Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

Mobile apps are transforming the travel space. This smart phone software extends a brand’s personality and creates new touch points with customers, giving them anytime/anywhere access. From runways shows to booking hotel stays, this technology reaches a younger more tech-savvy audience, in the hopes of building brand loyalty at a younger age. Apps can be central for hospitality brands for creating better relationships with their customers by being able to serve guests better before, during and after their stay. From Starwood to Langham Hotels apps, the end result is to enhance customer service and create more brand loyalty.

With so much hotel product in the market (with more to come), combined with the drop in occupancy worldwide, more and more hotels are going to need to reinvent themselves. Big global chains have been doing this for a few years now, rolling out new brands to serve additional market segments (Aloft, Andaz, Element, Indigo, etc). The competition has become so fierce that, as most of you have read, Starwood and Hilton are even going to court over alleged stealing of research and market intelligence by the latter.

In recent years, the gambling mecca of Las Vegas attracted tourists with a campaign that portrayed it as the ideal place to indulge in extreme behavior, like conspicuous consumption. But its assurance that “What Happens Here Stays Here” lost its resonance as the recession sobered the nation’s mood and brought thrift back into fashion. By contrast, its new campaign, with the slogan “Vegas Bound,” urges hard-working Americans to take a well-deserved break in Las Vegas, so they can return re-energized for the task of making sure their homes and businesses survive the tough economy. “We had to think how we should address our customers during this financial crisis when they’re reluctant to make big financial commitments,” says Rossi Ralenkotter, chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Language is the clearest living indicator of social change. With this sea change in consumer values comes a new vocabulary that will better resonate with these buyers. Using language of the gilded age such as “sophistication”, “privileged”, “exclusive” and “world class” risks the message being dismissed, let alone motivating consumers to positive action.

Americans have generally been a trusting lot, but things are changing, accelerated by the revelations over the past year of government corruption, Ponzi schemes and shenanigans in the most solid of financial institutions and banks. (Remember the expression, “you can bank on it” inspired confidence?) And not to mention the steady erosion of the trustworthiness index of an “unbiased “media as reflected in numerous polls. The bottom line is that consumer behavior has changed. Consumers are more cynical today and that cynicism is likely to grow as the recession continues.

In other times, a luxury product offering discounts risked tarnishing its image and cachet, traditionally a big no-no. But as the economies around the world continue to deteriorate, luxury retail and travel industries (cruise ships, tour operators, hotels, attractions, etc.) have resorted to slashing prices to merely stay afloat while continuing to market aggressively to build market share so that when the economy turns around, they’ll be in a stronger position than ever before.

Tourist destinations could take a lesson from Australia’s Tourism Queensland, which recently kicked off an impressively clever promotion, which instantly gained global attention: an international recruiting contest to fill what it calls The Best Job in the World, a highly paid, 6-month position living the high life, all the while spotlighting the Great Barrier Reef Islands.

Luxury brands used to be considered recession proof. However, we’ve all seen the figures by now, which prove that’s no longer the case. The fallout from a horrific holiday retail season has luxury marketers scrambling to redefine themselves to 2009’s consumers. Last year they had to embrace green bling, this year it’s the simplifiers – the new name to define luxury consumers and their value perceptions – who are simplifying their lives and wants.

We love to write. Good writing is good public relations – a skill always listed as one of the top requirements for a solid PR recruit. There is nothing more satisfying to read (or receive) than a well-written release, which can dramatically increase sales, generate greater awareness, and enhance the image of a business or product.

Face it, flying these days can be only for the birds but airports around the world are offering fun and soothing options to make the travel experience a little less stressful. It used to be that the only way you could kill time at an airport before a flight was by eating fast food or drinking at a bar. Times have changed and nowadays you can indulge in a massage, mani/pedi or an oxygen session and even karaoke!