Luxury Travel Research Articles

Sailing into Tranquility: The Rise of Slow Yachting in Luxury Tourism

ABSTRACT This study introduces the concept of “slow yachting” by investigating the alignment of Slow Movement principles within the luxury yachting sector. Using insights from 24 Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs) owning and chartering yachts, this paper explores five distinct dimensions of slow yachting: Luxurious Tranquility, Personal Retreat, Social Cohesion, Environmental Symbiosis, and Discovery Travel. The research illustrates how luxury yachting experiences embrace slow tourism principles. The study reveals the nuanced interplay between quality, authenticity, and sustainability in luxury travel experiences, establishing the foundation for a unique paradigm of mindful yachting. The theoretical implications underscore the importance of fostering mindful, immersive, and socially engaging travel experiences within the luxury yachting domain, catering to the discerning preferences of ultra-high-net-worth travelers while advocating for responsible and enriching tourism practices.

CarryPro Backpacks: Creating a Niche in Backpacking

The backpacking market in the Indian luggage industry is growing steadily, driven by the increasing popularity of adventure travel and backpacking among the younger generation. In 2018, CarryPro entered the Indian market with the intention of focusing on the need for lightweight, durable backpacks. For ultralight luxury travel, CarryPro backpacks were superior. Ankit Agarwal (founder and CEO) has highlighted the competition-related challenges to CarryPro’s growth. Wildcraft, Quechua and Decathlon dominate the backpack market in India. Other brands are also gaining popularity in India, with brands like Thule, Peak Design, and Patagonia becoming more widely available. The competition has heated up because of the growing interest among our rivals in backpacks’ utility. CarryPro, which entered the market with just three products, faced severe competition from established companies with extensive product lines. The company contemplated raising backpack sales by 20%–30% annually. However, they knew carving a niche among backpackers would be challenging without using sound distribution, branding and positioning strategies. The brand strategy and sales and distribution network operated by CarryPro proved to be the company’s deciding elements in the long run. Hence, the founder contemplated various branding, positioning and distribution strategy options.

Shifting from Individual Opulence to Collective Well-Being: Replacing Luxury and Tourism as Human Stains by Nurturing a Positive Anthropocene

While prior research describes the transformation of luxury from a micro level with an individualistic focus to a macro level with a sustainable foundation, this study anticipates that a radical reconfiguration of individualistic-focused luxury and tourism to a meta level well-being perspective is necessary for nurturing a positive Anthropocene. Therefore, the study constructs the perspective that luxury and tourism can contribute to environmental and human well-being, which is transformative from an individualistic, dolce vita, luxury travel Zeitgeist (i.e., complementing Roth's tragedy, The Human Stain) to collective well-being that is authentic and holistically encompassing the entire ecosystem. The analyses here indicate that human attitudes, beliefs, and actions must change radically in configurations to embrace this meta-level luxury and tourism perspectives. The theoretical and practical reconfigurations include shifting from being selfish to generous, temporal to everlasting, exclusive to inclusive, hubris to humility, and linear to circular.

Space tourism: Value-attitude-behavior theory, artificial intelligence, and sustainability

Despite concerns over its sustainability, space tourism is an emerging luxury consumer service which is promoted to participants as providing a new connection to Earth and humanity. However, little research examines the potential connectivity between sustainability and space tourism, especially given the strong technological dimensions of space tourism. The purpose of this study is to explore an extended value-attitude-behavior theory with AI awareness and social and personal norms to examine space tourism's alignment with the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Through 664 potential space tourism consumers and applying PLS-SEM, multi-group analysis, fsQCA, and deep learning methods, findings revealed the significant influence of value and AI awareness on attitude and social and personal norms leading to sustainable behaviors. Findings provide insights into space tourism's sustainability, emphasizing environmental considerations and AI awareness in shaping luxury travel consumer services.

The influence of girlfriend getaway luxury travel experiences on women's subjective well-being through travel satisfaction: A case study in Macau

There is a phenomenon that females take luxury travel with their girlfriends. However, researchers rarely noticed overlaid the girlfriend getaway (GGA) with luxury travel. This study aims to determine female luxury travel experiences and their effects on travel satisfaction and subjective well-being. It derives five dimensions of the female luxury travel experience (escapism, happiness, luxurious leisureliness, personal enrichment and sense of connection) from literature. The results of a systematic survey of 286 female travellers in Macau indicate that all dimensions except for escapism significantly affect satisfaction, and all dimensions except for luxurious leisureliness significantly affect subjective well-being. Satisfaction only mediates the effects of a sense of connection on subjective well-being. A multi-group analysis is conducted to compare the results from women with three types of demographic characteristics (single vs married, low-income vs high-income, low-consumption vs high-consumption). This study contributes to well-being research in tourism by explaining how female luxury travel experiences create women's subjective well-being. It also broadens the GGA tourism literature by investigating GGA experiences from a luxury perspective. It provides practical implications for tourism marketing by understanding the needs of different groups of female groups for GGA luxury travel.

