As the global economy begins to recover, so too is the luxury industry. Leading the way is the luxury travel industry.

In Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Jones, chairman of One and Only Resorts said:

“We still have business from families, and seasons such as Christmas are booked out. Luxury travellers are not prepared to forgo their annual family trips”.

What we have are a lot of Theta personalities who are hurting financially, however not so much that they forego a vacation, or exclude themselves from the social circle of friends and colleagues who are also going on holidays with their families.

For Lambda personalities, the re-born luxury travel industry is offering up new experiences that offer the kind of exclusivity that they would find appealing:

Given the high cost of real estate in the word’s main cities, space is today’s new luxury, according to Sonu Shivdasani, the founder and CEO of the Six Senses group, which has been a pioneer in sustainable tourism.

If you can say that you’ve got the largest villa, that gives the impression of great wealth. Since space is evidently considered a luxury, we could see more luxury vacation resorts offering fewer rooms, but the ones they do have will be significantly larger.

Elite travel operators are increasingly seeking to combine the opulence of traditional safari travel with the experience of poverty more typically associated with charitable ‘gap-years’, creating a new range of range philanthropic yet luxurious holiday packages.

New York-based Artisans of Leisure have reported a 15% rise in requests to combine luxurious African trips with charitable visits to underprivileged health clinics, schools and orphanages in packages that can cost in excess of $50,000 per week.

The explicit purpose of twinning luxury with poverty is to solicit donations for the communities involved, whilst still providing the travel experience wealthy donors are accustomed to. Indeed the not-for-profit sector is increasingly seeking to muscle in on a market previously dominated by exclusive travel agents, recognising that big donations are easier to acquire from those that experience development issues first hand.

The increasing popularity of the packages has been linked to the role of celebrity campaigners such as actress Angelina Jolie and US singer Bono in raising awareness of development issues, a trend which is helping to fuel the rapid expansion of luxurious charitable travel.

What better than to combine two activities which people love: art and travel.  A recent article in the Financial Times highlights a growing trend for guided, short-stay holidays centred on visiting art fairs or workshops.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s both have established trips and representatives say that the level of interest has been high. The tours cover some of the most famous contemporary art events of the year, such as Art Basel, to more remote trips to visit the projects or studios of single artists.

As FT journalist Kathryn Tully puts it:

The tours aim to convey a better appreciation of both contemporary art and the broader art investment market. The art investment lectures include how to approach a dealer and get a good deal, and how to build a valuable collection.

These trips show how luxury providers are finding more creative ways to link wealthy people’s interests together to create bespoke offerings to them.  As the art market continues to see record prices, it will be interesting to see how demand for these trips keeps up.

Attention luxury travellers:

British Airways has been running an interesting series of podcasts about sleep. Hosted by ‘Dr. Sleep,’ BA’s resident sleep expert Dr. Chris Idzikowski, the series discusses sleep basics, managing travel fatigue, synchronizing your inner clock, and other related topics.

They’re already four episodes into the series of six, with the next new episode appearing March 28. To listen to the episodes that have already appeared and receive new ones as a podcast, go here (and click on your country, then you’ll be taken to the podcast page).

[via A Luxury Travel Blog]