Luxury Travel, Lifestyle and Marketing Trends

New York City and Miami tourism officials announced a new partnership (“Rivals, Not in this Arena”) to boost travel between the two destinations, 1088 miles apart. Launching in 2011, this novel approach involves joint advertising, sales on American Airlines airfares between the two cities, and promoting special events and deals in both destinations to boost tourism during their respective slower seasons.

Hotels are turning to nature’s bounty as the newest attraction and entertainment: farmers markets. Alain Ducasse was among the first to establish the concept, with his annual Market Day at Paris’ Plaza Athenee (next year will be his third). It’s held in the hotels’ courtyard, it’s intended to be a destination for foodies and gourmets, the market provides access to local purveyors selling everything from butter and cheese to fish, poultry and vegetables. Products are not for sale; the idea for purveyors to display pick-of-the-season produce and provisions and “rejoice in the celebration of sustainable food” they say.

Visual – People everywhere are visual creatures. Imagery is a smart, subliminal way to “sell”. According to the Travel Industry Association, most online reservations are still made from the picture gallery, or one click later. Yet, most guests think their decision was intellectual, not emotional. You want your product to be remembered, so choose colors wisely. One Xerox Corp. study found that color boosted attention spans and recall 82%. With correct imagery, guests will feel like they’ve touched the velvety-soft pillows, smelled the gardenias outside the window and tasted the béarnaise sauce on the juicy steaks. Voila! They have bonded with your product. Images that convey cold facts aren’t nearly as compelling.

The socialite – whose great-grandfather Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels – says she is ready to follow in the footsteps of her family as she believes she needs a new challenge in her career. We’ve already seen her become a reality TV star, a singer, have her own fragrances, a clothing line and appear in movies, and apparently she is now ready to try her hand at being a hotelier.

Wondering why you may not be as happy as you’d like? A glance at your passport might give at least one clue. A recent Gallup poll ranked 155 countries on their inhabitants’ well-being, based on in-person and phone surveys. By and large, rich countries are happier — and that’s no coincidence.

hotels have sold everything from beds and bathrobes to candles and a variety of home fragrances. Now the Dorchester Collection has taken this one step further by launching fashion accessories – their reasoning being that there is a Dorchester Collection hotel in every major fashion capital.

Sure, having Wifi on hand is convenient, but what’s the point of a vacation if it’s constantly being interrupted by email? To provide the most relaxing experience, expect to see more hotels and resorts that force (or allow) guests to unplug whilst they unwind, stowing away all electronics upon check in.

Relaxing and luxurious babymoon vacations for parents-to-be have been around for sometime. And so has medical tourism, for those looking to travel overseas for a medical procedure. As far as we know, the Marmara Hotel has created the first babymoon/medical tourism hybrid, a niche they’ve coined “birth tourism.”

A new wave of cool, movable accommodations are appearing and morphing every few months while tying into compatible events. Not always pricey, pop-ups give consumers something they can perceive as an exclusive discovery, to be grabbed “while it lasts.”

Omni Hotels is taking its sensory branding to the next level by making a lasting emotional impression on guests with customized scents “based on the destination’s particular ambiance” which they refer to as the ‘local color’ experience that they’re looking to create for each hotel.