The Portrayal of Social Media Marketing in the Luxury Tourism Industry: A Review of the Literature and a Preliminary Analysis

Luxurious tourist industry winds up with the thoughts of exclusivity with restricted access to a select number of socially isolated travellers. Our comprehensive literature survey focuses on understanding the approach of tourism academia in the context of luxury travel, which is constructed on the remarks from social media and the specialised areas with regards to the studies that were conducted prior to this. The ‘luxury tourism’, ‘elite travel’, ‘social media’ and ‘sustainability’ were used in different combinations to discover literature. This was done using Google Scholar, the ProQuest database, etc. The critical analysis was conducted based on the peer-reviewed publications. The following three areas were selected and reviewed: (a) social media’s importance in luxury tourism; (b) the behavioural features of luxury travellers who use various social media apps; and (c) existing literature surveys that provided the limitations of analysing data, specifically, in the context of luxury tourism. The examined papers and publications for the last 10 years, from March 2010 to March 2020, were considered to determine the themes and focus points, as well as to measure the value of social media in luxury travel. The article discusses the upcoming research issues, and the major hindrance in this is that it requires new conceptual and methodological frameworks to enhance deep understanding of the mediating effect between social media and the luxury tourist industry based on the findings of various reviews of literature.

Are Luxury Travelers Alike? A Qualitative Means–End Segmentation Approach

This study proposes a qualitative means–end approach that considers both product preferences and personal values in segmenting the emerging luxury travel market. Many studies have treated this market as homogeneous, emphasizing luxury travelers’ common characteristics. However, distinct segments of luxury travelers can be identified using this new approach. Soft laddering interviews with 30 Chinese luxury travelers revealed diverse levels of luxuriousness in travel modes (means) and various personal values associated with luxury travel (ends), such as status and family security. These differences segment the luxury travel market. Despite its limited sample size, this study empirically demonstrated the effectiveness of means–end segmentation. The results of this study provide a solid basis for future larger-scale studies and have practical implications for practitioners in the luxury travel market.

A content analysis of Asian countries’ tourism video advertisements: a luxury travel perspective

PurposeThis study aims to examine the elements of luxury travel found in YouTube video advertisements uploaded by various National Tourism Offices from 19 selected Asian countries at the onset of Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used content analysis to systematically analyze the themes among the Asian tourism video advertisements through the lens of the hierarchy of luxury travel needs.FindingsThailand and the Philippines showcase the most elements of luxury travel needs (LTNs), featuring five out of the seven components. In fact, Thailand has the highest aggregate featured LTN elements among all countries, with 164 coded references across five components. Exclusivity is the most featured element of the LTN by all Asian countries, except for South Korea and Bhutan whose focus is on authentic experience. Interestingly, product quality standards were not seen in any videos.Practical implicationsTourism industry decision-makers can use this study in evaluating their promotional plans, developing promotional strategies, crafting future video advertisements and exploring future research in the field of social media, videos and luxury.Originality/valueThe study provides insights and understanding of the current priorities of tourism advertisements. This study’s use of the hierarchy of LTNs provides a novel contribution within the studies in luxury travel, post-pandemic travel and tourism advertisement.

The Rich Kids of Instagram: Luxury Travel, Transport Modes, and Desire

The Rich Kids of Instagram (RKOI) portray luxury lifestyles on social media. The potential roles of travel and transport within these online displays of affluence have not yet been examined. This paper’s purpose is to analyse how transport modes and luxury travel are depicted and interrelated through RKOI images. Co-occurrence analyses were conducted using a data set of Instagram posts with RKOI as a hashtag (2012–2018) to visualize the roles of transport modes and luxury travel in RKOI image construction. The findings demonstrate that both energy-intensive transport modes and luxury travel, whether through air/watercraft or luxury cars, play a vital role in signaling RKOI’s self-image on Instagram, with gendered differences. The article contributes an original conceptual model of how RKOI construct their image using transport modes and luxury travel. Implications for the social normalization of carbon-intensive transport choices, coupled with luxury destinations as a backdrop, are discussed.

