The Importance of Consistency
Skift Take
Luxury Travel News
The Skift New Luxury column is our weekly column focused on the business of selling luxury travel, the people and companies creating and selling experiences, emerging trends, and the changing consumer habits around the sector.What can travel brands learn from other companies in the luxury sector? Quite a lot, judging by Interbrand’s recent global power list.
For whatever reason, travel didn’t get acknowledged, with fashion houses making up most of the luxury entrants. One of those was Hermès of Paris. Robert Chavez, CEO for the Americas who spoke at Skift Global Forum this year, suggested that consistency was the key for luxury travel companies.
It’s a point worth keeping in mind, especially for those companies either entering the luxury market or struggling in it. In this week’s newsletter we have examples of both.
First up, Switzerland-based MSC Cruises is building four new “ultra-luxury” vessels on the back of the success of its ship-within-a-ship luxury concept MSC Yacht Club.
Then there’s further revelations of Accor’s struggles within its high-end vacation rental and concierge businesses. The problems seem to stem from integration and expansion problems. Perhaps Accor just wasn’t consistent enough?
For feedback or news tips, reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet me @paddywhyte.
— Patrick Whyte, Europe Editor
8 Looks at Luxury
MSC Cruises Targets Growing Luxury Market With New Ship Order: MSC Cruises is already spending billions on big ships, so why not add a few luxury vessels to the mix? The cruise operator has a built-in customer base, but the trick will be to offer a product that gets those passengers to pay more for the high-end experience.
AccorHotels Is Still Struggling to Make Onefinestay and John Paul Profitable: The first step to making things right is to admit things are wrong, followed by figuring out how to make things right again. At this point, we’re not sure we know how AccorHotels wants to fix its problems with Onefinestay and John Paul, but at least it admits something is wrong.
What the Very Best Luxury Brands Can Teach the Travel Industry: A new report from Interbrand offers lessons on how the world’s top companies mark their mark in today’s highly competitive and complex business landscape. Turns out there is a strong correlation between brand growth and authenticity, relevance and responsiveness.
InterContinental Hotels Still in the Market For Small Acquisitions: Never say never but it doesn’t sound like IHG is in serious shopping mode.
This Is a Golden Age for First Class Airline Travel: Note that no U.S. carriers are mentioned in this article praising today’s first-class cabins. Just saying.
Asiana Airlines’ New Bag Restriction Is Bad News for Luxury Retailers: Luxury retail has grown significantly in Southeast Asia and China. Other airlines will likely follow Asiana’s example with bag restrictions if the market isn’t more carefully regulated.
Luxury Hotel-Branded Residences Appeal to the Ultra-Rich: As Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts CEO J. Allen Smith said recently at Skift Global Forum in New York City: “Residential is absolutely central to our business strategy.” So expect plenty more luxury hotel brands to expand in this space if they haven’t already.
Soho House Is Turning to Co-Working to Give It an Edge Over WeWork: Sounds a lot like our Skift Megatrend from this year: “The hotel of the future is everything to everyone” where co-working, co-living, hotels, and private clubs are all blended together.
Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte [[email protected]] curates the New Luxury newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday.
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