn, which saw frugalistas come into their own (persons who lived an economical lifestyle but stayed fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc.) Non-disposable fashion is a current trend, and stemming from this are a new wave of services for those wishing to repair or revamp classics and couture items, which have been buried in the deep dark depths of closets.