Regulars - Columnist: The Eccentric Engineer. Naval Engineering - The life and death of a 1930s luxury travel icon

Regulars - Columnist: The Eccentric Engineer. Naval Engineering - The life and death of a 1930s luxury travel icon

The Role of Social Media in the Luxury Tourism Business: A Research Review and Trajectory Assessment

The luxury tourism industry immediately conjures up thoughts of exclusivity, with access to it confined to a small and elite group of travelers often located within their own social bubble. Our systematic literature review seeks to understand how tourism scholarship has addressed the issue of luxury travel based on social media pronouncements and the areas of concentration in which earlier studies have been conducted. Literature was sourced using the following key terms “luxury tourism”, “elite travel”, “social media”, and “sustainability” in various combinations using the OneSearch online platform, the Proquest Database, and Google Scholar. Only peer-reviewed journals were used for the critical analysis. Three main thematic areas were identified and reviewed: (1) the role of social media in luxury tourism; (2) the behavioral attributes of luxury travelers’ when using social media; and (3) the methodologies employed in the extant literature, given the limitations of accessing specific data for the luxury tourism market. The selected period for the journals and articles reviewed was the last ten years, from March 2010 to March 2020. NVivo version 12 was used to decipher the themes and focus areas as well as quantify the significance of social media to luxury tourism. Drawing from these literature review outcomes, the study explores future research areas and issues that require new theoretical and methodological frameworks to further our understanding of the intersection between social media and the luxury tourism business.

Contemporary luxury tourism and emerging new destinations: The case of Iran

This article aims to explore the concept of contemporary luxury tourism and try to associate it with the Iranian context. More specifically, feasibility and potential study of luxury tourism in Iran in terms of rarity and uniquely by considering the cultural factors. This paper investigates, the concept of luxury has changed over time. In addition, will stress on the importance of recognizing the potential of luxury travel and its diversity in Iran and bringing these topical international issues to a wide audience. The luxury travel market raised new demands for emerging destinations like Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. Furthermore, in recent years a large number of new destinations like Iran have emerged around the world and have started to compete and generate income in the international tourism market. According to analysis data in this paper, Iran like most countries in the Middle East has a natural competitive advantage in global luxury tourism. Thanks to the current conservative policy all its aesthetic aspects have been under protection for decades. However, the potential of this competitive advantage has not been reached. The research design in this paper consists of three stages to ensure rigorous scale development. The strategies, processes, techniques utilized in the collection of data or evidence for analysis in order to uncover new information or create a better understanding of this topic is driven from materials in the field of luxury and luxury travel during the last decades. In order to reduce this limitation, the researcher tried to have a generalization review. Data for this study were obtained during the COVID-19 crisis.

The luxury of doing nothing: inferring luxury from idleness display in travel setting

ABSTRACT Extant studies on luxury have focused on exploring motivations and service attributes behind the consumption of luxury travel brands. However, the underlying psychological mechanism of how customers develop a luxury perception of hospitality and tourism brands has received scant attention. By identifying scarcity of time as a significant factor behind luxury perception development, the current study argues that observers are more likely to perceive travel experiences as luxurious when they observe idleness rather than busyness. This perception is mediated by high social status inference on the part of the current user.

It Is All in the Mind(set)! Matching Mindsets and Luxury Tourism

Informed by the psychological theory of mindsets, we establish how “fixed” and “growth” mindsets divergently influence luxury travel behaviors. Across three experiments, we found that the relative preference for luxury travel is higher when consumers adopt a fixed rather than growth mindset (studies 1a and 1b). The effect of mindsets is also evident within consumer evaluations of luxury hotel advertisements. Specifically, providing detailed information about the luxury hotel’s facilities via advertising improves evaluations when travelers adopt a growth mindset, but such information has no effect when they adopt a fixed mindset (study 2). Moreover, while fixed mindsets show more positive evaluations of luxury hotels when an advertisement employs affective language, employing cognitive language results in more positive evaluations among growth mindsets (study 3). Taken together, these results illustrate that fixed mindsets value luxury travel for self-enhancement benefits, while growth mindsets – for superior quality.

