Skift Trends Report: The Luxury Evolution

Luxury is, without a doubt, changing at a rapid pace. While Luxury has and always will be defined by timeless values such as quality, comfort and elegance, the term “luxury” means something different today than it did to previous generations. Today’s high-end consumers are creating not just a new economy, but a new conception of society itself. Not only is this group economically powerful, they are also aware of how consumption impacts society, crave real-world experiences, and are multicultural and global in their outlook.

Earlier this year, Skift Research teamed up with Marriott International to better understand the shifts in global attitudes toward luxury by means of a worldwide research study. This cross-market examination of the luxury consumer landscape, conducted by Skift Research with help from Marriott International involved the creation of a research framework and consumer survey to capture attitudinal and behavioral differences toward luxury across the five markets of China, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, collecting more than 5,000 responses from high-income luxury consumers in the process. Results of the study were then paired with extensive interviews with luxury thought leaders – all of which were used to develop a profile that would help explain the changing outlook of today’s global luxury consumer.

In this report

• Define the "traditional" benchmarks of luxury against a set of rapidly-evolving attitudes held by today's high-net-worth consumers
  
• Explore themes that emerged from our 5,000-participant survey
  
• Contextualize and spotlight key insights about the emerging values reshaping the concept of luxury
  
• Develop a roadmap for new luxury travel and hospitality offerings in the future