Skift Take

Stick or twist? Plenty of destinations have to wrestle with the idea when looking to develop their tourism offering. By changing too much or too quickly, you risk losing what made the place special to begin with.

Series: New Luxury

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.

The definition of luxury isn’t static. It shifts with the times. What was once considered appropriate for the high-end traveler can quickly fall out of fashion as tastes change.

Destinations battle with this all the time. How do you adapt while also staying true to what made you popular in the first place? The East End of Long Island, New York, is grappling with this very issue.

The area catered to a very traditional, luxury traveler in what was a seasonal business. Now hotels and other tourism businesses are striving to be attractive year-round and want to draw a younger, cooler demographic. Can they be successful without alienating long-term visitors?

For feedback or news tips, reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet me @paddywhyte.

— Patrick Whyte, Europe Editor

5 Looks at Luxury

Redesigning New York’s East End for Year-Round Luxury: Small towns across the world like Montauk are becoming luxury destinations. Hoteliers building luxury experiences within them face a handful of challenges to balance the local community and original allure with high-end service and amenities. It will be interesting to watch how these brands and locations evolve as tourism continues to boom.

Skift Global Forum Preview: Cayuga Integrates Luxury and Sustainability in Central American Indie Hotels: Upscale hotels are embracing environmental awareness these days. But for many hoteliers, it’s crucial not to let their luxury standards slip while skipping the straw.

Rise in Mobile Bookings in Middle East Creates New Online Travel Competition: Online travel in the Middle East is not an opportunity to be scoffed at, and smaller online travel outfits and travel search engines are flexing their muscles against established portals like Booking.com and TripAdvisor to capture the increasingly digital traveler.

Destinations Leverage Tourism Pledges as Marketing Tactic in Age of Overtourism: Tourism pledges are commonly thought of as a way to improve visitor behavior. But done right, they can also potentially help attract a desirable kind of traveler: one who cares about the environment as much as locals.

CBD Beauty Coming to a Retail Store Near You: Some companies have started stocking CBD beauty products, even if it might be outside their wheelhouse. Given the hype around the trend, we can expect more partnerships between CBD and beauty brands to come.

Subscribe

Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte [[email protected]] curates the New Luxury newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday.

Sign up for Skift’s New Luxury Newsletter

smartphone

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: luxury, New York, nyc, united states

Photo credit: Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton. Tourism in the East End of Long Island is evolving. Topping Rose House

Up Next

Loading next stories