Southern Rail Passengers Perception on Ticketcharges (Study with References to Coimbatore and Palakkad Junctions)

Pricing strategies of the Indian railway is the most important and attractive feature, that influences huge number of lower to upper middle income people to use this mode of transportation. The article attempt to measure and assess the Southern rail passengers perception on ticket charges. Article found that 74.80 per cent of the sample passengers have stated that cost of general compartment ticket is the major attractive service feature, which they like to benefit by travelling in Southern railway trains. The sample rail passengers are appreciate Southern railway features like: suitability of ticket fair: tax and cost of value added services, benefits enjoyed on luxury travel, ticket concessions enjoyed and refund and penalties charged. Ticket rate fixation strategies adopted by the Indian railways, greatly influences in attraction of new and more passengers.

BALANCING TRADITION AND INNOVATION: ASSESSMENT OF NEW LUXURY HOSPITALITY BUSINESS MODELS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON 5-STAR HOTELS IN SWITZERLAND

The global luxury travel market is in a constant state of flux, and traditional players have to adapt to the rising challenges in various areas of their business model. As new players emerge, using technology and the global reach of the Internet and social media to reach out to a discerning group of travelers, they speak to the changing expectations and behavior of international consumers. Our study will shed light on these consumption and travel patterns, on ways new disruptors in the field of luxury hospitality successfully differentiate themselves from their more traditional competitors and on the implications this will have on the business models of five-star hotels in Switzerland. While limited in scope, this study will provide insight relevant to academics and professionals in the field of luxury hospitality.

Revolution at the hotel: Panama and luxury travel in the age of decolonisation

ABSTRACTFrom the grounds of the famous Hotel Tivoli in Panama, this article retraces the entangled relationship between anti-colonial struggle and international tourism. Luxury hotels like the Tivoli – situated at the crossroads of political and economic power in the colonial world – operated as sites of social privilege and also as sites of protest. In the mid-twentieth century, in the era of decolonisation, tourist destinations in the Americas and across the Global South became locales of convergence for activists, for both violent and non-violent actions. This article explains how one hotel in particular – the Hotel Tivoli – held symbolic and material importance for those challenging the status quo.

Social Media Envy: How Experience Sharing on Social Networking Sites Drives Millennials’ Aspirational Tourism Consumption

The sharing of travel experiences has become ubiquitous in today’s era. This study focuses on a pervasive trend among Millennial consumers: the experience of benign envy toward others’ positive travel experience sharing on social networking sites. Drawing on social comparison theory, the current study reveals why and under what conditions others’ positive experience sharing may trigger Millennial consumers’ destination visit intention. Using a mixed experimental design, this study finds that, among consumers with low trait self-esteem, luxury travel experiences shared by similar others stimulate focal consumers’ own intentions to visit the same destination. In addition, destination visit intention is triggered by benign envy toward the experience sharer. Important theoretical insights are provided regarding peer influence mechanism on social networking sites and travel consumption. Finally, managerial implications for destination marketers are presented with a focus on how to improve the effectiveness of social media marketing in targeting Millennials.

Tapping into Chinese Luxury Travelers

ABSTRACTChinese luxury travelers, a rapidly growing segment of the country’s traveling public, have attracted much attention from the tourism industry. Their motivations to undertake luxury travel are, however, not well understood. To tap into Chinese luxury travelers, this study reviews the literature related to luxury travel, and motivations for travel and luxury consumption, to provide insights into this market. There are 17 motivation dimensions generated from analysis of the literature. By taking Chinese culture into consideration, future research directions on the motivations of Chinese luxury travelers are suggested.

The discursive production and maintenance of class privilege: Permeable geographies, slippery rhetorics

The underlying premise of this article is that the social meanings and cultural entanglements of the so-called super-rich or 1% reach far beyond any specific people or place. To be sure, the tightly managed, tailored spaces of super-elites are often less exclusive than first meets the eye, and the markers of super-elite status circulate in quite informal, banal ways. Drawing on a combination of textual and fieldwork data, we map three interlocking semiotic landscapes: the Luxury Travel Fair in London, the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai and then ‘elite’ signage and ‘luxury’ labelling from around the world. Using this kind of discourse-ethnographic evidence, the point we make is a simple but, we believe, important one: the geographies of eliteness are deliberately permeable just as its rhetorics are strategically slippery. Indeed, the hegemonic power of contemporary class privilege lies precisely – albeit paradoxically – in a constantly maintained appearance of ubiquity, inclusivity and ordinariness.