Culture

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.

Count on Miami’s Luminaire to come up with thought provoking, very smart, sometimes playful, and always stylish, exhibits at during Design Miami 2009. Another one of my favorites this year was an installation called ‘The Third Space’ an experimental project created by 52 interior design students from Germany.

Spain might have set the trend for employing “starchitects” to design museums with the Guggenheim’s Bilbao outpost, but it seems that Paris is breaking the mold with its innovative museum marketing…

Everyone will agree that sex sells. But is it the right motivator for the affluent leisure traveler? The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and its agency Turkel think so. They have had a very successful campaign over the past few years in building the Miami brand as the place to go for a sensual, seductive holiday with a fashion sensibility.

Want to buy that new Fendi handbag but you’re suffering from the economic slump? Don’t fret, there’s another option, rent it! According to a recent article in Conde Nast’s Portfolio, there’s a small but growing retail market and that’s the luxury rental business making high end items more affordable.

Where do you turn to find a gift for the wealthy man/women in your life, who has everything? Thinking outside the box and beyond the bling (such as the conspicuous options as laid out by Robb Report’s 21 Ultimate Gifts guide or 20ltd.com, which showcases only 20 limited-edition products at a time, is scoring big with billionaires this year.

There was much more on display at Art Basel in Miami last week than culture, the visual arts, and the beautiful people: like strategic alliances between luxury brands wanting to identify with the art world, build and reward their affluent client databases, and in some cases, sell product right on the spot. Between visiting numerous shows, playing host to visiting friends from New York, and the social events, I didn’t get to see all of the luxury promotional events by any means. So, one caveat, there could have been some good examples I missed. With that in mind, here are my picks for doing it right and doing it wrong.

Nordstrom’s high-end department stores may have their fine art, and Ferragamo their in-house art gallery space, but Seoul’s Lotte Department Store raises the culture bar to new heights. According to the U.K.’s Monocle magazine, the flagship Lotte has an entire culture center offering activities from cooking and dance classes to lifestyle lectures. And time-starved shoppers will enjoy the added services of a sports center, wedding consultancy, baby carriage rental and free mobile phone charging. On the drawing board are stores in China, Vietnam and India. Sounds like a winning formula to me.

Everything is going mobile - spas, art galleries, shops, and now hotels. How about a one room hotel for those who just can’t get enough culture? Paris’ contemporary art museum, Palais de Tokyo, is now topped with a one room hotel that’s all about art. In fact, it’s a work of living art, functioning as a museum exhibit and lodging. As described in E-hotelier, “it looks like the bachelor pad of an imaginary pop star from 1972″, with curvy beige sofas, turquoise tiled bathroom and record player with the music to go with it. The Hotel Everland comes to the Palais from a stand at the Gallery for Contemporary Art in Leipzig, and is the creation of Swiss artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. And no, an overnight stay doesn’t come with the cost of admission. Guests pay 333 Euros per night weekdays and 444 Euros on Weekends. The catch? Guests have to make the room available to museum visitors during the day (let’s hope it comes with a safety deposit box). The exhibit runs until the end of this year. Guests can book online but stay for only one night.

Destination management companies and destinations themselves should take a page out of the book of La Belle Ecole, a Paris-based company that’s a school in “the art of living French style”. I came upon them by way of the internet as I was looking for new Paris experiences this past summer, having been to the “city of light” numerous times on business and pleasure (we used to represent the Hotel Le Bristol and Grand Hotel). It was time to do something different, creative and fun. Plus, I was a solo traveler and thought this was just the thing to meet people and practice my French.